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POPSSwift Satire gores both sides I think Jon Swift is one of the funnies guys in the blogosphere. He goes on to say: "But some conservative “intellectuals” like David Brooks subscribe to the canard that the conservative movement was defined by pointy-headed eastern elites like William Buckley, whose “entire life,” Brooks recently wrote, “was a celebration of urbane values, sophistication and the rigorous and constant application of intellect.....Brooks even goes so far as to claim that conservatives once valued “constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking.” We did? Since when? Does he honestly believe that the conservative movement was based on people who read books? Reagan wasn’t elected by the Harvard faculty. It was an angry mob tired of welfare queens and pinko fellow travelers selling us out to the Soviet Union that put him in office."
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POPSPaul McCartney Becomes Terrorist Target
"Our enemy's friend is our enemy," the Muslim leader told the Sunday Express. A defiant McCartney has refused to cancel the Sept. 25 concert, despite protests from numerous political groups angry with Israel's policies in the West Bank. He told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth: "I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think, and I have many friends who support Israel," McCartney said in an interview with newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. McCartney will perform hits from his Beatles days and his solo career during a September 25 concert in Tel Aviv as part of a series of shows that has taken McCartney to cities he never visited before. Asked about how members of the Beatles, one of the most popular bands in rock history, felt when the Israeli government scrapped their concert in 1965 on the grounds it could corrupt the nation's youth, McCartney said it was "a bit insulting, the thought we could corrupt the youth."
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POPSSilent No More: Iranian Student Sentenced To Death
The protests Mr Batebi took part in nine years ago frightened Iran’s rulers. The students were angry about censorship, the persecution of intellectuals and the thugs who beat up any student overheard disparaging the regime. Mr Batebi thinks Iran could well turn solidly democratic some day. In neighbouring states, religious extremism is popular. In Iran, he says, the government is religiously extreme, but the people are not. He is cagey about how exactly he escaped. But he says he used a cellphone camera to record virtually every step of his journey, and will soon go public with the pictures and his commentary. Meanwhile, he seems to be enjoying America. He praises the way “people have the opportunity to become who they want to be”. Shortly after he arrived, he posted a picture of himself in front of the Capitol on his Farsi-language blog,* with the caption: “Your hands will never touch me again.” http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-KjyoxDgwc6uQN8Q8PTn1n8dj8oA-?cq=1
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POPS15,000 Dead, 30,000 Missing After Catastrophic Myanmar Cyclone "The combination of the cyclone and the referendum within a few days of each other makes an angry population angrier and vulnerable and makes the political situation more volatile" than it has been since last year's massive pro-democracy demonstrations, said Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at Australian National University. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained when the military cracked down on peaceful protests in September led by Buddhist monks and democracy advocates.
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POPSThe China-Tibet issue needs unspinning Unspun thinks that China is being treated unfairly by the Western press. This is not to say it is squeaky clean, does not oppress some of its citizens and the model of human rights. But fair is fair and the western media is not. Sezs who? Sez the article below and also here
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POPSPolice-State Style Olympics You know, it's a surreal sign of our times that the procession of the Olympic torch becomes a quasi-military exercise, where the flame passes through hordes of protesters only by police force of arms, with tear gas and hand-to-hand combat.
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POPSThe Rise of Fascism in the 21st Century Jim Yardley is a very astute China observer, and this article hits the nail on the head. Surging Chinese nationalism is reaching frightening proportions. We seem to have forgotten that communism hardened by nationalism turns into fascism. I believe the current political climate in China of frustration, insecurity and aggressive racial pride is very very similar to the agitation for Fascism that took place in Europe and Asia in the 1930s.
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POPSDutch Film Critical Of Islam Has Been Suspended Mr Wilders' film is entitled Fitna, an Arabic word used to describe strife or discord, usually religious. Mr Wilders wrote a commentary in a Dutch newspaper on Saturday. "Fitna is the last warning for the West. The fight for freedom has only just begun," he said. They include "material that is obscene, defamatory, libellous, unlawful, harassing, abusive... hate propaganda" and "profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature". Mr Wilders has had police protection since Dutch director Theo van Gogh was killed by a radical Islamist in 2004.
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POPSDalai Lama Appeals For Calm In Tibet The Dalai Lama may be able to control his own hatred. But he can't control that of his followers "Of course I am angry, when I see my people get hurt," a Tibetan monk in Kumbum in Qinghai, China, told a television network. Over the weekend monks at the Kumbum monestary held demonstrations in the streets. Since then, though, the Chinese military has surrounded the monastery, and the monks haven't dared repeat their protests. "People are not treated equally in this country," the monk said. Chinese see the protestors as the criminals. Recognizing the possibility that things may get out of control, the Dalai Lama reiterated a stance he took during the last mass protests in Tibet in the late 1980s: that he step down as head of the government in exile if his followers abandoned his non-violent philosophy.
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POPSSinger, 104, Takes Stage Amid Protests Heesters says he didn't perform for the soldiers and didn't know about conditions at the concentration camp. After the war "I was ashamed of myself and I still haven't stopped feeling this way," Heesters wrote in his autobiography. "I am angry with myself for being gullible, credulous and naive." "It's all too easy for people today, most of whom grew up after the war, to pass judgement on the collaborators then," the paper wrote. "What would we do under comparable circumstances?"
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POPSPakistan Attempts to Crush Protests by Lawyers This is very, very bad. Pakistan is a critical US ally, and has the Bomb. Additionally, the US has stated that we will continue to fund Pakistan, despite the UN SG Ban Ki Moon stating that this situation gravely concerns him. This will certainly affect the US's image abroad. Bad, bad news.
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POPSBurma Protests Rage On Protests continue on and appear to be heating up with even monks involved in very aggressive acts of resistance. Things are looking like 1988 all over again. And what is perhaps most remarkable is that people do this in spite of a long history of brutal crackdowns, hunts for activists, phone tapping, and all manner of atrocities. Power and respect to the people.
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POPSThe Exciting World of South Korean Protests While the majority of protests are probably pretty standard affairs involving marching, shouting, and possibly some violent clashes between protesters and police, there are also some far more interesting protests going on.
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