Utopia, you are standing in it!

I just recently came across a very, very good book on the history of the Middle East. As far as theory goes, it is lacking, but it is readable enough that the intelligent layman can pick it up and learn new things from it. Written by historian Eugene Rogan, it’s titled The Arabs: A History and it has won numerous awards. Be sure to check it out. One new fact that I learned is that while terrorism as a tactic in the Middle East did not appear on the radar until the 1920s, it was undertaken on behalf of Jewish interests, not Muslim ones. Rogan explains:

The terrorists had achieved their first objective: they had forced the British to withdraw from Palestine. Though their methods were publicly denounced by the leaders of the Jewish Agency [the pre-state government], the Irgun and Lehi [terrorist organizations] had played a key role…

As the campaign proceeds, I become less and less enamored with Elizabeth Warren, once my favorite candidate for President. (Now I have no overwhelming favorite, though according to the New York Times “issue quiz” I’m a centrist whose views align more with the policies of those like Yang and Biden. But, like most of us here, in November’s election I’ll be voting for whichever Democrat gets nominated. Trump is and will be a disaster for America.)

Still, I don’t like Warren’s dissimulation, her hectoring tone, her Medicare For All policy (which seems to be morphing into “Optional Medicare”), or the desperation she evinces as she falls ever farther behind Bernie and Joe in the polls.

That desperation is the only way I can account for Warren’s behavior this week during the impeachment hearings. As you probably know, Senators were allowed to submit written questions to Chief Justice John Roberts, who…

Carlos I (September 28, 1863 – February 1, 1908), known as the Diplomat and the Martyr was the King of Portugal from 1889 until his assassination in 1908. He was the first Portuguese king to die a violent death since Sebastian in 1578.

Carlos, King of Portugal

Carlos was born in Lisbon, Portugal, the son of King Luís and Queen Maria Pia, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy and his wife Archduchess Adelaide of Austria, daughter of Archduke Rainer of Austria and his wife Princess Elisabeth of Savoy. and was a member of the House of Braganza. He had a brother, Infante Afonso, Duke of Porto. He had an intense education and was prepared to rule as a constitutional monarch. In 1883, he traveled to Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, where he increased his knowledge of the modern civilization of his time. In 1883, 1886 and…

by Judith Curry

Of the four IPCC assessment reports, I  think the first assessment report (FAR) presents the case with the greatest clarity.

Since the FAR was published 20 years ago, it is worth taking a look to see how their conclusions and levels of confidence and uncertainty have stood up to the test of time.

The “Atheist Muslim” Ali Rizvi called attention to Facebook’s new ban on his wife, feminist activist Alishba Zarmeen, for an emotional but affecting post that, as he notes below, condemned those who blamed an 8-year-old Pakistani girl for her own rape and murder, as well as calling out some doctrines of Islam that enable this kind of victim-blaming.

Now we can only speculate why Facebook banned Zarmeen, but I’ve put her entire post below, and you can judge for yourself why Facebook suspended her for a month for violating “community standards”.

(Note: CNN reports the girl…

Today, February 1, is World Hijab Day.  Ironically, the date coincides with the day in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran and became the country’s Supreme Leader, helping turn Iran into a theocracy.

Part of the theocratic changes involved laws forcing women to wear the hijab. The women of Iran didn’t like that. They took to the streets, demonstrating against the regulation, but it was to no avail. Now women in Iran are being jailed, even for years, for simply removing their hijab in public (see my posts here and here, and the collection here). It’s not optional, but mandatory, and it might as well be mandatory in Afghanistan, where social pressure and the morality police mean that virtually every woman covers their head.

In other places where hijab isn’t mandatory, social pressure and parental and peer pressure mean that even young girls are forced to…