End of an Era

Sunday, May 1, 2011, was a historical day in American history. I don't usually watch the news; it's predominantly depressing, and I have enough things to worry about in my life. But when I saw on Twitter that President Obama was going to make an annoucement declaring that the United States had killed Osama bin Laden, I flipped on the TV. Even though I was getting ready to go to sleep. Even though I was sick and needed my rest. This was huge. I ran downstairs to tell DH. Then I changed the channel for him to a news network, and he said, "Hey!...more

Bloggers React to Osama bin Laden's Death

Late last night (EST), United States President Barack Obama announced on television that American military forces located, fought with and killed Al Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden. Bloggers and politicians all over the world are reacting today....more

Oy - as you may have read somewhere else in here, I think I reference that my younger brother ...more

Regarding the death of an angry man

“Peace” by Mariam Askanani on Flickr Last night, we heard the news we’ve been waiting to hear for almost ten years. He’s dead. Immediate reaction? “Finally, the bastard’s dead. Is it Castro’s turn yet?” What do you expect?...more

Be A Better Blogger: What's Going On In the "Mosque at Ground Zero" Controversy

In case you have been on vacation from cable television and twitter for the last month or so, the summer's domestic political headlines have been dominated by a dispute over a proposed Islamic community center near the site of the World Trade Center attacks that has come to be known, variously, as Park 51, Cordoba House and, most popularly, the "Ground Zero Mosque." A Muslim organization has proposed building a 13-15 story community center on the site of a building that was damaged by debris fro...more

Ah the tyranny of Googlejuice! I confess to throwing the term into the meta-tags in a kind of ...more

Imagine a Different Experiment: Ted Kaczynski and the Murray Experiment at Harvard

I recently read an article from The Atlantic Monthly online titled “Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber.” The author, Alston Chase, has corresponded with Ted Kaczynski at length and also wrote the book A Mind for Murder: The Education of the Unabomber and the Origins of Modern Terrorism....more

How protected from terrorism are we?

The security/intelligence system is "so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work," The Washington Post says after a two-year investigation of the national security buildup following 9/11. What does that mean for us citizens?...more

Keep Calm and Carry On

Five years ago I was living in a lovely shared house in South East London with Husband and 3 other friends. Husband and I had been living together for over a year and we were engaged to be married that September. I was finishing up my internship as part of my masters course in central London. On that particular day, I was headed into my part time job in Chelsea. I was running late (as usual) and had to get a later train than husband did. As the train pulled up to Waterloo Station, people began to stir. Something was wrong in central London, but no one knew what yet....more

Aliou Niasse, a Muslim Immigrant, Alerted Police to Times Square Bomb

You could watch the major networks reporting on the Times Square failed car bomb for hours and possibly not catch this politically pertinent piece of information: The first person to alert the police about the smoking car was a Muslim immigrant from Senegal, Aliou Niasse. ...more

I heard Salmon Rushdie mention it and that was literally all I heard about it.

Deana ...more

Hot Burkas & Hot Bods


Times Square Car Bomb Case Broadens with U.S. Suspect Arrest and More Overseas

The New York Times and other sources report that the investigation of the Times Square failed car bombing has spread beyond the U.S. Not only has Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from Pakistan been arrested and charged, but the Pakistani government has captured additional suspects. However, U.S. officials have not confirmed the arrests reported by Pakistani intelligence. ...more