be just

When Extremists Attack - Swampland - TIME : "I have now been called antisemitic and intellectually unstable and a whole bunch of other silly things by the folks over at the Commentary blog. They want Time Magazine to fire or silence me. This is happening because I said something that is palpably true, but unspoken in polite society: There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003. Their motivations involve a confused conflation of what they think are Israel's best interests with those of the United States. They are now leading the charge for war with Iran. Happily, these people represent a very small sliver of the Jewish population in this country. Unhappily, their views have had an impact in the highest reaches of the Bush Administration--and seem to have an influence on John McCain's c

On Joe Klein and the Jewish Neoconservatives (Prospects for Peace) : "There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003… Happily, these people represent a very small sliver of the Jewish population in this country…I remain proud of my Jewish heritage, a strong supporter of Israel…But I am not willing to grant these ideologues the anonymity they seek…I believe there are a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who are pushing for war with Iran because they believe it is in America's long-term interests and because they believe Israel's existence is at stake. They are wrong and recent history tells us they are dangerous. They are also bullies and I'm not going to be intimidated by them."

Living Through the Age of Denial in America - by Tom Engelhardt : "I set foot, so to speak, on this planet on July 20, 1944, not perhaps the best day of the century. It was, in fact, the day of the failed German officers' plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. My mother was a cartoonist. She was known in those years as 'New York's girl caricaturist,' or so she's called in a newspaper ad I still have, part of a war-bond drive in which your sizeable bond purchase was to buy her sketch of you. She had, sometime in the months before my birth, traveled by train, alone, the breadth of a mobilized but still peaceable American continent to visit Hollywood on assignment for some magazine to sketch the stars. I still have, on my wall, a photo of her in that year on the 'deck' of a 'pirate ship' on a Hollywood lot drawing one of those gloriously handsome matinee idols. Since I was then inside her, this is not exactly part of my memory bank. But that photo does

Joe Klein Speaks Truth to Power- by Justin Raimondo : "It's been just about a month since Joe Klein's column accusing 'Jewish neoconservatives' of having 'divided loyalties' appeared in Time magazine, and already the controversy surrounding it is taking on the grand scale of an opera – perhaps a stage adaptation of Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery.' His original sin was writing this: 'The notion that we could just waltz in and inject democracy into an extremely complicated, devout and ancient culture smacked – still smacks – of neocolonialist legerdemain. The fact that a great many Jewish neoconservatives – people like Joe Lieberman and the crowd over at Commentary – plumped for this war, and now for an even more foolish assault on Iran, raised the question of divided loyalties: using U.S. military power, U.S. lives and money, to make the world safe for Israel. And then there is the question – made manifest by the no-bid contracts offered U.S.

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Fitness pill' being developed : "Scientists are moving closer to developing a pill which could deliver some of the benefits of exercise - even for those who do not move a muscle. The journal Cell reports US researchers now have two possible pills which appear able to build muscle, increase stamina and even burn fat. In tests, mice were able to run 44% further - suggesting humans may be able to do the same without prior training."

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan admits to Taleban spies : "Pakistan's government has said it needs to purge Taleban sympathisers from within the ranks of the country's intelligence service - the ISI. The statement comes amid claims from the US and India of links between the ISI and Islamic extremists. Analysts say it is the first time that the Pakistan government has made such an admission. US officials have claimed that spies in the ISI helped plan the recent suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul."

BBC NEWS | South Asia | A tribute to Abdul Samad Rohani : "Abdul Samad Rohani, the Pashto service reporter for the BBC in the Afghan province of Helmand, was shot dead at the weekend. His friend and colleague Bilal Sarwary pays this tribute."