Nonviolence Finally Gets Some Action on American TV

The most important interview on any global affairs issue the Daily Show has ever had happened last night with the appearance of Mustafa Barghouti and Anna Beltzer, both advocates for a nonviolent solution in the Israel Palestine conflict. There are so many great sound bytes in the unedited version that appears on the Daily Show [...]

Opposition in Iran Doesn’t Want Your Money

The Obama administration has come under a lot of fire from people outside of the neo-conservative political spectrum for continuing many of Bush’s foreign policy initiatives. But recently, the administration cut off funding to Iran Democracy Fund conceived by the Bush administration to distribute money to opposition forces in Iran.
Is this a slap in the [...]

We’ll Never Hear the End of It At Home

Way to go Norwegians!
I need to go on the record as saying that I’m not in favor of Obama being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. There are so many many reasons why I think it was a bad idea. Please enjoy a nice little list of those reasons as said by various news outlets and [...]

Viva la (r)Evolucion!

Although I haven’t yet posted on the situation in Iran, I have been faithfully observing. Its absolutely thrilling and I am so proud of both the Iranian people for their dedication and to President Obama for keeping relatively quiet on the situation while still condemning the Iranian government. I don’t think its necessary for me [...]

Demilitarize This!

Obama’s speech in Cairo threw down the gauntlet for Israeli leaders to respond.  The New York Times observed that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech was as much done for the Israeli evening news as it was for the Obama administration.  I found it boring, infuriating, and tend to agree with Aliyana Traison of Haaretz that it [...]

Obama Talks the Right Talk

Cairo is an ancient city that has become a modern urban hub of the Arab world. It is the primary place to produce Arabic pop music, the favored study abroad location for Americans looking to study the Arab world, and the birth place of Pan Arabism and the Muslim Brotherhood. Ponder all those contradictions for [...]

Prose, Violence, and Problems with Aslan’s Cosmic War

In a post-college world, looking at grad school and gainful employment on the horizon, it appears I need to step up my reading habits. So in an effort to make this a more regular segment of the blog, I’m going to read and review at least one book a month. This month, I bring to [...]

Pretty Places And Conflict Resolution

In honor of Earth Day, I’m going to post a little news story about Afghanistan’s first national park and the concept of peace parks.
Weird Connotation, Cool Concept
Doesn’t the name “peace park” just bring all sorts of images of granola eating vegan hippies singing about free love? It does to me! Luckily, it is [...]

The Bible, The Constitution, and the Treatment of Prisoners of War

This blog post comes to you from a lengthy discussion via Facebook about a chain letter that was sent around. And you know, I just had to comment on it.
When Chain Letters Get Political
The original letter claims to have been written by a Canadian Christian woman. Here are the relevant excerpts from the chain letter [...]

Somalia and the Role of International Peacekeeping Forces

I’ve been avoiding posting about Somalia because I’m kind of lazy. It seems apparent to me that Somalia poses a greater threat to the war on terror than Iraq was ever thought/proven to have been. Why? Because it has no government and its population has been devastated by conflict after conflict. All this makes Somalia [...]