Globally Rational

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I called in to NPR’s Talk of the Nation today to discuss my opinion on America’s negative image overseas.  I think that the guest, Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins, hit the point perfectly… instead of boring you with an article, I’ll link you to the story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91812972
If you click “listen now” and forward to about 5-6 […]

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We hear a lot of propaganda aimed at convincing the American people that Arabs are evil, the war is justified, and America is the best thing that ever happened to the world. Some people believe it all, and some people (i.e. the people who are probably reading this) believe none of it… but did you […]

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And the answer is Nelson Mandela.  Apparently, the US was against the anti-Apartheid movement because the South African white supremacists were our friends.  After it became apparent that South Africa’s racist philosophies were bad, the world came to accept Mandela as a hero… but we still never got around to taking Mandela off the US […]

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There’s a fact that I’ve always taken for granted; recently, I learned that it’s not common knowledge. It was always so obvious to me that I started to wonder why most people don’t know this.
Did you know that the Middle East is generally impressed with Western culture? People often think that the anti-American sentiment we […]

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I saw a YouTube video today regarding the war in Iraq (created by a Ron Paul supporter):

The Jed Report correctly describes this video as potentially “brutal” and “devastating” to John McCain.  What I think is interesting is that, despite the fact that this information has all been in the public domain for months, it doesn’t […]

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Plenty of us have heard that over 60% of Americans aged 18-24 couldn’t find Iraq on a map of the Middle East (yes, a map of the Middle East… not even a map of the world) in a 2006 survey (that’s three years after the start of the war). I just took a look […]

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It’s no secret that NATO countries seem to be above the law when it comes to UN resolutions and global initiatives.  But I think this is the first time that China and Russia have teamed up to complain.
Recently, Russia’s new President Dmitry Medvedev issued a joint statement with China’s Hu Jintao to speak out against […]

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Many of you may have heard that President Bush recently stated that he has stopped playing golf in solidarity for the soldiers in Iraq. His rationale:
I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as — […]

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Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s main security adviser (and the man in charge of planning his trip to China for the Olympics), apparently doesn’t know the difference between Nepal and Tibet.  I recently wrote an article about this on Rational Outrage, an excellent webzine that you should bookmark; click here to see it.
Popularity: 17% [?]Rate this: […]

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Many of my friends are young/uneducated enough so that they still work (miserably) at fast food restaurants or other low-paying unrewarding locations. But today, after reading that yet another top-ranking al Qaeda official has been arrested, I think I’ve decided what the world’s worst job is.
I’m sure that Abu Ayyub al-Masri was very proud […]

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