Harry's Place

Earlier this year a disturbing story apparently appeared in Zayzafuna, an educational magazine for children funded by the Palestinian Authority.   A young girl describes a dream in which she meets four people she admires.  These are the Persian mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, Saladin Al-Ayoubi, the twelfth century leader – and Hitler:
I turned to [...]

A pro-Iranian, Ba’athist and pro-Soviet Taliban supporter attacks Christopher Hitchens for lack of principles.
As Hitchens said himself during his destruction of Galloway in New York:
“There comes a point where what some people say just becomes self-discrediting and requires no further comment”.

It’s catching, isn’t it?

Update: Of course, Perry should talk.

This is a cross post by Aymenn Jawad Al Tamimi
Contrary to the expectations of many analysts, both the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour coalition trounced the secular Egyptian Bloc and the Wafd Party in the first stage of voting for the parliamentary elections. Indeed, whereas Wafd received 7.1% of the vote and [...]

Apparently they are nothing new. In Wodehouse’s 1917 story Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg, Bertie Wooster’s friend Francis “Bicky” Bickersteth has (after a bit of blackmail) persuaded his uncle the Duke of Chiswick, visiting him in New York, not to cut off his allowance:
“I–I think that, on the whole, it would be best if [...]

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says he would force federal judges to appear at Congressional hearings to defend decisions he doesn’t like.

In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” [Sunday], the Republican presidential candidate said that he would force judges to defend unpopular decisions before Congressional hearings.
Host Bob Schieffer asked Gingrich how he would enforce [...]

First of all, I should like to dedicate this post to Christopher Hitchens. Oh, and Václav Havel. And Patrick Swayze.
Where was I? Okay, yes. What the smeg is Carlos Latuff on about here?

Approval? Continued casual smirking comments on the Shoah? Distraction from previous casual smirking comments on the Shoah?

Neil ‘Free Slobo’ Clark is on the Guardian website today writing about Havel.
It is a classic of the genre. Note, in particular, the reference to “the son of a wealthy entrepreneur whose companies were nationalised when the communists came to power”, which of course, wink-wink, explains it all…..doesn’t it? It was all bitterness about [...]

Socialist Unity has posted without comment this video of North Koreans weeping at the passing of the Dear Dead Leader Kim Jong Il. A few commenters there seem to believe it reflects genuine mass grief.

No mention, of course, of the mass starvation, the slave-labor camps or any of the other unpleasantness associated with Kim’s regime.
And [...]

This is a guest post by Dr Dr
This post is prompted by readers’ comments in a recent thread about the Norwegian academic Ola Tunander. I have no wish to defend his views, but that is not what concerns me here. Instead, I want to make three overlapping points.
1) Tarring with the same brush
It [...]