If the level of thinking in this Iraqi writer is widespread among the population, and they are vocal, Iraq might turn out a relatively peaceful country with just enough regard for each other’s differences to keep most people satisfied. Also see some healthy discussions about the role of the federal government in regions far removed from Baghdad in this post.

…but this time, it’s a chain of cafes it purchased and decided weren’t raking in as much profit as the stores full of middle-aged women in sweatpants clogging their arteries with a byproduct of lab tests at DuPont. (Exaggerating, of course, but learn the details – and why it matters – here.)

An appeals court decision this week is a major setback for the right of college students at publicly-funded universities to not face censorship by school officials. Read more here.

Cross posted at The Smoking Room The Washington Post ran a rather silly evergreen (meaning it can run anytime) about the debt college students get from…buying coffee drinks everyday. What might have been entertaining as a 500-word fluffy column on curious college priorities is instead a 1,200 word, Nation-esque scold more suited to Joe Camel. OxBlog’s David Adesnik has a thorough mocking of the article for its attempt to portray college students as victims of the coffee cabal (or...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Sitcom dads in the past 20 years have progressively gotten dumber, while mothers have become the smart ones in the virtual family. Nowhere is this more apparent than “The Simpsons.” What’s the deal with that? We spend twice as much time with our kids as we did two decades ago, but on television we’re oblivious (“Jimmy Neutron”), troubled (“The Sopranos”), deranged (“Malcolm in the Middle”) and generally...

Celebrities love to invoke the First Amendment as long as it doesn’t apply to those engaged in keeping their cosmetically-enhanced faces splashed across half a dozen weeklies and dozens more free domestic tabloids, keeping their careers vibrant if not tranquil, as Reason’s Tim Cavanaugh documents: The celebrities saw how effectively the royals managed to pin blame for Princess Di’s drunk-driving death on the press, and they’re trying to get some sort of precautionary principle...

Cross-posted at The Smoking Room Could the greatest threat to the Syrian regime be an odd coalition of seculars and fundies? In April, the outlawed Islamist organization Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement calling for free and fair elections and an end to the state of emergency, effectively martial law, in place since 1963. The Brotherhood warned the government that it would bear “sole responsibility” for the deterioration of the country if it ignored its call. The declaration from...

No, not the Washington Post after Woodstein, but a much lower-profile newspaper that has quietly impacted the lives of countless individuals around the world through its determination to avoid the pack.

The World Naked Bike Ride is this Saturday! Not that I’m planning to participate, and not just because I doubt my roommate would want me sitting on his bike in the buff (mine is 3,000 miles away). Sadly none of the rides are happening in the DC area, so I won’t be able to document the festivities as I did last year in Seattle. You’re mostly out of luck if you live between the upper Northeast and the Florida panhandle, but check here to see if your city has its own ride. Oddly,...

You would think the governor of Texas, the state that produced our most recent two-term president, would have access to the best and brightest political minds in the country. They surely want to get taken along with him for any rides higher on the political ladder. But Rick Perry made a monumentally bad decision when he signed a parental-consent bill for minors seeking abortion in a religious private school. I explore the significance of symbolic actions in politics, and especially divisive cultural...

Is Iraq bracing for a Randian revolt of the individual against the state? Probably not, but Iraq the Model makes a good point that the government structure hasn’t really changed since Saddam’s deposal, and that itself could be an impediment to civil development and clean (enough) government.

If you’re wondering how much the mainstream media in Iraq are missing, check the Friends of Democracy blog, sponsored by Spirit of America and written by Iraqis on the ground. Recent posts discuss Internet workshops with Iraqi women, a call to volunteerism and not waiting on the government to solve everything, and some pictures of Saddam’s booty (the monetary kind, not that one), with this message to Saddam’s lawyers: The tyrant collected these fortunes and stockpiled them in...

It’s the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and that defining incident is likely to continue sinking further back in the public consciousness as terrorism eclipses slow-burning human rights issues. Here’s a bit of my take: For those who remember American foreign policy between the Berlin Wall’s fall and 9/11, there was a vigorous debate on how to handle a growing and increasingly prosperous China. George W. Bush, you might recall, leaned more toward the economic...

This NYT story about Tom Cruise’s bizarre behavior in recent weeks, as he promotes the Spielberg-directed “War of the Worlds” remake, is amusing enough. But what gave me a chuckle is that the Times went to two blogs to get screen shots (actually, photos) of Cruise’s now-infamous jag on Oprah: Defamer.com, Gawker’s LA, Hollywood-obsessed counterpart, and TVGasm.com. I’m not sure what to make of the Times’ color art outsourcing. Does it mean: 1. The newspaper...

Young blogger Jeremiah Lewis can’t get up much excitement for the unmasking of Deep Throat, identifying himself with the apathy of the iPod generation and casting doubts on Mark Felt’s hero status. But the media lovefest since the old man admitted his (hopefully) one common trait with the porn industry has gotten Lewis thinking about what we’ll really take from history – and what we’ll overlook: I suspect that history is being shaped, and has been since before the...

…but does it love them back? A Democratic advocacy group did some research that is likely to be ignored by the groups now controlling the party.

Believe it or not, everything after this amusing run-on sentence in blog film critic Jeremiah Lewis’ review of Revenge of the Sith is fairly restrained and informative. But not as funny: I remember when Space Balls was the best Star Wars parody around. RotS (which, by the by, does) is sure to win the title with its monumentally bad dialogue, the rather silly, pre-cloaked and face masked Lord Vader who has taken the Oedipal thing way too far, a Yoda who spouts Yodified versions of sentences...

A female veejay on a hugely popular music channel in Kabul was found shot to death, two months after her show was cancelled on the eve of its national launch. Mullahs had been highly critical of the station, Tolo TV, “for broadcasting music, naked dance and foreign films, which are against Islam and other national values of Afghanistan,” but were most opposed to Shaima Rezayee’s show Hop. And you thought censorship on American television was resurgent: The information ministry...

If you think the Bush administration’s word games on “personal accounts” for Social Security is deceptive, check yourself for consistency with biotech’s switcheroo on exactly what happens in cloning: They used to acknowledge the basic biological truth that cloning creates embryos. But now, to win a political debate, they claim cloning doesn’t create embryos or any form of life at all. The latest to change his tune is Woo Suk Hwang. When he manufactured the first human...

This film short is easily one of the best online marketing productions I’ve seen, and I agree with Josh Chafetz that “I don’t even particularly like the cause.” Few people would have the temerity to question this parody’s claims about its competition, but I will note an artistic flaw: its blatant ripoff of a character from Spaceballs, one of the greatest parody films ever. (If you’re having trouble streaming the video, you can download them here.)

If a new poll is to be believed in Washington State, my former home, 1) Voters think the official governor isn’t the legitimate one 2) They don’t want a revote 3) They’d choose the challenger next time 4) They’d choose the challenger for Senate 5) No one likes either party. Sounds about par for the course in the Evergreen State, as I explain.

The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last gives a fond farewell to retiring Indiana Pacers veteran Reggie Miller, “certainly the best clutch shooter in the modern game (post-1980) not named Bird or Jordan.” Miller is a rarity these days in the faltering NBA: a truly great player who stayed with the same team over nearly two decades and never got a ring. Last also says: He is the only great player of recent vintage who has been able to stay with the same team and completely (and successfully)...

Coldplay frontman and Gwyneth boytoy Chris Martin has mixed feelings about his wealth, but not because of how he earned it. His label, megalith EMI, said its profits would fall below expectations because Coldplay took three years to finish its latest album, leading Martin to respond, “I don’t really care about EMI. I’m not really concerned about that.” Well, good for him! If only he could keep his mouth shut: “I think shareholders are the great evil of this modern...

The skeptics and targets of Gawker Media – notably Radar, whose launch has been mockingly hyped by Nick Denton’s flagship blog – are circling over this news: Last month Sploid, the “anarcho-capitalistâ€? news site that Nick Denton vowed would take on the Drudge Report, debuted with a resounding thud. Now Denton’s longtime lieutenant, Choire Sicha, who oversaw the site, is fleeing to the New York Observer. Sources say Sicha has just accepted an offer to edit the...

Afghanistan’s opium crisis might become an opportunity (paraphrasing the Chinese proverb), if only the country had enough resouces to monitor and regulate the plant’s production for legitimate drugs. But it seems our government is none too thrilled with the idea, which is sad but not surprising, given the history of bipartisan shrillness against any drugs with illicit usage.