For some, exasperation with new U.S. rules for passenger aircraft is running high. Why? Because, according to German columnist Andreas Theyssen, by almost any objective measure, the new regulations being imposed won’t do a thing to make flying any safer. For Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland, columnist Andreas Theyssen writes in part: There are many ways to encapsulate the state of the world....

Was this sheer incompetence – or is there something else going on? The scale of the intelligence mistakes surrounding the case of suspected Christmas Day underwear bomber Omar Farouk Abdul Muttalab are such, that many people, particularly Muslims, suspect that there is some “hidden force” behind the story. According to columnist Hilmi Al Asmar of Jordan’s Ad Dustour newspaper, that...

THE NOSE OF AHMADINEJAD SAYS: ‘ELECTIONS’ THE CAPTION READS: ‘OPPOSITION’ This article from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan newspaper is as close to a public admission of a challenge to the regime’s authority as we’ve seen from the mullahs that run the country – and it’s striking. For Kayhan, columnist Kian Mokhtari writes in part: There’s no denying...

Happy New Year Moderate Voice people! So which superpower or superpower pretender had the best year in 2009? Was it China, Russia or the United States? According to columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of the Russian newspaper Gazeta – the answer is unequivocally China. Outlining the challenges both the United States and Russia have in dealing with the new powerhouse, for Gazeta, Fyodor Lukyanov writes in part: Argentine...

Could we be seeing a bit of a revival of the legacy of George W. Bush? That’s the underlying implication of this article by Yves Thréard of France’s Le Figaro newspaper. For Le Figaro, Yves Threard writes in part: Humility prohibits untimely and definitive comments on al-Qaeda, that army of criminals that is regularly described as being held at bay. Does it function under a centralized command...

Hello TMV readers and commenters. Twitter reactions to articles/posts have been disabled due to the always evolving pornographic industry’s “twitter tactics”. This doesn’t take away from comment functionality at all. Twitter reactions will be enabled as soon as we find a effective way of blocking pornographic twitters. Thanks to TMV reader and commenter Father Time for the heads up.

I’m getting rather bored with the blame game this week, and thought perhaps we could begin winding down the year here at TMV with the Name Game instead. It’s a topic which I’ve seen crop up in passing on a few web sites and talking head discussions on television, but I don’t believe any consensus has been reached. What’s it all about? We referred to the period from 1970 through...

I was flipping channels tonight during dinner when I came across the latest reality show which features a family of ‘plus sized’ people trying to lose weight for their health (just to give you an example the 14 yr old son weighs 300 lbs and is the slimmest family member). Aside from shaking my head at these kinds of shows I was also reminded of one of the topics on local radio the past few days,...

So what do people in The Netherlands think of the issue of air safety, after Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport was used as an entry point into the United States for what seems to have been al-Qaeda’s latest suicide-madman? In typical, practical Dutch fashion, the NRC Handlesblad, in an editorial written yesterday, picks apart recent criticism and concludes that those who seek “total safety”...

Is it time for the United States to segregate Muslim passengers and force them to fly on Muslim-only flights? That is just one of the politically-incorrect suggestions of Khadir Taahar, an Arab-Muslim and a regular columnist for Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, who authored this article for Britain’s Arabic Elaph news portal. For Elaph, Taahar writes in part: Yesterday, Allah made sure that the crime...

Why, when Iranian troops crossed the Iraqi border earlier this month to take possession of an Iraqi oil well and raise the Iranian flag, didn’t American forces do something? That’s the question in the minds of people across the Middle East, and it’s promoting a common Arab conception: that the United States and Persian Iran have been cooperating with one another all along – at the...

Members of al-Qaeda address a crowd and take photos in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan, where the government and Saudi Arabia have been bombing al-Qaeda positions. They said they had no issues with the Yemen Army, and warned civilians not oppose al-Qaeda or its war against America. With news emerging that the Nigerian terror suspect who tried to bomb a U.S. plane may have received instructions from...

When one looks back at the stated goals of Osama bin Laden, one might conclude that much of what he sought has come to pass. As bin Laden is reported to have said in 2004, “We are continuing this policy of bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah.” According to Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s Nachrichten newspaper, in a decade that...

Ardipithecus ramidus What does the economic crisis have to do with Ardipithecus ramidus, the so-called missing link discovered in 2009? According to Patrik Etschmayer of the Swiss newspaper Nachrichten, everything. For Nachrichten, Patrik Etschmayer writes in part: If you find yourself asking again, why the damned economy has collapsed and who you should blame for it … I have a viable candidate. The shabby...

‘OBAMA: ‘I PROMISE THINGS AND THEN FIND MYSELF DOING THE OPPOSITE.’ From the worldwide team at WORLDMEETS.US., we wish all the readers and posters at the Moderate Voice a very Merry Christmas and happy holiday. In the spirit of the season, it’s time for media outlets large and small to begin their reckonings of 2009. This article by columnist Elias Harfoush of Saudi Arabia’s Dar...

As we approach the magic hour when Santa will be beginning to visit children on the East coast and make his way to the West coast, you may have a child or grandchild who is beginning to have doubts about Santa Claus—as my 10-year-old grandson is. Well, there is still time to let him or her read (or for you to read to him or her) the answer an Editor of the New York Sun wrote, back in 1897, to an 8-year-old...

Vice President Joe Biden led the Senate this morning while his colleagues voted from their seats in favor of Senate Bill 3590 (aka “Senate Health Care Bill” aka “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”). The vote was 60-39 along party lines, as expected. Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky, who is retiring at the end of the 111th session of Congress, failed to show up or...

In part three of my series of Christmas posts I thought I’d tackle a bit of the history surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. While I personally believe him to be my Savior I will be taking more of an academic slant in this post, examining the historic Jesus. Specifically I will be offering some thoughts on the origins of the Christmas Star (per astronomy) and thus offering thoughts on when he was really...

For those wondering whether U.S.-Russian relations really have been “reset”, this article from Russia’s Gazeta newspaper should provide food for thought. We must permit our minds to let go of our memories, tormented as we are by past grievances, and understand that only with the United States can the European Union and Russia save northern civilization. These are the words of none other than...

The Senate’s vote on health care reform will now be at 7:00 am tomorrow morning. (See more here.) But the conference committee process that will begin after Congress takes a winter break will be contentious. A lot of attention, as many readers of The Moderate Voice know, has focused on how women fare under the House and Senate versions.  One outgrowth of that attention is the effort Not Under The Bus: The...

Why celebrity young men such as Prince William of England, or young leading politician Rahul Gandhi of India, decide to spend a night at a place where the “poorest of the poor” in society spend their entire lives? Publicity? However, such symbolic acts do catapult homelessness, poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, family breakdown, and other social issues into limelight in the celebrity-oriented...

Following up my post on the classic book A Christmas Carol I thought I’d offer a couple posts on some classic Christmas Carols. The first is Silent Night. I suspect some (or most of you) already know some of this story but it is still an amazing one to consider. In December 1818 a man named Joseph Mohr was deeply troubled. He was the assistant pastor of the church in Oberndorf, Austria. The problem he...

Here’s wishing everyone health, wealth, prosperity and happiness in 2010. Happy holidays!!!

With news of the adultery of Tiger Woods, American Puritanism is once again a topic of conversation in Europe. To the average European, his fall from grace is as Shakespearean as it is American. For France’s Rue 89, Pierre Haski writes in part: “There is certainly something very American about this psychodrama, in which a private matter brings down from his pedestal an icon who, nonetheless, has...

As we have been covering over recent days, Iranian President Ahmadinejad has been whipping up audiences with talk of how the United States is threatening Iran because it knows that the arrival of the Twelfth Imam – or ‘Mahdi’, is imminent, and that Iran is preparing the way for him. An article we translated the other day quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that after the appearance of the Mahdi...