So what do the Swedes – the custodians of every other Nobel Prize – think of the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Peace Prize to President Barack Obama? This editorial from Sweden’s Dagens Nyheter says in part: “That the Norwegians got carried away with euphoria over Obama’s election is understandable, but that doesn’t make their decision any more justifiable....

Americans aren’t alone in thinking that President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize was nothing more than a West-European rejection of the polices of President Bush. For Italy’s Corriere della Sera, columnist Franco Venturini gives vent to his fear that this Nobel may have ben erroneously awarded: “If not an indictment of his predecessor, what is this Nobel for Barack Obama, which has no relation...

US president Barack Obama’s predicament (on hearing about Nobel Peace Prize) seems similar to that of a dashing man who comes face-to-face with a fawning socialite in public who gushes: “Darling I love you from the bottom of my heart.” The media is having a field day revelling in this hot/sexy topic that has landed in their lap. This element of surprise (after the award’s announcement)...

Shock and surprise – but not necessarily dismay – have spread across the world after the announcement that Barack Obama is to be awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. The first French translation we’ve posted on the subject is from France’s Rue 89. For the Rue 89, Pierre Haski writes in part: “We salute the intention, the bold words and perhaps mostly the man himself and his journey...

News videos are now popping up online about the surprise announcement that President Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Here are a few of them: The AP’s asks if the prize will be a boost or bust: ITTN News: Reuters video with Q&A of committee addressing why he won — getting some tough questions about what Obama has actually accomplished to deserve it: Russia Today’s...

I must confess that I have not been a huge fan of Dancing With The Stars, my viewing is usually limited to catching highlights if they happen to have a contestant I find interesting. I’m also not particularly a fan of former Congressman Tom Delay, I found him to be arrogant in his attitude towards his peers and his rivals. However when I heard he was going to be on DWTS this season I was interested enough...

Is it time for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan and that nation’s security to an international peacekeeping force? In this surprisingly forthright op-ed credited to the deputy general of the China Council for National Security Policy Studies, the Beijing leadership definitively wades into the question of what should be done to fix Afghanistan. For the China Daily, Deputy General Li Qinggong...

There seems to be an emerging trend in the Muslim world, in which all leaders regarded as despots are called ‘worse than Saddam’, ‘as bad as Saddam’, or the ‘new Saddam.’ Yesterday we posted ‘Muammar Qaddafi is No Better than Saddam,’ from the newspaper Sotal Iraq. Today, from Kuwait’s Arab Times, we have this article that warns about Iranian President...

Libyan Despot Muammar Qaddafi succeeded in amusing and ticking off quite a few people last week with his rambling speech at the United Nations, which he made, according to him, not due to his role as dictator of Libya or president of the U.N. Security Council [yes - Qaddafi presently holds the rotating presidency of that body], but in his capacity as African Union chairman. According to Noor al-Harby, a...

Since despite having angered President Obama, the Israelis have succeeded in rejecting his demand that they halt settlements on Palestinian land, is it time the Palestinians took a page from Israel’s book and anger President Obama as well? According to K. Selim of Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, by failing to reject Obama’s request to have his photo taken with Israeli Leader Benjamin Netanyahu...

There is some strong language at the link, so don’t click if you’re easily offended, but sometimes you wonder “What the hell were they thinking???” An Obama sock monkey toy, who thought that was a good idea? Cracked.com: 7 Hilariously Failed Attempts at Politically Correct Toys — UPDATE: Now Time Magazine is getting in the act: Top 10 dubious toys — Cross-posted between Random...

On my way back from a trip abroad, I generally try to pick up the best honey for my close relations. During the past decade I have been hearing that the supply of honey may become scarce with the bees vanishing at an alarming rate. It’s a question that has baffled the worlds of agriculture and science – what is it that has caused the mysterious deaths of honey bees all over the world in the last five...

Today – October 2 – is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s (or Mahatma Gandhi’s) birth anniversary . Gandhi once said that if we are not careful then seven “deadly sins” will destroy us. They are: a) “Wealth Without Work”; b) “Pleasure Without Conscience”; c) “Knowledge Without Character; d) Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics); e) Science...

For those who have been following the European reaction to President Obama’s decision to ditch the Bush-era anti-missile shield, you know that the divide between East and West Europe has been stark. This article by Bartosz Weglarczyk of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, in very cool-eyed fashion, councils Poles on some down home truths and urges people in that nation to accept the inevitable end of a...

Here’s the picture, a stay at home mom offers to help out her neighbors by keeping an eye on their kids for the 15-40 minutes between when the parents head to work and the school bus arrives. The kids are all friends, the mom is just trying to be a good neighbor. Well according to the state of Michigan she’s a lawbreaker, illegally operating a day care. The fact that she seems to do it for free and...

As this article from the Romanian newspaper Romania Liberia shows once again – the divide between East and West Europe over President Obama’s decision to cancel the Bush-era missile shield couldn’t be starker. What West Europe regards as a reasoned and rational decision to bring Moscow more into the fold, Eastern Europe regards as naive if not betrayal. For Romania Liberia, Cristian Campeanu...

My last post took note of American arms sellers camping in New Delhi (see here). This post is about the increasing number of expats/professionals (including Americans) who are making India their home, and feel more than welcome here. Dave Prager and Jenny Steeves (photo above), who arrived in New Delhi from Brooklyn in 2007, say: “Unlike most countries in the world, Indians love Americans.” Their...

Is the Polanski case an example of the Euro-American cultural divide striking again? Or is it about Switzerland, worried about its relations with the United States after the UBS debacle, trying to curry favor with Washington? Whatever the cause, the controversy triggered by the arrest and possible extradition to the United States of famed film director and pedophile Roman Polanski is fierce. For France’s...

One of the stories behind the story of the demise of the F-22 Raptor fighter is the “developing story” of the increasingly important role unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are playing in today’s and certainly in tomorrow’s Air Force. In my story behind the story of the F-22 demise, I quoted Fred Kaplan’s comments that, during the most intense period of the Cold War, “much higher...

Once, long ago, the universe seemed to make sense to me, even if some people in it didn’t make sense. Now, nothing seems rational or sensible any more, and something written for a satire seems to be the best description: There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre...

Australian town of Bundanoon has become the first in the world to ban commercially-bottled water. The ban, which is supported by local shopkeepers, means water in plastic bottles can no longer be bought in the town in the Southern Highlands, two hours from Sydney. Instead, reusable bottles have gone on sale, which can be refilled for free at new drinking fountains (photo above), reports The Independent. “Bottled...

“Future news from September, 2012: After eight infuriated, highly-armed polar bears seize the U.N. General Assembly, the world suddenly realizes it confronts a new form of terrorism.” As the climate Change Summit in Copenhagen draws ever closer, pessimism is growing over whether the biggest gas emitters will take action to stop what most scientists assure us will be a catastrophe. And in the minds...

We are told that Tandoori murga (or chicken), India’s contribution to the world of cuisine, was born in Peshawar in 1929. After India’s bloody Partition, the shop (later known as “Moti Mahal”) moved to Daryaganj in New Delhi, very close to the ancestral house of Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf. Tandoori chicken gained in popularity when India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal...

Unidentified members of Iran’s august Assembly of Experts, purported under Iran’s revolutionary constitution to oversee and be capable of removing that nation’s ’supreme leader’ who never faces the verdict of the average voter. (The same can apparently be said of that nation’s president, but setting that aside for the moment … While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...

As we’ve all heard by now, Western Europe is relieved, and Eastern Europe is aggrieved, over President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap Bush-era missile shield bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. This article by Marek Magierowski of Poland’s Rceczpospolita offers a good sense of how Poles view the decision. So why did Obama do it? Magierowski gives three reasons: “First, the Americans...