Author’s Note: I wrote and posted this piece yesterday, but the Community Boulevard forum software had the title as a generic topic number, and placed it on the second screen of posts even right after it was published. I don’t claim to understand why the software does so many weird things so much of the time (like posting blog posts in duplicate, which has happened to mine several times), but I don’t...

Yesterday, 72 years ago, the Holocaust was ushered in by the two nights of organized rioting against Jews called Kristallnacht (night of broken glass). One of Michael Stickings’ co-bloggers at The Reaction reminds us that the significance of Kristallnacht was that it moved Hitler’s Germany from the first stage of the Holocaust — legislated disenfranchisement and persecution of the German Jewish...

Members of Indian Parliament listened mesmerized as US president Barack Obama today transformed himself from being a mere salesman-in-chief of America to a visionary world leader who aspired to live up to the great ideals that had inspired Indian and US founding fathers in laying the foundations of the two democratic republics. (Of course, he did also make major policy commitments, such as US support for India’s...

Oh, by the way, this was my favorite part of that article about the tears of John Boehner:

“I believe the struggle for financial freedom is unfair. I believe the only ones who disagree are millionaires.”

It is ironic that US President Barack Obama will today stay in the same hotel in Mumbai which was one of the targets scouted by American spy David Headley for the bloody Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, better known as India’s 26/11. According to Reuters: “Access to David Headley, who is in custody in the United States, and intelligence linked to his visits to India have emerged as thorny security...

As we have amply demonstrated, the French have a particular disdain for the Tea Party. Along the lines of that short tradition, this article from Le Monde by Jean-Christian Rostagn takes a crack at explaining the ‘Tea Baggers’ to French readers. According to Rostagn, the Tea Party’s obsession with the deficit is ‘only because it’s a convenient vehicle for expressing resentment...

The national, statewide and local results of the November 2nd Midterm elections were hardly unexpected. The winners will accomplish nothing with respect to altering the real direction of the country which is a seriously ailing and quickly declining hyper-empire. The electorate was never provided any meaningful choice but instead had to pick between the two defunct and corrupt political parties. The Tea Party...

Unless one has been living in a cave, on some other planet, in some other galaxy, in another time warp zone, everyone knows by now that Democrats got badly defeated last night—using some terrestrial terms, President Obama described the Republican victory as a “shellacking.” However, a persevering, optimistic observer will find some silver linings, some slivers of good news if he or she looks hard enough. I...

Nimrata (Nikki) Randhawa (Haley), born January 20, 1972, who represents Lexington County in the US House of Representatives, has been elected as the Governor of South Carolina. Her parents, Dr. Ajit and Raj Randhawa, are Sikh immigrants from Amritsar, India. Haley, who was born and raised as a Sikh, is married to Michael Haley (an officer in the US Army National Guard) and they have two children – Rena...

If polls and media pundits are to be believed, large majorities of Americans who are not ideologues for either party and who may, in fact, be just as disgusted with Republicans as with Democrats, are planning to vote for GOP candidates tomorrow simply out of frustration with a terrible economy that shows few signs as yet of getting better. Republican policies of the past may have created the financial crisis...

Early election polling data indicates God will lose in every single gubernatorial and congressional race. God is also trailing in all initiatives. Political analyst Arma Geddon said if trends hold steady, God will be unable to take control of the House or the Senate. Geddon points out that this is really a perfect storm for God. “Frankly, if these numbers are accurate, God will not be able to advance his...

Who deserves the credit for uncovering the Halloween parcel bomb plot? According to the editor-in-chief of Kuwait’s Al Seyassah, Ahmad Abdal Aziz Al Jarallah, that glory should go to the Saudi security services and their leader, King Abdullah Bin Abd Al Aziz. Jarallah credits the Saudi king with pursuing the most effective ways of battling the global ‘disease’ of terrorism, and referring to...

The GOP candidate for Ohio treasurer, outgoing Ohio House Rep. Josh Mandel (17th District – sadly, my district), has been called out nationwide for his and his campaign’s widespread use of anti-Muslim imagery, rhetoric and, according to Politifact, falsehoods. Late last week, the Ohio Elections Commission, composed of a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent, unanimously found probable cause...

In my “Off to War Then and Now—Always too Young,” I shared some impressions about the gratitude the French people still hold for the American military who helped liberate their country during World War II, and I promised the couple of interested readers that I would follow-up with some additional thoughts on France and the French people: Their performance and experiences during World War and their...

Politics Daily asked the major candidates in the upcoming election to answer some questions about their religious background and beliefs. Here is how Sen. Michael Bennett, running for reelection in Colorado against Tea Party candidate Ken Buck, responded (my italics at the end):

The Ohio Elections Commission has dismissed a complaint made by Former Fox personality and now Republican candidate for Ohio governor, John Kasich, and filed against the campaign of Governor Ted Strickland. The complaint stemmed from the traditionally wretched ratings Kasich has gotten over the years from the NRA. Even the Buckeye Firearms Association, which gives Strickland an A+, chastised Kasich. From Cincinnati.com: Columbus...

Further to Patrick Edaburn’s earlier post about the vile remarks made by Clint McCance about gays and lesbians:

This is certainly something that conservatives would vociferously condemn if a Democrat had done it:

Ken Buck, the Colorado Republican who thinks that gays are like alcoholics, said last year that he objected to a fundamental principle of American constitutional democracy: I disagree strongly with the concept of separation of church and state. It was not written into the Constitution. Now, he rightly noted that the Constitution bars “a religion that’s sanctioned by the government,” but, in...