In recent times, there have been clear indications that male of the human species is on a suicidal path. Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of the macho rule of men? Here I am not talking about the mess created by myopic/desperate men (and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan), but the British scientists’ recent claim that they have created human sperm in the lab. If there’s no need for sperm,...

I was alerted to yet another controversial court case involving the dreaded “morning after pill” by our friend Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. This particular drama is playing out in the 9th Circuit Court of appeals and deals with a pharmacy being told by the courts that they must provide Plan B. Pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the “morning...

I have to agree with some of our readers. We are spending entirely too much time on frivolous issues such as the Palin “Higher Calling” resignation and Sanford’s sultry Argentinean love affair. And I won’t even touch the Michael Jackson “issue.” There are too many other real issues to be discussed and analyzed. One of them is, of course, the “What Happened in Vegas”...

That’s what Ibn Muqawama has to say about Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban. On a related note, Ibn Muqawama adds, We really need to rethink our entire concept of airpower. I don’t think it lies in F-22s, but in the persistent presence and low-observability offered by the next generation of unmanned and relatively inexpensive drones, operating from longer ranges with a wider variety...

Here. [Also posted at my personal blog.]

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle overturned a District Court decision today, with the result that pharmacies cannot legally refuse to fill prescriptions for Plan B contraception — also called “emergency contraception” or the “morning after pill.”

The guessing as to what Sarah Palin will do, now that she is quitting her governor job, continues. Ofttimes, in the reporting on Sarah Palin’s magnanimous decision to quit her day job, the lines get blurred between why Sarah Palin quit, and what she’ll be doing next. Joe Gandelman posted a piece today, summarizing—and shooting down—a couple of the alleged reasons for Sarah’s quitting. One...

Here. Contrary to the stereotyping coming from some corners these days, not all who believe in the existence of God are bigoted, closed-minded, or anti-science. Francis Collins is one demonstration of that. He’s a theist and an outstanding scientist. Politically, this is yet another shrewd appointment on the part of Barack Obama. As he pursues such hot potato issues as stem cell research, Collins will...

One may hate Michael Jackson, or love him madly, or remain totally indifferent to him, but one just can’t ignore this musical phenomenon and his mass appeal. Jackson’s memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles is expected to be an even bigger global internet video-viewing event than the inauguration of US President Barack Obama, reports ANI. A Michael Jackson page at Facebook has already...

Patrick Edaburn’s interesting post yesterday, in which he examined his mental reactions to a slow driver, set off a whole slew of thoughts for me regarding stereotypes, prejudices, bigotry, and racism. For instance: Let’s say you attended a neighborhood social function, and your Republican neighbor talks at length about his son, of whom he’s extremely proud. This beloved son, as it happens,...

In Renaissance Europe, and in the ancient and medieval Hindu and Mughal societies, the young courtesans were much in news and played a vital role. Even in this computer age the tradition continues as exemplified by a Romanian teenager who auctioned off her virginity for $20,000. Alina Percea, 18, has spoken for the first time about her night with the highest bidder, reports LiveNews. Percea (photo above) auctioned...

Tibet and Xianjiang provinces in China have remained turbulent spots often plagued with ethnic violence. Last weekend 156 persons were killed and hundreds injured in Urumqi, the capital city of the Xianjiang province, in what is being described as” bloodiest clashes in the country since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.” The details remain murky, but the real figure is likely to be far higher...

This is kind of a wow.

A reader commented on a recent post discussing Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts’ column on Governor Sanford’s “I made a mistake, so all is cool now” excuse as follows: Pitts is a lightweight, predictable Dem columnist, simply less tiresome than worse hack Paul Krugman and more substantial than worse-than-worthless Maureen Dowd. Feeling real bad about my poor columnist selection and...

Britain’s top judge has expressed concern about the use of pilot-less drones as weapons of war. His comments come at a time when there is a growing international concern about the danger these pose to the civilians. Drones have become an important weapon against the Taliban in the remote mountainous borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan, reports The Independent. “Last month the US admitted to...

The Telegraph: While the Potter films were earning him millions of adoring fans around the world, Radcliffe’s role as the bespectacled boy wizard was causing resentment at school. However, with an estimated £30 million fortune in the bank and Hollywood at his feet – all before his 20th birthday – Radcliffe said his life is proof that that ‘uncool’ kids come out on top. Your typical...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt, on GOP opposition to President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin confirmation hearings July 13, shrugged off the GOP concerns being raised about Sotomayor, saying some in the GOP were going to oppose any Obama pick – “even...

With the White House launching the U.S. military into its first big offensive in Afghanistan since President Obama took office, this angry and sarcastic article from Iran’s state-controlled Kayhan newspaper cannot be good news. Writing for Kayhan, Kian Mokhtari writes in part: “On Saturday, Obama rather swiftly brushed off a call by President Ahmadinejad for an apology for Washington’s ‘meddling...

The Delhi High Court today declared Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), a relic of the British Raj, “violative of articles 14, 21 and 15 of the (Indian) Constitution in so far as it criminalizes consensual sexual acts of adults in private.” That means, from now on, police will no longer be able to arrest adult homosexuals having consensual sex. Gays have so far been living under terror in India...

1969 was the year I began my career as a journalist with a leading Indian daily. That was also the year when a memorable event called The Woodstock Festival took place in a far-away rural town of Bethel, New York, and caught my fancy. As The Independent recalls: “Performers flying in on helicopters – a portentous sight in the Vietnam era – food and drinks spiked with LSD, acts going on 14 hours or...

According to Wikipedia, a political party platform is “a list of the actions which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said party’s candidates voted into office…Individual topics are often called planks of the platform.” During the past five national elections, Republican Party leaders, candidates and politicians have made “traditional...

Between sex scandals and celebrity deaths, let us not forget the citizens of Iran. Suffering does not go away when we do not see it. New York Times: In Tehran, a Mood of Melancholy Descends — TEHRAN — An eerie stillness has settled over this normally frenetic city. In more settled times, the streets are clogged with honking cars and cranky commuters grousing about the lack of decent parking. — But...

Is it conceivable that Iran and the United States have been working together in Iraq all along? At WORLDMEETS.US, we have documented over the years that there are a good number of people in Iraq that are fully convinced of this – often pointing to the fact that Iran is the country that has gotten the most out of the Iraq invasion. This op-ed from Iraq’s Al Iraq newspaper charges not only that...

Just follow the money. The opium fields in Afghanistan supply 93% of the world’s production of heroin and is the single largest revenue producer for that impoverished country’s gross national product, according to United Nations and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reports. After the Soviets gave up and left Afghanistan, the Taliban destroyed the crops under the guise of religious purity and received...

Today’s NYTimes has a piece on The Glory for Christ Football League, which came into being because Georgia is not one of the twenty-four states that allow homeshcoolers to join public- or private-school teams: By 2002, the sports-loving sons of Roger and Diana McDaniel had aged out of recreation league football. A school team was not an option. They had no school. The boys were educated at home, cracking...