Dive into the archives.
- Sovereign Immunity
Australian beauty therapist Schapelle Corby was heading off for a holiday in Bali, flying from Perth Brisbane to Bali via Sydney, only to be busted on arrival for marijuanna smuggling. No one smuggles pot INTO Indonesia, and everyone outside the Indonesian legal system is convinced that a baggage handler smuggling ring in Australia, which [...]
- It’s Official
France rejects the EU Constitution, and opposition leaders are already calling on French President Jacques Chirac to resign in the wake of the vote. (please please please please…) Chirac just made a televised statement saying that the vote has made it more difficult for France to defend its interests in Europe.
For what more could [...]
- Is the worst over?
The Economist reports that the Euro has now fallen to a seven-month low against the dollar. The brief blurb (sent out by email, no link) attributes the dip to uncertainty about the upcoming EU referendums, weak economic data coming out of Europe, and upbeat assessments about the US economy.
I’ve long agreed with Mark Faber, contrarian [...]
- Lebanese Elections Tomorrow
After the so-called Cedar Revolution, Lebanon again dropped off the MSM’s radar. However, lest we forget, the hard part is still to come. Elections will begin tomorrow.
Lebanon gets ready for ‘free’ election
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s most eagerly awaited parliamentary election in years kicks off in Beirut tomorrow. The polls, billed as Lebanon’s first free elections in more [...]
- Naked barbell chicken female hostage tattoo
Some of you reading this are faithful regulars. Some of you come from other blogs. And a few of you arrive here via search engines. That means you type a word or two into google or elsewhere, one of the results that comes up is this site, and you click it. [...]
- Barnett, Raf and the Iranian Youth
Thomas Barnett recently wrote about the announcement of former president Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani running in the upcoming Iranian elections. He said that “Rafsanjani’s ideas speak to Iran’s overwhelmingly young and incredibly ambitious youth population. He’s all about individual empowerment and the diminishment of the mullahs’ reach.”
As mentioned before, I just don’t see this. No [...]
- Turkey in Georgia
Last month western Georgia was victim to floods caused by massive rainfall. An international call to aid was raised, and duly answered by the Turkish Red Crescent. The Turks sent “two tractor trailers filled with 17.6 tons of food, enough for 800 families, and 10 crates of water purification tablets.”
Although I am familiar with the [...]
- The War Ended?
The BBC has an interesting and amusing story:
‘Japan soldiers’ found in jungle
Japanese officials are investigating claims that two men living in jungle in the Philippines are Japanese soldiers left behind after World War II. The pair, in their 80s, were reportedly found on southern Mindanao island. The men were expected to travel to meet Japanese [...]
- Fisking, defined
“Fisking” is something you hear a lot in the blogosphere. I didn’t know it’s formal root but understood it well enough. But over lunch today I had to explain it, and only then did I realize that I really didn’t know what it meant. Fortunately, wikipedia came to my aid.
Fisking, or to [...]
- Entrepreneurs in Japan
Education is a wonderful thing, and the chance to go to university is a wonderful thing. But if you don’t get in, it isn’t necessarily the end of the world. And despite the legendary competition for higher education in Japan, the same goes for the Rising Sun:
A Kodansha/Passmedia survey of 700 companies, each [...]
