Let’s declare war on Jeremy Kyle and his idle-bashers The apathy of many of those Kyle denounces is driven more by the hopelessness and inhumanity of modern work than idleness Belinda Webb guardian.co.uk, Friday 20 August 2010 17.00 BST Article history Talkshow host Jeremy Kyle has declared war on idleness. Photograph: ITV/Rex FeaturesThat bastion of useful productivity, Jeremy Kyle, has declared war on idleness. The language is Victorian. So, too, the sentiment. I say a war needs to be declared on Kyle and those of his faux-furious ilk who have grown filthy-rich and famous from the ritual humiliation and exploitation … Continue reading Declare Jihad/Crusade on Jeremy Kyle and Chavistas!

US sets up new fund to help Pakistan By Anwar Iqbal Hillary Clinton meets with Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the United Nations in New York.—AFP WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Dawn on Thursday that the United States has set up a new fund for Pakistan’s flood victims, besides contributing $150 million more to relief efforts. In an exclusive interview in her office, the top US diplomat also said that she understood that the Pakistani military had to divert its resources from the war on terror to attend to the flood victims and while it might hurt the … Continue reading US comes to Pakistanis rescue!

Pamela Geller Called out for Being an “anti-Muslim Bigot” on CNN loonwatch [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ9g4WDIy4o 350 300] On the heels of the Salon.com article that traced the Ground Zero mosque controversy back to Pamela Geller, CNN ran a special segment on the anatomy of this story. In it Pamela Geller is called out for who she is, an “anti-Muslim blogger.” The evidence for that abounds, Geller: Obama “is a third worlder and a coward” who’s “appeas[ing] his Islamic overlords.” In an April 13 blog post, Gellerwrote: “Obama is a third worlder and a coward. He will do nothing but beat up on … Continue reading Why is Pamela Geller on Prime-Time US TV?

Ridicule for Lee’s reunification rhetoric By Donald Kirk SEOUL – Kim Dae-jung would have loved it. On the first anniversary of the late South Korean’ president’s death on August 18, North Korea was denouncing the plan of the present, conservative, incumbent, Lee Myung-bak, for reunifying North and South as ”ridiculous rhetoric”. The North Korean blast coincided with observances here, and in Kim’s birthplace off the southwestern coast, memorializing a life best remembered for crusading as president for his “Sunshine” policy of reconciliation with North Korea for which he received the Nobel Peace prize in 2000. Now the Sunshine policy is … Continue reading Ridicule for Lee’s reunification rhetoric

The shadow over Iraq By George Friedman It is August 2010, the month when the last United States combat troops are scheduled to leave Iraq. It is therefore time to take stock of the situation in Iraq, which has changed places with Afghanistan as the forgotten war. This is all the more important since 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq, and while they may not be considered combat troops, a great deal of combat power remains embedded with them. So we are far from the end of the war in Iraq. The question is whether the departure of the last … Continue reading The shadow over Iraq

By Chalmers Johnson In 1962, the historian Barbara Tuchman published a book about the start of World War I and called it The Guns of August. It went on to win a Pulitzer Prize. She was, of course, looking back at events that had occurred almost 50 years earlier and had at her disposal documents and information not available to participants. They were acting, as Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara put it, in the fog of war. So where are we this August of 2010, with guns blazing in one war in Afghanistan even as we try to extricate … Continue reading The guns of August

Old and new faces of Indonesian terror By Clifford McCoy The arrest last week of radical Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was the highlight of a government crackdown on Islamic militants following the discovery in February of a training camp in Aceh province. Once regarded as the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group, Bashir’s popularity has wavered in recent years and his position is emblematic of the evolving nature of militant Islam in Southeast Asia. The 72-year-old Bashir was arrested together with his wife and five bodyguards on August 9 while traveling to deliver a sermon in … Continue reading Indonesian terror

Flood relief and politics in Pakistan By Brian M Downing The world is seeing a tragedy unfold as monsoon rains swell the expansive Indus River and flood large parts of Pakistan from Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province to the Arabian Sea. Whether directed by Pakistanis or outside agencies, relief will not always be a straightforward humanitarian effort – neither in intent nor result; it will be tempered with civil-military issues, international politics, and concerns with Pakistan’s very future. Civilians and soldiers Pakistan has alternated between civilian and military governments since its inception in 1947. Neither established a record of capable government in … Continue reading Flood relief and politics in Pakistan

SINOGRAPH No rush for China By Francesco Sisci BEIJING – The angry youths who used to shout anti-Japanese slogans were silenced, their older chauvinistic mentors behaved as if they had received a gag order. Newspapers ignored the news or exiled it to a corner, while senior officials tried to dodge the subject in talks with foreigners. Figures released this week by the Japanese government indicate that China has replaced Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States. The figures show that Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of this year, seasonally unadjusted, totaled US$1.28 trillion. … Continue reading No rush for China

Deep reasons for China and US to bristle By Jingdong Yuan SYDNEY, Australia – China’s strong reaction to the United States’ call for multilateral negotiation to resolve territorial disputes in the South China Sea fits the rising tide of tensions between Beijing and Washington over a number of issues. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi stated that interventions last month from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested the US was ganging with other countries in the region against China. Chinese analysts also point to US-South Korea military exercises staged in the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan as nothing but … Continue reading China and US bristle