AOL Instant Messaging: Everything is Connected
By Alexander Rai12/26/2005
Benito Bangalotti says “AIM (AOL instant messaging) is terrible. I only use it as an information briefing type of thing.”
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I Think I Am About To Go Insane
By Alexander Rai12/22/2005
Sometimes, perched upon the pinnacle of realization, I totter, uneasily, dangerously, imminently, on the brink of insanity.
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Attack on Planned Parenthood
By Vivian Greentree12/20/2005
Have you had a pap smear lately? If not, it is hardly surprising. Texas has one of the lowest rates in the country of women who have had a pap smear in the last three years. That is why it is shocking that Planned Parenthood - which provides such vital services as pap smears that are crucial in detecting cervical cancer, along with other fundamental health care services - is constantly under attack
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Iranian Intentions
By12/20/2005
In the latest theatrical example of anti-Western arrogance, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “has banned Western music from Iran’s radio and TV stations.”
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Syriana: The Price, Profit Margin, Proselytization, and Political Psychology of Petroleum
By Alexander Rai12/18/2005
Beginning in an alcove of Persian underground with a CIA agent making a subversive explosive device deal with an Iranian arms smuggler, cascading through the lanes and littered byways of Beirut, Lebanon, through the glitzy, sumptuous, social hobnobs of Emirs, envoys, and corporate experts; through miniature tragedies and macro revelations, Syriana, a Stephen Gaghan production, is a commentary that binds together locales, limitations, and liabilities of Globalization, illustrating the real, implying the injustice, and invoking the human.
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Last Night's Daydreams and New Morning's Nightmares
By Alexander Rai12/16/2005
Sometimes around 11 PM one lapses into the bed, swerves towards the left, gently hitting the big toe of the right foot against the wall, gliding back, ducking ones thighs and extremities under the layers of bed sheets: bed sheets of many colors, many hues, many contexts: solid gray, teal, cocoa brown, black, playboy, sponge bob. Depends on the individual, naturally.
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Memory, Conversation, and Hope: An Inmate’s intimate Chronicle
By Alexander Rai12/16/2005
Piercing the tender tranquility of a surrendered mind, awakening, removing, disrobing sleep from its earnest host, the brew of coffee, the commotion of the kitchen, the alerted words and executive commands of a homemaking mother, the familiar grumblings and lingering eccentrities of a grandfather completing his morning ablutions, the father sipping his pre-commute beverage preparing to yield to the necessary repetition of another day of doctorly deeds, and a young brother, still asleep; I confronted the ritual of realizing that it was indeed, as it ever is, a continuation of a school day.
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Globalization: Anachronism, Community, and the Aim towards a Sustainable Era
By Alexander Rai12/16/2005
Why is it that in the age of Globalization, the term “inter-national relations” is rather anachronistic?
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The Death Sentence of the Nation-State, the Dawn of the Global Order
By Alexander Rai12/16/2005
The Westphalia Model of Sovereignty of 1648 was the birth of the sovereign Nation-State. It implied that all nations are equal under the eyes of a just world government; the national considerations, identities, economies, weighed as equal and their individual capacity to inviolably exist as a sovereign and lasting principle.
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The International Scholar Laureate Program
By Alexander Rai12/16/2005
The International Scholar Laureate Program. The envelope arrived with an embossed crest of an Eagle and a Globe, opening it revealed another envelope with an embossed crest of an Eagle and a Globe, and then, a congratulatory letter, an invitation, and quite possibly, an opportunity.
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Can someone set off some bombs or something?
By Michael Hussey12/15/2005
Today was an absolute disaster. The Sunni's showed up to the polls - who would have guessed!? They even showed up in droves to vote in Mosul, of all places! and Tikrit! WHAT!? and you'll never believe it - FALLUJAH had a stunningly high turn-out. FALLUJAH!
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Forgive Us Our Trespasses
By Ann Weaver Hart12/04/2005
About 12 years ago, I joined an organization where I met a man I’ll call “Joe.” Joe is one of those people everyone knows, because he’s nothing if not memorable. A generally happy fellow, he works hard, plays hard, and speaks gently. Joe never met a stranger. His cheerfulness is matched by vigor and generosity.
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Defining victory in Iraq
By Michael Hussey12/04/2005
Next week's open Iraqi election - as opposed to a murderous dictator and his sons running an oil-for-food scam while enriching the likes of George Galloway and his ilk - is a victory in and of itself. This will be the most open election in the entire history of the Middle East - a HUGE victory is unfolding before those whose eyes are open.
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When in Rome, Don't Smuggle Drugs
By Ann Weaver Hart12/01/2005
According to reports from the Associated Press, Singapore hanged a 25-year–old Australian man this morning for drug trafficking. The execution came amid pleas for clemency from all over the world, and accusations that the clemency process in Singapore lacks transparency.
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