Salem-News.com Authors articles Page 20

Grapes of 2011

The Depression and those who carried out its policies failed to see the larger picture.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." said the 18th century political philosopher Edmund Burke (1729-1797).

Chávez is More Fanatically Islamic than Al Qaeda

“Chávez and his gang” are “strange bedfellows” - Carlos Alberto Montaner

(BOGOTA, Colombia) - Gracing the pages of various Spanish-language newspapers yesterday and today is an article entitled “Bin Laden in Latin America”.

Written by exiled Cuban columnist and author Carlos Alberto Montaner, whose claims to fame include referring to Eduardo Galeano’s acclaimed Open Veins of Latin America as “the idiot’s bible”, it might be more appropriately titled “The idiot’s attempt to turn Hugo Chávez into bin Laden by way of an irrelevant Ethiopian”.

Juan Williams: On Point for Young People

Today we’re shining a light on Fox News analyst Juan Williams and On Point Executor Director Lesley Scearce for their commitment to raising healthy, productive young people.

(CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.) - Most of us know a little something about Mr. Williams because we’ve either seen him on television or read about him in the papers.

Mr. Williams has served as a Senior Correspondent for NPR, he’s authored multiple histories about the civil rights movement and he currently serves as a political analyst for Fox News

Laleh Bakhtiar Discusses Evolution of Islam

One of America's top scholars on Islam tackles the controversial subject of reformation; says no aspect of Quran endorses abuse of women.

(SALEM / CHICAGO) - Laleh Bakhtiar, Ph. D. recently completed the Concordance of the Sublime Quran, an English translation of the Arabic Mu’jim al-mufaris or Arabic Concordance, using verses from her English translation of the Sublime Quran, the first critical translation of the Quran by a woman.

Her translation became controversial in regard to the idea of some Muslim men that the Quran gives them a right to beat their wives in the Name of God.

U.S. Human Rights Policy is Self-Serving and Duplicitous: George Katsiaficas

In my view, the synchronicity of revolts and occupation of public space that began in 1968 is continually widening its circles. - George Katsiaficas

(TEHRAN / GWANGJU) - George Katsiaficas is a renowned university professor, sociologist, author and activist. He is a visiting American Professor of Humanities and Sociology at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea where he teaches and does research on the 1980s and 1990s East Asian uprisings.

He specializes in social movements, Asian politics, the U.S. foreign policy, comparative and historical studies and has written numerous books in these fields.

Friedman in Search of a Horse

As for Friedman’s own conception of the occupation of Iraq as a “rare exercise in the revolutionary deployment of U.S. power“, this just confirms the extent to which our hero is unequipped to evaluate legitimate regional revolutions.

(ISTANBUL) - Thomas Friedman’s latest analysis of the uprisings in the Arab/Muslim world has received the response it deserves from Sarah Carr.

In Friedman’s defense, however, it is presumably difficult for a foreign affairs columnist to devote his full attention to the goings-on in his alleged region of expertise when he is simultaneously penning his latest scheme for the glorious resurgence of the United States of America.

From Chicago to the World: Update About Mordechai Vanunu and a `Brief` History

"When tomorrow calls today into account, some of us want to say we stood up. We called out. We were not silent."~ Leonard Pitts, Jr.

(CHICAGO) - As of this this weekend, it has been five years since this reporter started covering the situation of Mordechai Vanunu who was imprisoned by Israel for blowing the whistle on Israel's nuclear weapon's program, Live on American Arab and Middle East Talk Radio.

On March 26, 2006, during one of my 7 trips to Jerusalem beginning in 2005, Vanunu told me: "Many journalists come here to the American Colony, from CNN and NY Times. They all want to cover my story, but their EDITORS say no..."

Persian Gulf`s name is an Eternal Reality: Prof. Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh

(TEHRAN) - Prof. Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, a prominent Iranologist, geopolitics researcher, historian and political scientist, teaches geopolitics at the Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran.

He has been the advisor of the United Nations University, and has published more than 20 books in Persian, English and Arabic on the geopolitics of Persian Gulf region and modern discourses in international relations.

Magnetic Fields

Natural Selection: Dead crabs and fish wash up on shores; dead birds drop from the skies, dead cows and water buffalo drop in the fields, bats felled by a fungus, if not a pellet gun.

(BURLINGTON, Vermont) - One hundred and fifty one years ago, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace knew that birds dropping from the skies, dead fish and crabs washing up from the sea, and cows flopping in the fields, are nature’s spectacular staging of what Darwin termed natural selection.

“As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life...

Jesus Seminar Scholars to Discuss the Origins of Christianity

Jesus Seminar Spring Meeting in Salem begins on the 30th of March and runs through the 2nd of April.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Scholars of the Jesus Seminar will meet in Salem, Oregon to discuss the origins of Christianity.

This meeting includes a conversation with renowned feminist biblical scholar, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, a workshop by L. Michael White, recently featured on the PBS Frontline documentary, From Jesus to Christ; and an evening with film-maker Paul Verhoeven, discussing his new book, Jesus of Nazareth.