Diggapedia

Lots of opinions on the deal struck in Geneva with Iran, and predictably those on the right oppose the deal and those in the center and left support it.   So what’s one more opinion. The crippling sanctions have nearly shattered the Iranian economy, the pain on Iranian Main St. is real, but has it really stopped the nuclear program?   The numbers say no.   In 2003 Iran had 164 operational; today it has 19,000 centrifuges.   Did the sanctions bring Iran to the negotiating table?   Probably.   President Rouhani’s pledge to improve the economy in the wake of the Ahmadinejad failure could only happen with a relaxation of the sanctions.   But no one should once think this means Iranian citizens have given up on their nuclear aspirations.   The question is in what form these aspirations develop. I had to laugh at Conservative Pundit Bill Kristol today on This Week when he said our allies oppose this deal.   Keep in mind, this is the same ma...

Form McCain to Limbaugh, the right loves to criticize the U.S. Near and Middle East policies.   You make sense out of: Hamas runs Gaza but lost its patron Iran when the Palestinian organization came out against Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.   It then lost its brief patron in Egypt when the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood was overthrown in a coup. Israel was paying Hamas military leader Ahmed al-Jabari to keep the peace and when he couldn’t control Islamic Jihad and Al-Qassam, he was summarily executed via missile attack by an Israeli helicopter.   Iran is now providing money and weapons to Hamas’ rival Islamic Jihad which threatens Hamas’ control   in Gaza.   The new military leaders in Egypt have flooded and sealed tunnels from the Sinai into Gaza strangling the Palestinian economy in the enclave. Kurds in Syria are fighting with AND against various anti-Assad Islamist factions in Syria. Iraq’s Shia led government wanted the U.S. ou...

Most casual Supreme Court watchers tune in every June to hear how the highest court in the land rules on the landmark cases.   The arguments for these cases take place in the fall and it is one such case that has piqued my interest on both content and personal grounds: Town of Greece (NY) v Galloway.   According to SCOTUSBlog, the issue is Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that a legislative prayer practice violates the Establishment Clause notwithstanding the absence of discrimination in the selection of prayer-givers or forbidden exploitation of the prayer opportunity, but what makes this one personal is I lived in Greece for many years and still spend significant time there.   Firstly, Greece, NY is a typical northeastern suburban town.   Mostly white, moderate to conservative, predominantly Christian, 24 of the 26 houses of worship fall within the realm of Christianity, with the typical landscape of fast food, pizza places, chain restaurants, str...