Copyright 2010 Clifford May Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:40:02 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Clifford May :: Writings http://www.cliffordmay.org cliff@defenddemocracy.org (Clifford May) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.cliffordmay.org/7765/dear-mayor-bloomberg Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST Your Honor: In regard to the proposal to build an Islamic center at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack in Manhattan, I commend you for saying: "Everything the United States stands for and New York stands for is tolerance and openness, and I think it's... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7737/imagine-a-nuclear-iran Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST It's been said that a diplomat is a gentleman paid to go abroad and lie for his country. Sometimes, however, diplomats slip up and tell the truth. In response to a question at the hopefully named Aspen Ideas Festival this month, Yousef al-Otaiba, the... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7719/from-berlin-to-jerusalem Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST Last month, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem, called on Palestinians to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which he said was "threatened by the plans of the enemies of God," by which he meant Israelis. It should go without saying that this is a... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7692/our-friends-the-saudis Thu, 8 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST Last week, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was welcomed to the White House by President Obama. According to the Washington Post, their meeting provided an opportunity "to demonstrate the friendship between their countries, a point the king was particularly... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7671/a-bipartisan-moment Thu, 1 Jul 2010 09:00:00 EST In the film Charlie Wilson's War, the rich and sexy political activist Joanne Herring asks the eponymous representative from Texas: "Why is Congress saying one thing and doing nothing?" Wilson deadpans: "Well, tradition mostly." So when Congress breaks... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7642/ayatollah-victims Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST Iran's rulers have long embraced Stalin's impeccable logic: "The people who cast the votes don't decide an election; the people who count the votes do." So a year ago this month, they held an election and blatantly falsified the results. Iranians... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7622/iran-against-containment Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST President Obama's policy of "engagement" with Iran can be viewed as an experiment. There was at least a chance that it was only President Bush — that swaggering, unilateralist cowboy — with whom Iran's theocrats did not want to engage. But a year and... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7592/hamas-wants-a-final-solution Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST Israel is at war, and if Israel were to be defeated, much of the world would not shed wet tears. What would happen after such a defeat? No one can seriously doubt that Hamas has genocidal intentions. Abdallah Jarbu, Hamas's deputy minister of religion,... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7553/obama-national-security-strategy Thu, 3 Jun 2010 09:00:00 EST Is it possible to defeat an enemy we don't understand? That is only one of the questions that ought to occur to anyone reading President Obama's new National Security Strategy (NSS). Administration officials and loyalists have been trying to put the best... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7511/kurds-the-second-israel Thu, 27 May 2010 09:00:00 EST HALABJA, Iraq — Twenty-two years ago, in this dusty town hard up against the mountainous border with Iran, Saddam Hussein's military used chemical weapons to murder 5,000 Kurdish men, women, and children. The Halabja massacre was only the most infamous... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7435/kurdistan-notebook Thu, 20 May 2010 09:00:00 EST ERBIL, Iraq — More than two months after elections, Iraq's parliamentarians have yet to cobble together a new government. Is this just the messiness that has to be expected in a fledgling democracy? Or, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, have the Iraqis... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7287/the-long-and-foggy-war Thu, 13 May 2010 09:00:00 EST We Americans are uncomfortable with such ideas as holy war and religiously motivated mass murder. Raised to believe in equality, tolerance, and diversity, we cannot imagine slaughtering fellow human beings so that adherents of the "true faith" might... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7256/iran-crippling-sanctions Thu, 6 May 2010 09:00:00 EST There is no greater threat to national and international security than the possibility that Iran's current rulers — militant Islamists, terrorist masters, and sworn enemies of both the Great Satan and the Little Satan — may acquire nuclear weapons.... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7235/comedy-central-islam-means-submission Thu, 29 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST What do Comedy Central and Yale University Press have in common? In the Islamist war against free speech, both have been on the front lines. And both have surrendered. Last week, Comedy Central censored any depiction or even mention of the Prophet... http://www.cliffordmay.org/7211/new-york-times-potshots-at-israel Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:00:00 EST It really is open season on Israel, isn't it? While Iran's jihadi rulers continue their drive for nuclear weapons, while Syria transfers thousands of missiles to Hezbollah, while leaders of the Palestinian Authority glorify Islamist terrorists, the New...