I just found this entire news story really amusing somehow. Maybe it's because it involves the technologically super-sophisticated Japanese being caught by a scandal over fake e-mails!  It's all too ironic, isn't it? Apparently the scandal has

The large Borders chain of bookstores has announced that it will not stock or sell the April/May issue of a magazine called (all too appropriately for this day and age) Free Inquiry. Why?  Because the new issue of Free Inquiry contains some of

Oh, this latest news from higher education is just too much!  Add this to the Taliban at Yale, Gaddhafi speaking at a Columbia conference, and Harvard's Kennedy School producing a piece of anti-Israel, conspiracy-mongering garbage. I couldn't h

FINALLY SPRING!!!! There haven't been any new posts for a few days because school has been HORRIBLY BUSY.  And I do mean HORRIBLY.  I am surrounded by deadlines, classes, students, professors -- and all of them want something from me!&n

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is Down Under, and awesome Aussie Tim Blair (no relation) has a link to the PM's excellent speech.  (I have to say, few people can match the Brits when it comes to delivering speeches!) Here are a few bits of i

Recently I posted on the apparent lack of national pride in Taiwan. Then today in the Taipei Times, I found this related news story: "Patriotism has fallen into disuse in Taiwan." The piece talks about, as the writer says, "why there

The Citroens and Renaults are combusting in Paris again, but it's not the same kind of car-burning as last time!  Back in the autumn, the wretched unemployed, unemployable, alienated have-nots rioted.  Now the privileged and pampered h

As a grad student and college instructor, I confess I find this news really amusing. Some students and faculty, regardless of nationality, want to cheat.  Some of the cheating is by plagiarism -- copying someone else's work or research and sayi

No, I'm not making this up!  Tolkien's beloved epic books are now a musical production in Toronto, Canada. Here is another report from Reuters, which includes a lot of photos plus a video! Here is the official website for the musical

Why have I called the president of France such a terrible thing? Because adult, responsible, respectable, dignified state officials do not behave like this: BRUSSELS -- An EU economic summit meetin

More lunacy in the Ivy League.  Add this to the reports of  the Taliban spokesman at Yale and the Zionist conspiracy-mongers at Harvard: Libya's Muammar Gaddafi was at Columbia University, lecturing the U.S. on democracy.  What a topsy

Here's some follow-up on the now-infamous paper entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," written by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.  Mearsheimer is at the University of Chicago and Walt at the Kennedy School&n

Interesting.  President Chen has ordered the removal of Chiang's statues from Taiwan's military bases. Well, Chiang is a polarizing figure, no doubt.  The predictable political yelling and screaming has started, of course. 

I heave  deep, gigantic *SIGH* at the latest insanity.  David Duke, that white supremacist and anti-Semite who is a former leader of the rotten Ku Klux Klan, has just praised a recent Harvard report on Israel (the report is, naturall

An interesting perspective on the Russia-China relationship by the folks at Korea Liberator. The core of the post is this: By cooperating with China, Russia is hoping to retain its influence, or even co

No, I'm not making this up. This news story is absolutely insane: "China slaps tax on chopsticks to help save trees." BEIJING - China will slap a tax on chopsticks and a range of goods rangin

Here it is.   Yale refuses to even have an open debate about the new Taliban Yalie. Whatever happened to the ideal of campus being a place where you could -- oh, I don't know -- debate ideas?  Yale apparently won't even allow an oppor

His name is Harry Wu, and he is a geology professor and human rights activist who was imprisoned for almost 20 years in Chinese prison labor camps (laogai) because he is a Chinese dissident.  He has also written a book about those camps. H

Dear People, I have graded your exams and I have returned the papers to you.  Please go away to think about your results and stop constantly emailing me and coming to see me about your grade.  Please stop arguing with me about your gr

There's a rumor flying around that China Airlines will soon change its name.  The reason is sure to be political, since the Taiwanese carrier has the name "China" in its name and this could be seen as . . . .er, problematic by some peo

Gentle readers know that I often post these sorts of literary lists -- various critics and journalists' judgments and choices of books that they think are important.  It's always interesting to see what people think -- or don't think -- of parti

Thousands of Taiwanese have turned out for a large demonstration in Taipei. The BBC reports that there were some 45,000 participants . Almost exactly a year ago, China passed a law declaring that it could use "non-peaceful" means to deal w

There's been some talk about Wafa Sultan lately. Then I came across this report in the International Herald Tribune about a fellow named Dalil Boubakeur, the president of France's Muslim Cuuncil.  Like Dr. Sultan, he does not see the real

Here's an interesting interpretation of the latest Sorbonne-barricading incident in Paris, written by a British journalist with a rather sharp wit: he portrays the student revolt as a stage show full of Gallic stereotypes.

Well, it seems like human egg donation is a hot topic right now. I'd just written a sarcastic post on egg recruitment on campuses and also did a new satire on it. Now the Times of London has this rather disturbing headline: "Women touting