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Blog Posts

Waq al-Waq

Economics 101

Missing
over 4 years ago

Neither Gregory nor I are economists. My idea of economic analysis is "do I have enough money for cigarettes? (answer: usually no) But this morning I am going to channel my inner-Krugman and talk about a story that caught my eye. It is one that doesn't always do so- a story in the Yemen Times ...

Waq al-Waq

Monday Papers

Missing
over 4 years ago

Yemen, or at least the newspapers in Yemen, are fairly quiet this morning. Trey pointed out that the Ministry of the Interior has put together a list of terrorist that combines both al-Qaeda suspects and al-Huthi supporters. The article is here. One note, for some reason the article mistakenly ...

Waq al-Waq

The Names Revealed

Missing
over 4 years ago

I like to spend Sunday afternoons on the couch with a football game (US or European) or a novel maybe something by Rushdie or McEwan, but sometimes the outside world intrudes and I get hooked on something and lose my entire afternoon. Today was such a day. Al-Ghad, one of the better independent ...

Daylight Atheism

The Liberty to Blaspheme

Dabanner
over 4 years ago

Considering how often I've written about this topic in the past, I had some reluctance to return to it, fearing I wouldn't have anything new or unique to say this time around. But the right of free speech is once again under assault, and whenever that happens, I believe friends of liberty around ...

Eruptions

Galeras erupts

Missing
over 4 years ago

UPDATE 2/15/2009 20:30 PM: Marta Calvache of INGEOMINAS says that seismicity has all but stopped at Galeras after the eruption Saturday night, however the area will be kept on alert for more potential activity. However, even with the eruption, apparently there are very few people in the ...

Waq al-Waq

Yemen's Future?

Missing
over 4 years ago

This report in the New York Times details the latest drone attack in Pakistan, which killed at least 25 people Saturday. Yemen has long been compared unflatteringly to both Afghanistan and Waziristan not only in the English press but also in Arabic newspapers and even local Yemeni reports. Back in ...

Waq al-Waq

Saturday Papers

Missing
over 4 years ago

There isn't much in the pan-Arab papers today with the exception of a small UPI piece in al-Quds al-Arabi denying that the 176 released prisoners have any link to al-Qaeda. Trey has an excerpt from al-Thawra with the official Yemeni take on the confusion. The other news today seems to mostly be ...

Daylight Atheism

Love Is No Sin

Dabanner
over 4 years ago

In Second Corinthians, the Bible contains a widely cited teaching against interfaith relationships: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with ...

Waq al-Waq

Yemenis in US Prisons

Missing
over 4 years ago

Mareb Press publishes what claims to be the most accurate list of Yemenis in US prisons both Guantanamo and Bagram. The list is available here. I have written previously about the problems with the list released by the DOD, namely that it is only in English. Initial attempts by Arabic newspapers ...

Eruptions

Redoubt Mini-update for 2/13/2009

Missing
over 4 years ago

We've now had three weeks of waiting for Redoubt, and all we have to show for it is steam, seismicity and lots and lots of press. As of today, Redoubt continues with the same: elevated seismicity, constant monitoring, think it will erupt. Current status from AVO: Redoubt Volcano has not erupted ...

Waq al-Waq

Morning Papers

Missing
over 4 years ago

Khalid al-Hammadi, one of the best reporters out there, writes in al-Quds al-Arabi on electoral politics and the opposition warning the government (GPC) against playing with fire. (For another take, my own brief thoughts on the upcoming election were re-printed yesterday in the Daily Star.) Not ...

Waq al-Waq

al-Huthi Conflict still Simmers

Missing
over 4 years ago

The news today from al-Jawf that five al-Huthi commanders were killed in an ambush by what some are charging as a militia linked to the government is yet another in a long line of signs that the nearly five year conflict is far from over. The five men killed are listed as: 1. Zayd Ali Hasan al ...

Waq al-Waq

Next Generation of Foreign Correspondents

Missing
over 4 years ago

I went to a very nice party last night at the Reuters building in New York for aspiring young foreign correspondents. Besides the nice view from Times Square, I was also impressed with the quality of the individuals being recognized. While newspapers may be cutting back, which is unfortunate ...

Daylight Atheism

Bands of Iron

Dabanner
over 4 years ago

On a wintry day late last year, I visited the Museum of Natural History in New York City. While touring the geology wing, I came across this boulder-sized chunk of a rock formation: A banded iron formation from the geology exhibit of the Museum of Natural History. Photo credit to Erich ...

Waq al-Waq

Mahri Poetry? I think, yes.

Missing
over 4 years ago

It is a bit too late, after that last post, for another one on al-Qaeda so instead we have one on Bedouin poetry. This article features friend of this blog and the world's foremost expert on Mahri poetry, Samuel Liebhaber. Quite a guy. For anyone who has ever heard the old Orientalist joke about a ...