During his presidential campaign, President Obama voiced numerous times the necessity to recognize what historians assert as the first holocaust of the 20th century, the Armenian Genocide. Unfortunately, after his ascension to the presidency, his words were rendered to an unfulfilled pledge, and this was not the first time this promise to the Armenian community had been broken.

In the midst of the First World War, during the early 1920s, the Armenian population, dwelling on Turkish soil, suffered gravely under the fist of the “Young Turks” government of the Ottoman Empire. Large groups…

With the opening of the new Acropolis Museum, Greece has stepped up its efforts in the campaign to return the Parthenon Marbles – and rightly so. Following a visit four years ago to the British Museum, and viewing these artifacts and reading notes of “the head is on display in Athens,” or “the hands are on display in Austria,” really lit my fuse. To me, separating them in that manner was like dismembering a body. Sacrilege! The time is long overdue to bring these treasures back to their rightful home.

For years, the British contended that…

Anyone care to take a punt on who the racist pictured is? Some ape-knuckled nobody with a string of convictions for football violence, and a promising career in handling stolen goods? Nope. That is one of our brand, spanking new Members of the European Parliament, Nick Griffin. He is no longer in the charming boys brigade that we all know and love, the National Front, made famous for such well- reasoned and politically astute gestures as firebombing Asian shops, starting riots in towns, putting petrol through the letterboxes of Asian families, and having swastikas tattooed on their enormous,…

In an unusual turn of events for Australia, and more than likely as a measure of relief felt around the country, the inauguration of Barack Obama was telecast on several television stations, which indicated that the expectations in Oz are easily as high as those of his fans in the States.

After an initial acceptance of George W. Bush in his first term, (an acceptance that goes with the job by default), the general perception was very negative towards him, even before the end of his first…

On December 27, 2008, shortly before noon, Israel launched a military campaign against Gaza called, ‘Operation Cast Lead. It began with air and missile strikes against various Hamas targets. Israel’s Air Force is the fourth largest in the world. The stated objective of this campaign was to stop Hamas from carrying out further rocket attacks upon Israel by targeting Hamas militants and key members in Gaza. On the evening of January 3, Israel launched its ground invasion as the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) poured into northern Gaza City with tanks and gunships.

Sometimes, I think we…

by Riverbend
(Contributed by Con Carylon)

Con Carylon writes:

Each day from the anniversary of Riverbend’s last post on October 22nd until the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, I will printing an extract from Riverbend’s blog, Baghdad Burning.

Monday, March 29, 2004

At precisely 5 p.m., yesterday afternoon, my mother suddenly announced that we were going to go visit a friend of hers who had recently had a minor operation. The friend lived two streets away…

I’m conflicted. One part of me says, “Sarah Palin’s personal life doesn’t matter. At all.”

Yet, another part of me says, “but one of the best ways to judge a person is how they interact with their family, so it does matter.”

And then a third part of me says, “Still, all that matters as for whether or not a person should be hired for a particular job is whether or not they can function in that position.”

And then the mom part in me says, “But, seriously — What the @*^%?!”…

Katie “Who Needs Talent When You Have Stunningly White Teeth” Couric recently was interviewing John McCain concerning his plan for Iraq, and during this interview, McCain said something that wouldn’t mean much to the average American, but to anyone with a knowledge of the timeline of the conflict in Iraq, was totally inaccurate.

In essence, McCain said that the Surge of American troops in Iraq allowed the Anbar Awakening to occur. Unfortunately for John, the Anbar Awakening had started months before the Surge had begun, and in fact, before it…

You know, we’re well past the age of hairy chests and gold chains, yet I still see men who cannot seem to grasp what the true nature of manliness actually is.  They do the most insipid things to appear virile and masculine, thereby succeeding only in revealing to everyone the basest aspects of being male. As a result, there are quite a lot of women in the world who think that good men simply don’t exist. If he’s not a cheater, then he’s an abuser.  If not that, then he must be either a drunkard or a pill-popper.…