The Wall Street Journal and the Facts

The Wall Street Journal is one of the best papers published in the U.S.

The fact-checking in most articles is quite impeccable, and the reporters respond positively to the occasional request for correcting errors.

However, when it comes to opinion (and some editorial) pieces, the Journal takes greater liberties and commonly falls quite short on facts, and sometimes, long on fable.

In some cases (for example today's editorial and similar opinion pieces on Iran), the essayist repeats a number of false claims (also made in earlier editorials and opinion pieces), perhaps cognizant that such repetition through time and across pieces will help give such questionable claims greater validity in some minds.

Alas!

This sort of editorializing, whether formally or as an opinion piece, only misguides the reader into beliefs that have no basis in real facts.

Instead of an attempt to help comprehend that which is at stake, the practice clouds and stupefies the mind.

Ashura

Tomorrow is the day of Ashura . . .

Muharram

Here are three English blogs on Muharram: 1, 2 and 3.

The Man Who Moved A Nation

Ayatollah Sistani, the man who moved a nation . . .

Price of Power

I read Seymour M. Hersh's book, Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, in the mid 1980s while I was an engineering graduate student. Unfortunately, this superb example of American investigative journalism seems to have gone out of print.

The most recent example of Hersh's investigative work that I can find is in the January 17th edition of The New Yorker magazine: "The Coming Wars".

It is an ominous piece raising some eyebrows, as reported in The Financial Times.

Committee on the Present Danger

When the powerful think really hard, they are fully capable of producing a load of very hazardous garbage.

The purpose of the garbage (its "recommendation") is to force the center of debate, dialog and deliberation from where it inherently and indigenously belongs, to a place where they can be in full control to set the agenda. (The rise of authentic, indigenous democracy appears to be the real present danger.)

Daydreams are not just solace to the poor and the downtrodden. They afflict the rich and the powerful, too.

So Much Ado About Nothing

Reading this, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Simple Signs

I needed to post a comment but I had to set up for a blog account. How good can it get?
M.