History
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You may have read the article in the New Republic last month about how 300,000 ancient books and manuscripts in the libraries of Timbuktu were evacuated in secret to protect them from Ansar Dine, an Al Qaeda cell. The manuscripts not only survived the burning of the Timbuktu library, but were smuggled in footlockers all…
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It was Thursday night and I found myself in the seizième arrondissement taking a video of my French friends taking a shot of Unicum for the first time. Their faces were distorted in pain, a look that any Unicum pusher knows so well and delights in. After our Unicum, we found ourselves at a bar at…
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Sunday mornings are silent in Vienna, punctuated only by the dull hum of a tram or the chirping of birds in the hundreds of parks in the city. The wind coming out of the Danube valley rushes down the wide boulevards, amplifying their desolateness. I am in Burgengarten, looking at the backside of the Hofburg…
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I choose the title of this post carefully. The point is not to elucidate a position on Israel: actually, I rather believe here I criticize that very concept. But I seek to address what my main issues are with the Israel Discourse and (perhaps) arrive at a satisfactory end point. It is my position that…
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Picture this. A powerful, tested military power invades a small, militarily weak country with strong diplomatic ties to the Western powers, including the United States, Britain and France. The invasion of this small country prompts an international outrage. What’s next? For World War II purists, the stage has just been set for a massive international…
brian mayer 