Interesting News from Around the Web

An interview with U. Mass and campus free speech advocate, Prof. Daphne Patai. "It’s shocking, of course, that at universities – places ostensibly committed to the free exchange of ideas – the loudest voices are precisely of those who would shut down others’ speech."

Is it just me who thinks that turning heavily to ethanol is both useless and, for much of the world, a disaster in terms of rising food prices. The Economist memorializes the ethanol boondogle: "In early September the world price of wheat rose to over $400 a tonne, the highest ever recorded. . . ." More on this at Q&O.

Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. NIE author Thomas Fingar tells us that as a result of his report, "the world has become a much safer place virtually overnight, no matter what the Iranian president says about wiping Israel from the map, bringing down the Great Satan America and ushering in the apocalyptic age of the 12th Imam."

Moqtada al-Sadr is, in the byzantine world of Iraq politics and Iranian influence, a chameleon. Right Truth documents Sadr’s efforts to clean the Iranian special groups from his "Mahdi Army" with the apparent eye on becoming a populist politician with a role in the current government.

Is it getting time to dust off the Monroe Doctrine?

The problem of open borders for EU citizens is becoming very much in issue in Italy, Britain and elsewhere even as the member countries prepare, in but a week, to relinquish their sovereignty and become states within an EU federal superstructure.

The cause of the impasse in Congress is . . . Jackassery! What a perfectly descriptive term for the Democrats and their ham handed legislative efforts.

Islamic terrorism by the comparative numbers . . . and the comparisons are a bit surprising at the Gathering Storm.

There’s a reason for this double standard: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates informed attendees at an international security conference Saturday that Israel’s alleged nuclear capabilities are not a threat to the Middle East, but emphasized that nuclear energy in Iranian hands would be a threat to the world.

Republicans, led by Senator Jon Ensign, are pushing for a bipartisan panel to review the NIE just released on Iran’s nuclear weapons. As I blogged at great length here, there are gaping holes in that report that need to be addressed. Let us hope for the sake of . . . well the entire free world, really, that Senator Ensign succeeds.

A Jordanian legislator has called for violence against a Catholic charitable organization, the Order of Malta, for their role in the Crusades. If one person is killed over this idiocy, this is one man who should be hauled before an International criminal tribunal.

Daniel Pipes considers whether the AKP poses a serious threat to Turkey’s secular tradition and whether Turkey should be considered for entry into the EU. Yes and no.