Quick notes: Kurds betrayed, Anglocondescension...

• Why did America abandon the Kurds? "We had so much trust in America. We never thought America would accept Iranian proxies using American weapons against their allies."  Less than 72 hours after Trump heralded a get-tough-on-Iran policy, the US just did the opposite in Kirkuk and alienated the Kurds, its longest and most stalwart counter-terrorism ally in Iraq.



• Anglocondescension: "We are sorry to have disappointed you. But maybe we Spaniards have grown up and no longer need to be lectured". Europe Is Tiring of 'Anglocondescension'



• Chabahar already impacting Pakis: Already half the wheat flour mills and related businesses have closed down in Peshawar.



• India is among world's hottest: India is quickly becoming one of the hottest countries in the world, which is triggering significant weather impacts and affecting its economy. 



• Rajeev on alt-meat: Generating Meat In Labs: The Technology, Opportunities And The Consequences



• How to Install Solar Panels:




• Bleeding because of Amazon: Sellers are protesting against Amazon India’s returns policy by pulling back ads



• “Second war of economic independence”: A century after freedom fighters launched a movement against British goods — the backlash against Chinese products is ramping up.



• Bye-bye globalization: Republican tax bill unveiled in the U.S. Congress could disrupt the global supply chains of large MNCs by slapping a 20% tax on cross-border transactions they routinely make between related business units. The proposal could run afoul of WTO and other international tax treaties



• Marxist dogma: Calls for Lenin's body to finally be buried ahead of 100th anniversary of Bolshevik revolution



• The state of apostates in Muslim countries: Imagine if other countries criminalized Islam

Imagine if over a dozen Western countries criminalized Islam, if the “crime” could be met with death, often at the hands of the public. 1/

— Sarah Haider (@SarahTheHaider) November 7, 2017

Quick notes: Rise of ISIS, Pankajism...

• Obama did nothing: How Iraqi 'Fat Cats' and a liberal US president watched ISIS gain strength. PBS Frontline's 'The Rise of ISIS' airs on Tuesday night.



• The Problem With M/s Mishra and; Roy: Pankaj admires Jamaluddin Afghani and his fantasies of Muslim power and its conquering warriors so much, he promoted him as one of the great thinkers of Asia in his last book. This is a recurring pattern. Strong men and their cults  become heroic and admirable when an “anti-Western” gloss can be put on them, especially if they are not Hindus.



• Ramnad Address: This is the motherland of philosophy, of spirituality, and of ethics, of sweetness, gentleness, and love. These still exist, and my experience of the world leads me to stand on firm ground and make the bold statement that India is still the first and foremost of all the nations of the world in these respects.
  
  I have heard it said that our masses are dense, that they do not want any education, and that they do not care for any information. I had at one time a foolish leaning towards that opinion myself, but I find experience is a far more glorious teacher than any amount of speculation, or any amount of books written by globe-trotters and hasty observers. This experience teaches me that they are not dense, that they are not slow, that they are as eager and thirsty for information as any race under the sun; but then each nation has its own part to play, and naturally, each nation has its own peculiarity and individuality with which it is born. Each represents, as it were, one peculiar note in this harmony of nations, and this is its very life, its vitality. In it is the backbone, the foundation, and the bed-rock of the national life, and here in this blessed land, the foundation, the backbone, the life-center is religion and religion alone. Let others talk of politics, of the glory of acquisition of immense wealth poured in by trade, of the power and spread of commercialism, of the glorious fountain of physical liberty; but these the Hindu mind does not understand and does not want to understand. Touch him on spirituality, on religion, on God, on the soul, on the Infinite, on spiritual freedom, and I assure you, the lowest peasant in India is better informed on these subjects than many a so-called philosopher in other lands.
  
  I have said, gentlemen, that we have yet something to teach to the world. This is the very reason, the raison d'être, that this nation has lived on, in spite of hundreds of years of persecution, in spite of nearly a thousand year of foreign rule and foreign oppression. This nation still lives; the raison d'être is it still holds to God, to the treasure-house of religion and spirituality.

Quick notes: Arab "friends", Yazidi braveheart...

• Arabs won't help them, so Palestinians shelter among fleeing Kurds in Erbil camp



• We refused to convert to Islam: “It is our own neighbors who did this to us. Why? We never attacked them, never insulted them, never done nothing wrong to them. They betrayed us.”



• A Yazidi Woman's Ordeal: For two long days, they received no water. It was extremely hot and their captors had given them a single glass of tea. They passed around the glass -- two tiny sips for each woman. If you convert to Islam, the men said, you'll be given as much fresh water as you want. "We remained steadfast," says Nadia.



• Iraqi Yazidi girl tells of captivity: The Saudi militant took her to a house where he lived with other fighters. "He told me, 'You'll become Muslim, then I will marry you'. But I refused to become a Muslim and that's why I fled."



• Raghupati Raaghav at White House: Dr Paul Erhard on Double Bass and Robbie Erhard on Cello

Quick notes: Putin on Syria, K-Pop...

• Was Putin right about Syria? "Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria?", Putin wrote last September in NYT.



• Kicking serious butt: The Kurdish women are intimidating and fierce. They have already proven successful in helping to retake a crucial strategic site, the Mosul dam, in “the biggest blow to the radical Sunni group yet."



• The Rice Bucket Challenge: Charity that is relevant to India.. Did you know that 93% of ALS patients are Caucasian?



• You can now be arrested for sharing “objectionable” content in Karnataka



• South Korea, exporting padres and pop-culture:

Quick notes: Battle for Kobane, Rapists' new trick...

• Syria: With heavy weapons seized from Iraq, ISIS returns to Syria to try and crush the Kurds there. A possible Rwanda redux but Obama won't help.



• Shamelessly aping the Arabs: Bhatkal kin ‘martyred’ in Afghanistan.



• Escape route for rapists: After a year in jail, rape accused pleads he is minor



• Fertility: How staying up late could hurt your fertility



• Rethink transport: Finland's largest city to eliminate most private cars by 2025



• 5G Calling: China universities started the study of upper GHz bands almost 10 years ago.... (When will we hear such things about Indian Universities?)



• Ustad Bismillah Khan - Purbi Dhun:

A Babri a day

At least four shrines to Sunni Arab or Sufi figures have been destroyed by the bulldozers. The structures had been built around graves of Muslim saints. Six Shiite mosques have also been destroyed using explosives (and many more in recent days).

RT: ISIS jihadists demolish mosques, shrines in northern Iraq

India should step forward, bring reconciliation between warring Sunnis and Shias and rejoin the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, opines Kuldip Nayar, a Nobel Laureate for pSecularism.

Rajiv Srinivasan on 9/11 and the War on Terror

Rajiv Srinivasan writes about his memory of 9/11, and his participation in the war on terror.

It may not be our own Rajeev, but I'm still impressed that the fellow fought for his country, the USA. A better example than the whining immigrants whom the Left like to use as convenient cudgels to batter values of patriotism and civic duty.

Iraqi Throws Shoes at Bush

An angry Iraqi throws both shoes at US President George Bush during a press conference in Baghdad. Both missed, as Bush ducked.