In light of the grand sociopolitical developments over the last eight years, this speech by the former prime minister has found some new legs…

Described as the first direct communication from an Iranian leader to an American president since 1979, Ahmadinajad’s recent letter to President Bush touched on a broad array of socio-political matters that strike at the very heart of the current standoff between Tehran and Washington. Below is an exerpt of that letter — originally translated from Farsi…

Mr George Bush, President of the United States of America

For sometime now I have been thinking, how one can justify the undeniable contradictions that exist in the international arena — which are being constantly debated, specially in political forums and amongst university students. Many questions remain unanswered. These have prompted me to discuss some of the contradictions and questions, in the hopes that…

A trans-Pacific dialogue on the current state of Palestine, in reverse chronological order…

On 4/19/06 11:20 AM, editor@rationalpost.com wrote:

In my mind, it’s a poverty problem (and a blame problem). As much as it pains me to say it, neither Arabs and Jews, nor Russians and Chechens, nor Greeks and Macedonians, nor Iraqis and Kurds, nor Hutus and Tutsis (etc.) will ever resolve their conflicting land and resource claims without war (or extremely enlightened diplomacy). That much I’m sure about. The only relevant questions are who (soldiers, senators or civilians?), how (guns, bombs or arbitration?), where (fields, streets or courthouses?), and how long (minutes, months or millennia?). It’s an unfortunate but natural consequence of both economics (scarcity) and anthropology (diverse…

When was the last time you looked at the label on just about anything? Chances are, if the item cost you less than $30, you just participated in the global phenomenon we’ve come to know and love as the Low-Cost Chinese Import. Entire retail franchises have already been built built around this new breed of price-conscious shopper, and while consumers are absolutely beaming at the prospect of $1 placemats and flashlights and coffee pots, little time is spent reflecting on where those items are actually made, and how little the workers are getting paid to actually make them.

The funny thing is, given two items of identical value, informed consumers will typically buy the…