Observing what’s going on in India these days, I am filled with loathing and fear. What kind of monsters occupy India’s highest public offices! I stand with H. L. Mencken when he wrote, “It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.” It appears that the primary requirements for holding political power in India are a lack of common sense, common honesty and common decency.
Author: Atanu Dey
Economist.
Goodbye, Christopher Hitchens.
Goodbye Christopher. I am glad that you lived and I have had the pleasure of meeting you a couple of times — once at the Berkeley Repertoire Theater in the 1997 and once at a book release in 1999. I am certainly going to miss your incisive writing. The world is going to be a poorer place for your departure.
Dr Swamy’s Courses at Harvard University
I support Dr Subramanian Swamy’s right to express his views and I support Harvard University’s right to remove Dr Swamy’s economics courses from Harvard’s summer teaching roster. Academic freedom — which includes the freedom to choose whom you allow to teach in your institution — is as important as freedom of expression. We, the third party, have the freedom to decide whether or not we wish to support Harvard. Given a choice, I will not support Harvard University. Note the distinction between “supporting Harvard” and “supporting the rights of Harvard.”
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Up Yours, Mr Kapil Sibal
I am forced to put this one on my blog because Kapil Sibal would like to censor this kind of stuff. He wants to control what we see, hear, and read on the internet. Mr Sibal, up yours. 
Is Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi Really to Blame?
Who is Antonia Maino a.k.a. Sonia Gandhi? An average Italian woman who married some guy who ended up becoming the prime minister of India. She acquired the last name “Gandhi” that she currently uses through marriage. Many women traditionally take on the last name of their husbands. That is unexceptionable. What’s remarkable is how she — aided by her minions such as Manmohan Singh, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram — is wrecking the country. One can argue that she is responsible for India’s current decline (as if India was not already awfully impoverished) but I believe she is only the proximate cause. The ultimate cause lies elsewhere.
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Kanchan Gupta on the Govt’s Attempt at Censorship
Kapil Sibal’s uncivilized behavior has to have the backing and protection of the Queen Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi. As @vinod_sharma pointed out, “Sibal can’t be head of Gestapo unless there is a Hitler who wants him to do whatever it takes promote & protect him. Why silence about that?” Kanchan Gupta writing in Mid-Day, “A brazen attempt at political censorship” notes that censorship is nothing new: the Congress party and the Nehru-Gandhi family have a history of trying to dictate to the press and muzzle free expression.
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Dr.Swamy’s letter to CBI director
Dr Swamy is a national asset. I sometimes wonder why the Congress goons don’t bump him off. May his tribe increase. To increase awareness among Indians of the corruption charges against the Nehru-Gandhi-Maino clan, please circulate this widely.
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Diapered Goats
I tell you, the things that you find on them interwebs. Well, not diapered goats but a report about them. I am taking a huge risk here but let me put that off till the end. Here’s what I am talking about: violence in the Islamic state of Iraq and some Iraqis’ killing desire to turn it into a fully sharia-compliant state.
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The Asinine Fatuity of Kapil Sibal
Kapil Sibal is an idiot. You may say that the title of this post is brimming with redundancy since asinine means ‘extremely foolish’ and fatuity means ‘foolishness’. But I like the phrase ‘asinine fatuity’ because it describes Kapil Sibal’s idiocy accurately and comprehensively. Hence the title. Now here’s the why.
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Getting Back to the SF Bay area
Today afternoon, I am leaving Chicago for the SF Bay area. My travels, which began on 11th October, are almost over. Saturday I will drive to Los Angeles and return on Monday Dec 5th. That is when I will finally be home. It’s been a very very long journey and I am aching to be back in Santa Clara. Happy travels to me!
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 