The Transportation Security Authority of the US is getting more absurd in the security theater they play at. Only the big items hit the news, not the humiliation that the average flyer has to go through.
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Books about the Current State of the Indian Economy
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We need a Paradigm Shift regarding Dr Manmohan Singh
The Copernican Revolution.
In the Western tradition, the idea that the sun revolves around the earth — geocentrism — is known as the Ptolemaic model. It was a notion that led people to explain astronomical observations such as the movements of planets with convoluted arguments and constructs. In 1543 Copernicus provided an alternative hypothesis — heliocentrism — which placed the sun at the center of the solar system, and was later confirmed in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. From geocentrism to heliocentrism was a “paradigm shift” (a term much abused in the modern day.) That shift in perspective allowed people to think correctly about the Solar system.
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Stupidity at the core of Human Misery
Today I came across a document which said in part, “Code of ethics to be signed by Every Minister that will prevent them from benefitting during their term in the Government.” I could not but be touched by the naivete of the author. Forget about the poor structure of that statement, but imagine what magical powers that mentality which gave expression to that idea ascribes to oaths!
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See the Wonder and Wonder
“We are star dust, we’re golden . . . ” are the words of a very old song. Watching this video reminded me of it.
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The Fountainhead of Corruption
Dr Subramanian Swamy is pulling no punches in his fight against corruption in India. He appears to be the only high-profile politician who has taken up cudgels against Antonia Maino, aka Sonia Gandhi, the woman who appointed Dr Manmohan Singh the prime minister of the Congress-led UPA government. I wish that there were others in the media and in politics who had the chutzpah to take on the unholy bunch that is wrecking India. Dr Swamy says that Sonia Gandhi is the “Gangotri” of corruption in the country.
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Moorthy Muthuswamy on “Religious Apartheid in Modern India”
Dr. Moorthy Muthuswamy is an unlikely author of a book titled “Defeating Political Islam” since he is a nuclear and radiation physicist. But there you have it. That book has received glowing reviews from some of the most serious scholars and activists engaged in studying the impact of political Islam and Islamic terrorism on the world, including Robert Spencer.[1] We have to take what Dr. Muthuswamy writes very seriously. We may have a vague sense that all is not well in India when it comes to state-sanctioned religious discrimination against Hindus. But to truly understand the scope and intensity of that, I had to read his article on “Religious Apartheid in Modern India: Transforming of a Civilization.”
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Wikileaks is Good for You and Me
Wikileaks is good for you and me. Evidently it is not good for the targeted governments. That fact lends additional weight to my claim that Wikileaks is good for you and me. Here I will try to explain why I believe that Wikileaks is good for you and me. I keep repeating “good for you and me” to underline the fact that what is good for you and me need not necessarily be good for our government, and vice versa.
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Mr Ram Jethmalani asks Questions that Mr M J Akbar Has Not
What do you call a flying Sindhi moving at high speed through air generating a high pressure region in front? Ramjet-malani. Pardon me for the silly joke[1]. I just couldn’t resist. Seriously though, it’s high time that someone points out how emasculated most of the high-profile Indian journalists are. Ram Jethmalani, one of India’s most celebrated lawyers, says it like it should be said.
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India’s Telecom Scam: How Can a Corrupt System Be Cleaned?
My colleague Rajesh Jain has an opinion piece in the University of Pennsylvania publication Knowledge@Wharton on the Indian telecom scam. The editorial introduction to the piece says, “Since telecom is an industry that links backward and forward to several others, the total economic cost could well be hundreds of billions of dollars. This scandal shows that corruption has deep roots in Indian society, but informed voters and the democratic process can help eradicate it, argues Rajesh Jain, managing director of Mumbai-based Netcore Solutions, in this opinion piece. Jain, a member of the India Knowledge@Wharton Advisory Board, blogs every day at http://emergic.org.” Here are a few extended excerpts from it, for the record.
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Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 