German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s ‘The Lives of Others’, set in communist-era East Germany, triumphed over Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Volver’ to win the European Film 2006 at the 19th European Film Awards in Vancouver.

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The last election, when conservative Democrats were elected in preference to corrupt Republicans, those of us living overseas saw how this was interpreted by much of the local and international media as a defeat by Bush. As a result, we are seeing Syria taking over Lebanon via their friends in Hezbollah, the Palestinians making a [...]

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The rise of India and China would be in focus in a three part series starting Dec 3 on “Asian America” on WNYE/WNYC, the only nationally syndicated Asian affairs television show in the United States.

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A British Indian woman working in a London bank is demanding over 100,000 pounds in compensation alleging that she has been a target of racism while at work.

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A full day of political maneuverings and analysis with absolutely no idea of the outcome until the very end: It was heaven. I sat in front of that thing for nearly ten straight hours. No commercials. No blogging this afternoon either, as my internet connection was down, as was the TV cable. I almost went [...]

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Polonium-210 which killed Alexander Litvinenko, has been found in urine samples of his wife, Marina, and in an Italian security consultant, Mario Scaramella. Thousands of people have been calling hotlines who are concerned that they, too, could be contaminated. Though, there are no indications, yet, that any other persons have the radiation in their bodies. [...]

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This story goes out of its way to sound alarmist, but fortunately it’s accurate if you read the whole thing. Fox News’s George Kindel discovered (as did some of my coworkers this week) that you can buy Polonium-210 — the poison that killed ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko — online. Later in the article readers find: [...]

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News Item: Ahmahdinejad’s letter to Americans Just what I always wanted, a letter from good ol’ Mahmoud. Talk about making your day… especially when the letter starts out like this – O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers. Any bets on [...]

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Popular UK forum Britcaster is to close 15th December, it was announced yesterday. Neil Dixon the man behind it, who now works for Adam Curry and Ron Bloom’s PodShow in the UK, has decided to pull the plug after two years. Dixon cited reasons of having insufficient time available to manage the forum. However reports [...]

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Dennis J. Schleicher, a gay man looking for love, meets another man for coffee, and develops a relationship with him. There’s only one catch, though: Dennis has fallen in love with a married man. Sound like the plot of the latest art house film? Nope, it’s true, and what’s more, Glastonbury resident Dennis Schleicher, the [...]

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Leading up to second ballot results in the Canadian Liberal Leadership Convention, a few observations: Much is being made of Stephane Dion’s being *everybody’s second choice*. While that is mathematically a good thing, it doesn’t resound well for the future federal election campaign. I can see the bumper stickers now. I was amused by Scott [...]

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Illegal aliens who cross our borders on any given day are not just looking for jobs. Many are here to find a “free ride” in the form of health care and social benefits long depleted in their own countries. They do not care to become part of this country but like aliens from science fiction films [...]

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Imagine working for a company that had a bad reputation long before you got there. You found it necessary to battle other people’s ideas about the place in order to even apply for the job. A FULL GENERATION of people had bad mouthed it and after you finally got the job you found some of [...]

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Random thoughts upon watching the Liberal Leadership Convention on TV: The bottom three candidates have dropped out after the first ballot. That leaves five, and a minimum of one is eliminated with each further ballot. Therefore the convention can have a maximum of four more ballots: 5 candidates, 4 candidates, 3 candidates, 2 candidates. Someone [...]

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The DHS Computer program, the  “Automated Targeting System” was discussed this week in the headlines. Just enough about it was revealed to cause even the most conservative Government critics to cringe. One of the examples given as to a profile determination was where someone sits on an airplane , – aisle or window. Evidently the potential bad guy will [...]

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Fresh perspectives on today’s news by: Whymrhymer Soon to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced that she has selected Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) to take over the lead of the House Intelligence Committee. There had been a strong debate between Democrats on who should get this post with the favorite ‘appearing’ [...]

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For some strange reason, Germans are really touchy about anything that smells of the so-called “police state”. It has to do with their history or something. And they have developed a hyper-sensitive sense of smell when it comes to this matter over the years, too. Stranger still, Germany has always been a police state in [...]

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It is almost sad to watch Bush now — an energizer bunny beginning to run down. I recall my first awareness of this guy and my outrage with his then smirking response to an appeal from Karla Faye Tucker that she be spared from execution so that she could continue her faith inspired work with [...]

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A few days back I cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the man shot by police shortly before his wedding in New York. At the time, Mayor Bloomberg even said publicly he thought the officers were wrong to shoot as much as they did. A few details have come out — the NYPD seems to [...]

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For years, whispers have ebbed and flowed across the currents of cyberspace that the U.S. government had plans on the drawing board for the establishment of detention and relocation camps to heard massive swaths of the population into during times of declared national emergency. Haughty sophisticates regularly dismissed such nuggets of information, claiming such warnings [...]

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It was 5.28 US time, when the Freedom Newspaper phone rang. A Voice Of America Radio Producer and seasoned Broadcaster James Butty enquired if the said line was the Freedom Newspaper, the paper’s Publisher Pa Nderry M’Bai replied in the affirmative. Mr.Butty, then said he was calling to verify a corruption story ran by the [...]

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In yet another example of Britain bending over backwards to prove that they can … well, ben over backwards… for fetid “multiculturalism” and self-hatred, Tony Blair has “apologized” for England’s part in the slave trade! Brits Have Given up on Western Values Blair to express “sorrow” over slave trade LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tony [...]

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February 2006 February brought us our first update of the year on an old Original Musings favorite, Ohio’s own Jessica Coleman. Although there were only three contenders mentioned in February, all of them are especially troubling. The roundup … ~~~~~ Jessica Coleman & Thomas Truelson — Jessica is the young lady currently serving six years [...]

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Many of the estimated 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States are hopeful of gains from a new Democrat-led Congress next year, after massive street protests in U.S. cities pushed their cause to the top of the political agenda earlier in the year

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Renaissance Hindi movie couple Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi believe Indian Muslims have the potential to be the torchbearer at a time when the Islamic world is in ferment

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Reflecting on the fight against HIV/AIDS over the past 25 years reveals that tremendous scientific and public health advances have been made, but also, importantly, underscores the enormity of the challenges that lie ahead

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