Courtesy an article by Ronen Bergman, titled “Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life“ from the New York Times last week, please read these excerpts that deal with Israel’s stance in hostage situations since the time of Entebbe – which was memorably captured in a book and later a film too (emphasis added):
…During the secret discussions prior to the Entebbe operation, Rabin, who agreed to the mission after much persuasion by intelligence and ministry planners, effectively established the principle that is still followed by all Israeli leaders facing hostage situations: …

…with grateful thanks to Joseph Sobran. Excerpts from “Teach Your Children Well” (emphasis added):
“Because I write about politics, people are forever asking me the best way to teach children how our system of government works. I tell them that they can give their own children a basic civics course right in their own homes.
In my own experience as a father, I have discovered several simple devices that can illustrate to a child’s mind the principles on which the modern state deals with its citizens. You may find them helpful, …

I stumbled on this article by Karti Chidambaram – identified simply as an AICC Member – more widely known as P Chidambaram’s son, earlier today and could not stop myself from responding. In the piece, titled “Elections and the art of giving“, Karti makes some outrageous statements – which – at best reflect an amazing lack of understanding of basic economics and at worst, are a pitiable attempt at justifying cash-for-votes that is now considered “routine“ in Tamil Nadu.
Karti starts off by saying that the..
..word “sop” itself is used crudely. It …

I woke up this morning to this statement by David Cameron, Prime Minister of Great Britain. Speaking at a conference in Germany, he said (emphasis added):
Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism

He went on to say:
Let’s properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights – including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their …

From George Friedman at Stratfor, comes this thought-provoking excerpt on “Germany and the Failure of Multiculturalism” (emphasis added):
German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared at an Oct. 16 meeting of young members of her party, the Christian Democratic Union, that multiculturalism, or Multikulti, as the Germans put it, “has failed totally.” Horst Seehofer, minister-president of Bavaria and the chairman of a sister party to the Christian Democrats, said at the same meeting that the two parties were “committed to a dominant German culture and opposed to a multicultural one.”
…The statements were …

Several months ago, while idly surfing the web, I stumbled on a somewhat oddly titled monograph*. It read: “Passage to Hindu State: DharmaRajya and RajaDharma” – A Socio-Political Study of the Mahabharata”
It was a serendipitious discovery. I can hardly claim to be an authority on ancient history or the socio-political traditions of the Vedic period but I feel that Dr Nagarajan‘s work deserves serious study – and wider dissemination.  The main focus of his research has been to develop a socio-political constitution for this sub-continent from the point of view …