Bush Tuesday said Iran is still a danger

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush Tuesday said Iran is still a danger and refused to take military options off the table, despite a US intelligence report saying it had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." Bush said.

Americans see Iran as a big danger against universal peace

They believed Iran is trying to learn how to enrich uranium and is trying to achieve great successes in nuclear weapon and could restart the atomic weapons programme anytime.

National Intelligence Estimate argues Iran is following a secret nuclear weapons program.

Their opinion is that America tried to prevent World War III, but Iran remains as a threat for war.

They found keeping the international pressure on Iran the best way to suspend its program and ensure peace in the world.  

They may warn Iran "You can continue to do policy that will isolate you, or there's a better way forward" so it is Sticks-and-carrots approach against nuclear power. 

Book review : Rebellion Against Victorianism

 

Rellion Against Victorianism: The Impetus for Cultural Change in 1920s America.

Author: Stanley Coben

Publisher: New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press,

1991. 242 pp.

              Reviewed by: Nasrin Dastjerdi and Sara Sajadi    

.

The 1920s in America was a decade of rebellion, reform, and reaction as traditional Victorian values came under attack from all sides. When various groups of intellectuals, blacks, feminists, and dissatisfied economic and political groups assaulted on Victorianism.

Through a descriptive writing style, Stanley Coben goes through the reasons for the tremendous cultural changes during the 1920s and explains them historically. He begins with the concept of Victorian "character," which is a familiar concept for Americans of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A character that, as Coben himself defines, was dependably self-controlled, punctual, orderly, hardworking, conscientious, sober, respectful of other Victorians’ property rights, ready to postpone immediate gratifications for long-term goals, pious toward a usually friendly God, a believer in the truth of the Bible, oriented strongly toward home and family, honorable in relations with other Victorians, anxious for self-improvement in a fashion which might appear compulsive to modern observers, and patriotic.

In the following chapters, he illustrates how intelligentsia developed, how intellectuals’ values were changed over time and how it led them inevitably into conflict and then he describes vividly the events that supported the growth of this intellectual subculture. Making it easier to understand he puts the events in a frame of four particularly consequential ones.

The book pays a special attention to cultural matters, showing how art forms of the '20s-like jazz or the novels of Ernest Hemingway and Sinclair Lewis-were part of the rebellion. It devotes one whole chapter to describe how the steady flow of black migrants north caused demographic changes and suggested opportunities to them to improve their status and enforce their activities. And then Jazz as one of the most destructive activities of blacks was there to stay as Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, asserted in 1924:

“Jazz has come to stay …and it is useless to fight against it. Already its vigor, its new vitality, is beginning to manifest itself.

The Negro musicians of America are playing a great part in this change. …They are not hampered by traditions or conventions, with their new ideas, their constant experiments, they are causing new blood to flow in the veins of music. In America, I think, lies perhaps the greatest hope in the whole musical world.”

Going through feminist movements and the changes in economic and political order of the country that set the scene for the rebellion, at the end there is a fascinating chapter about the Ku Klux Klan which reveals the Klan as the most visible and powerful guardian of Victorianism during the 1920s.

What makes the whole more thoughtful is the new perspective that Coben brings to show how the contradictions that were the trigger for the rebellion in 1920s still exist, the ones that brought together workers, farmers, socialists, ethnic groups, intellectuals, black leaders, and many feminists.

Coben’s study is of great value particularly for its perfect historical analysis. In fact it has got a refreshing change from most boring history texts. Illustrating the relationship between culture and politics through describing the process of a phenomenon happened in the history of a country like America, he gives the reader a real example that can be contemplated and compared with similar issues. The process through which Coben leads the reader to come to some conclusions and think about present-day issues is designed skillfully and at the same time the way he addresses the existing problems forcefully is appreciable.  However it could be better if the idea suggested at the end was developed more to give more evidences to the readers and let them make better judgments. Nevertheless, Rebellion Against Victorianism certainly receives careful attention from scholars and students interested in the intersections between culture and politics, as well as the wider concern about the similar contemporary problems. It can also be a good supplementary text for use in undergraduate courses on 20^th-century American history or in American studies courses focusing on twentieth-century cultural development. It will be unfortunate if doesn’t trigger or contribute to a discussion about the effective role of cultural changes in politics and examining the same issues in the present society.

More people banned from buying guns after tragedy at Virginia Te

More people banned from buying guns after tragedy at Virginia Tech

 

Mukasey in comments prepared for delivery to the National Association of Attorneys General said;" Instant background checks are essential to keeping guns out of the wrong hands"

Justice Department said Thursday mentioned mental health problems has more than doubled after massacre at Virginia tech, when a gunman shot a men and woman in university campus before making his way to a classroom building, silently and coolly then, he killed 30 more people and injured 15 others.

Mukasey believed while privacy of citizens should be protect by government, background checks are necessary because of people's mental health.

People with criminal histories include illegal immigrants and domestic violence offenders whom are barred from buying guns.

As National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the gun-rights group has no problem with the database.

Mukasey emphasized that instant background check system can be effective with accurate and complete enforcement. He said," Currently, 28 states submit names to the mental health database, and the federal government cannot force the other 22 to follow suit."

It seems it is essential to restrict people liberty to keep them secure and safe. Then is it true to individual rights is more important than social control as individual rights advocates believe?

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071130/mukasey_gun_checks.html?.v=1 (2007/nov/27)

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/newscenter/newscenter.aspx  (2007/nov/27)