Shahryar Rizvi’s blog

What Exactly Is the War Powers Act and Is Obama Really Violating It? (tags: war politics) Machinists Union Quarrels With IKEA-Owned Factory : NPR (tags: labor economics)

'A Gay Girl in Damascus' Hoax Is Worse Than a Lie | latimes.com (tags: culture media war gender)

Syria: True Identity of Arrested Blogger Questioned (tags: internet media)

Cargo Cults … it's clear that the John Frum Movement has more to it than just a silly superstition that if you build something that looks like a dock out of bamboo, supply ships will come streaming in. That's how cargo cults are often portrayed, and it's really not a fair description. The people were […]

Egypt: V for Verifiying Virginity (tags: gender) The silencing crime: Sexual violence and journalists (tags: journalism journalists)

Libertarian Politicians Aren't – NYTimes.com There are genuine libertarians out there. But political figures who talk a lot about liberty and freedom invariably turn out to mean the freedom to not pay taxes and discriminate based on race; freedom to hold different ideas and express them, not so much. (tags: politics)

David Foster Wallace: Portrait Of An Infinitely Limited Mind – By Ramon Glazov – The eXiled Yet there’s another, seedier literary tradition that Infinite Jest can lay claim to – the Great Protestant Addiction Novel, a gloomy genre developed by Hubert Selby Jr. Selby’s strategy was pretty similar to what Insane Clown Posse (ICP) did […]

The Pirates Franchise Dies of Boredom – By Eileen Jones – The eXiled Jack Sparrow character has plenty of emotions and needs. But the thing is, emotions and needs change all the time, as most of us know to our sorrow. The first three Pirates films dealt admirably with that  torturing fact of life. In […]