Larry Kuperman's Articles In Current Events » Page 4
July 5, 2013 by Larry Kuperman
I haven't written here for quite a while, but I think that I made it up for in the length of this article. If you are interested enough, you can follow the link to my website for a PDF copy. I have been having a debate with my friend Jack (shout out!) about the proper way to view Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. Both young men came into contact with secrets that they felt obligated, for whatever reason, to reveal.  Whether you consider them heroes, traitors or something in the mid...
November 2, 2008 by Larry Kuperman
As regular readers of my blog know, I teach 8th Grade and Adult Education classes at the Jewish Cultural Society (JCS) of Ann Arbor. Today the 8th Grade and the JCS Youth Group visited the Muslim Community Association (MCA) of Ann Arbor. First, let me give the abbrobation due to the kids and their parents who attended. They gave up time on a beautiful Sunday morning, perhaps one of the last that we will see in Michigan this year, to learn about another faith. It should also be noted that duri...
June 22, 2008 by Larry Kuperman
Like a phoenix rising from the dust of history, once again the original partners of what was once known as the Iraq Petroleum Company are on the verge of gaining access to the wealth of Iraq's oil fields. Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP, as well as Chevron, are about to sign two-year, no-bid contracts to provide technical guidance and refurbish equipment for the government of Iraq, designed to take oil production from 2.5 million barrels of oil to 3 million barrels a day. The contracts are seen...
November 22, 2007 by Larry Kuperman
On November 22nd, 1963 at 12:30 PM CST in Dallas, Texas, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States of America, was shot and killed. There are moments and events that define generations. December 7th, 1941, the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked was one. September 11th, 2001 was another. If you were alive on those days, days which may have begun as ordinary days, you will remember the moment when you heard the news. Life would go on for most of us, but in retrosp...
July 27, 2007 by Larry Kuperman
I am going to ask an open question: What is victory in Iraq? (Or the opposite, what is defeat?) Answer as you will. I am not going to try to sway anyone except to offer this observation. In 2003, if you had said to the American people that Saddam would be removed from power, a democratic government elected, a constitution ratified and Saddam tried in an Iraqi court, convicted and then executed, that would generally have met most people's definition of victory. On the other hand, if ...
July 23, 2007 by Larry Kuperman
I was debating with a neighbor of mine about prayer in American schools and I suggested that we would probably live to see it become an issue again....just not the way that we thought. The prayer book may well be the Quran. Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. Muslims are now the largest minority religion (counting all forms of Christianity as the majority) and have a high birth-rate. In some European countries, the birth-rate of the Muslim minority is often cited as bein...
January 23, 2007 by Larry Kuperman
A general strike, orchestrated by Hezbollah and supported by Syria and Iraq, has flared into violence. The intent of the strike was to topple the pro-Western government of Sinoria in favor of a Hezbollah led government. Opposing the Shiite Hezbollah forces is the Sunni Future party, which is headed by Saad Hariri, the leader of the parliamentary majority and son of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister many Lebanese believe was murdered on Syria’s orders. Hundreds of followers of e...
November 12, 2006 by Larry Kuperman
Regular readers of mine (if there are any such) know that I teach Sunday School at the Ann Arbor Jewish Cultural Society, a secular Jewish institution. Today we went on a field trip to the JCC West Bloomfield for “Zap! Pow! Bam!” an exhibit on the Jewish influence in comic books. The trip was fun and also educational. Among other things that we learned were: Superman the character was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish teenagers from Cleveland. Superman embodies the Jewish...
November 11, 2006 by Larry Kuperman
I very rarely copy and paste from other articles, but this postmortem was just too good to not share: Feb. 12, 2002 "As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns - that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." Jan. 9, 2002 "I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty." In an interview with the Washington Post. Feb. 7, 2003 ...
July 29, 2006 by Larry Kuperman
Six people were shot at the Seattle Jewish Center yesterday, one fatally, by a man who identified himself as a Muslim "angry at Israel." It was believed that the gunman acted alone. But two Mosques in the Seattle area have been investigated for ties to Al-Queda. The man entered the building on the Jewish Sabbath when few people are in the office. People wonder why Jews "play the anti-Semitism card." Could it be because people are always trying to kill us?
April 17, 2006 by Larry Kuperman
Whether for an individual, a nation or a people, there is no right more fundamental than the right of self-defense. We need to be able to defend ourselves in order to be able to excercise any other rights. Wikipedia defines self-defense as "Self-defense refers to actions taken by a person to defend onself, one's property or one's home." Now we get to the part where I can only offer SARCASM. Hamas exercised its' "right" to defend itself by murdering 9 people and injuring almost 50 ot...
February 2, 2006 by Larry Kuperman
A Danish newspaper printed a series of cartoons, caricatures if you will, of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed that have sparked a controversy with world wide ramifications. The cartoons have since been republished in a variety of newspapers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain and have sparked demonstrations and riots across the Muslim world. In France the front page of the France-Soir tabloid carried the headline "Yes, We Have the Right to Caricature God" and reprinted the cartoons. (The manag...
March 10, 2005 by Larry Kuperman
We're doing it again. We keep on trying to save the world. And, of course, the world is predictably dissatisfied with the way that we go about it. View the blog posts from around the world. Count the number of people that people that post that America has no business in Iraq. Compare that to the number that point out (or even know) that Iraq was a British colony from 1918 (the end of the Ottoman Empire after WWI) until 1932. See http://www.angelfire.com/nt/Gilgamesh/1918.html Sure, Iraq wa...
February 28, 2005 by Larry Kuperman
With apologies to the group War: "CEO s, huh! What are they good for? Absolutely nothing!" If you are looking for good reality-based entertainment, you need look no further than some of the trials of CEO s currently in progress. Then ask yourselves, why were these guys ever paid so much? First of all, what is a CEO? CEO stands for Chief Economic Officer. He (or she in some cases, but not many) is the person in charge of the overall economic positioning of a company. You can usually...
January 4, 2005 by Larry Kuperman
This is not officially confirmed, but has been reported in a number of places. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is believed to have been captured in a raid east of Baghdad. Al-Zarqawi was recently dubbed as Bib Laden's senior deputy and "as al Qaeda's leader in Iraq." Al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian by birth, is one of the senior terrorists in the Middle East. On Sunday, his group released a video tape of five Iraqi security men being brutally executed. The five were lined up with their hands tied behind t...