Happy Holidays

To those of you out there who do not celebtrate Festivus and instead follow one of the traditional Abrahamic faiths, then warmest wishes to one and all - a Merry Christmas and a Happy Chanukah.

Peace On Earth

Otherwise, Happy Festivus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just Shut Up!

If I pass the Bar it will be a real "Festivus" miracle because I spend so little time on the law and instead can't seem to stop reading about Iran, Israel, the U.S. and the general health of the international system (and to nobody's surprise, it's not good) whilst listening to the last few shows of Howard on terrestrial radio.

And then today Mahmoud drops another one. It's one thing to be critical of Israel's government - it certainly is not beyond reproach - Israeli's will tell you that. What government is? But one crosses the line if the assertion is that nothing really happened in Europe, say between 1938 (Kristallnacht) and 1945 vis-a-vis European Jewry and the Nazi government of Adolph Hitler. The atrocities directed towards Jews, Communists, gays, the mentally and physically handicapped, POWs and German dissidents that we have collectively labelled as the Holocaust is a fact that cannot be subject to reasonable doubt since it is capable of accurate and ready determination by sources not open to reasonable dispute, not least of which were the Nazi's themselves. Mahmoud has never heard of Wansee or the conference that took place there on January 20th, 1942. It matters not because in the end we must approach bigots like him (there are others throughout the world of all ethnicities and faiths) the same way Howard does with KKK member Daniel Carver - let them speak and reasonable people will know what to think.

Prenatal Peek

Totally unrelated to international relations is the subject of little Ariya's birth. We're due on January 17th, 2006. Here are some pictures.

Is that a laugh?








In deep contemplation.....




I think, therefore I am.














Yes, my Daddy keeps reading Descartes to me.












This one captures her with her right eye open - does she know we were watching



















Here, I think you can make out her fingers - maybe it's V for Victory!

How The Wheels Of Time Have Turned Full Circle

As the Bar approaches, it seems the arena of international relations becomes more exciting. There is so much to be talking about studying for the Bar seems so inconsequential.

Mr. Sharon and company appear to be on the move - a good story for his country and the rest of us.
Mr. Ahmedinejad has been busy.

And there's been some interesting developments with respect to the dance between those two scorned old lovers, Tehran and Washington, what I like to call the 'other peace process.'

They really are akin to partners in a broken marriage - once bitten twice shy, and with all the attendant issues: communication breakdown, fear of commitment and intimacy, the usual.

Today, we are so far away from pre-Revolutionary US-Iranian relations that it's easy to forget just how close the two countries were at one time. As you can see from these photos, Iran and the US used to be best buddies. Hard to fathom now, but do you remember the American President chose to spend New Year's Eve in Tehran in 1977, raising his glass to "an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world!!!"

How the wheels of time have turned full circle.