International

What used to impress me most about the Chinese was their ability to eat cold stewed vegetables for breakfast, balance a family of four on the handlebars of a bicycle and dance with sharpened swords at the crack of dawn. Pretty intimidating stuff. No wonder former Defense Chief Donald Rumsfeld was rattling his saber at the Chinese. But I've recently returned from China with a new epiphany: The saber rattlers have it all wrong. We have only to fear from the Chinese what we fear in ourselves.

This past Monday, the College Republicans executive board and I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with the scourge of Stony Brook, Ann Coulter. And surprisingly, I had a good time.

Some members of the Independent, including myself, have started a site to track the number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the editorial cartoon controversy.

We have not even yet gone deeply into studying news reports and the count has reached at least 28 deaths.

Amidst a packed audience in the Student Activities Center auditorium on Thursday, well-renowned former talk show host Phil Donahue, and the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights Michael Ratner spoke on issues of terrorism, war, free speech and civil liberties in today's age, as part of the seventh annual George Goodman symposium.

Amidst the drone of helicopters and the beating of drums on Saturday, what may have been the largest anti-war rally in recent history took place in Washington, D.C., attracting buses from all parts of the country and amassing what is estimated by some to be more than 100,000 people.  Stony Brook was represented by a busload of people organized by members of the local chapter of the Social Justice Alliance, and a van organized by the Graduate Student Employees Union.

Ultimately, which is worse, a terrorist attack which may or may not occur, or the continued propagation of ignorance, supported by a hawkish government and tabloid media?

Peter Jennings passed away yesterday, due to lung cancer. He was 67 years old. Today, most news programs touched upon his legacy in some way; some more than others. CNN's Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn and Aaron Brown, all ABCNews alumni, spent considerable time interviewing current and former ABCNews correspondents. Cooper and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann used Peter's death to focus on the dangers of cigarette smoking. ABCNews, obviously, paid solemn tribute to Jennings on World News Tonight and Nightline.  Even Fox News got into the act, as Bill O'Reilly interviwed Barbara Walters (and couldn't stop making ridiculous comparisons between Jennings and himself). 

Courtesy of the AP Newswire:
LONDON (Reuters) - The world recoiled in shock on Thursday after bombs tore through London's transport system killing 37 people in a coordinated rush-hour attack.

Despite GOP opposition and media apathy, Congressman John Conyers chaired a public hearing on the Downing Street memo in a small room in the Capitol on June 16. The hearing examined whether there is cause to formally investigate and possibly impeach President Bush for misleading or even lying to Congress in his case for war.