Friend Rabbit asks his guest, Winnie Pooh Bear: “Would you like condensed milk or honey on your bread?” “Both,” Pooh replies. “But never mind the bread.” After his lunchtime gluttony, Pooh Bear gets stuck in Rabbit’s doorway. Half in, half out, he sits, receiving advice from all the creatures of the wood. Could there be...Read More

I was recently told a story — possibly true — about a girl in the United Kingdom who, on seeing her elderly grandfather collapse, attempted to call the ambulance service by dialing 911. The implication being, of course, that the proliferation of American television programs on British screens had led the young girl to believe...Read More

Most Maggi five minute fundamentalists reject out of hand any idea that a legitimate Islamic government can have the features of a democratic polity. They automatically equate an Islamic state with their own authoritarian and proto-fascist tendencies. Thus the more “Islamic” a state is, the more it is controlled by a small “purified” cabal of...Read More

Some academics from Indiana University have recently published the results of a survey of seven Muslim-majority societies. The researchers found a strong correlation, in every country surveyed, between a stated belief in shariah as the system of state governance and a set of egalitarian principles. They write: In research based on survey data from seven...Read More