Peace, love and rock 'n' dangdut. Changes in Indonesian communications law has opened radio license ownership, reducing cronyism and promoting community radio revolution.

Here's Part 2 of the estimable Henry C. K. Liu's illuminating reexamination of the "clash of civilizations," certain assumptions about modernity and the persistence of barbarism in the West.

Modernity is defined by the West as a collection of Western values arbitrarily deemed universal - the secular culture of circular rationality, materialist science, alienating individualism, technical innovation, amoral legalism, selective democracy and exploitative capitalism that Western imperialism has spread worldwide in different forms and to varying degrees. Religious fundamentalism is currently enjoying unprecedented influence over secular politics within the United States, as exemplified by President George W Bush's proclamation that God, not the US constitution, told him to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. While the separation of church and state is still a governing tenet in the US, separation of religion and politics is non-existent.

Somebody else's back pages. Similarities in Bob Dylan lyrics and lines in a translated Japanese novel cause a stir…Like a stone rolling…. ne?

Can a Pepsi commercial be far behind?

Hope after all. Presidencies have been wartime casualties, too.

The 'stinking pitch of lies'. Chris Floyd on the blunt honesty of a modern Polish helot.