This war of words between President Obama and General Petraeus has profound implications on the U.S. counterterrorism strategy across the globe. Affecting high-level diplomatic discourse, to the way in which the entire U.S. military understands and defines the terrorist threat, to the policies and practices currently underway to engage America's enemies, the Obama Administration's new policy on defining the threat of terrorism as one devoid of any relation to Islam is directly at odds with the U.S. army's doctrine on counterinsurgency (COIN), a field manual written by the new Commanding General of Afghanistan, General David Petraeus.

President Obama's chief national security advisor for counterterrorism, John Brennan, recently revealed a new White House rhetorical policy regarding terrorism: detach all references made to Islam, including any statement that makes mention of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or any other group. This marks a significant shift in defining the terrorist threat to the United States, and will likely contribute to the easing of tensions carved for nearly a decade between the West and the Islamic world, but is it a smart shift in policy or an ill-guided misunderstanding of the threat facing America?

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The US for the first time in this tournament will play in a game with nothing to lose. Yes, the US might be slight favorites to advance over Ghana, but even if the US team loses it will be seen as a successful World Cup in which they played well and demonstrated immense resolve. But free of the pressure of expectations, this is when the US team has historically been its most successful and most dangerous.

While the US should be care free, the Ghanaians will play representing an entire continent. As the only African team to advance out of their group, the Ghanaians have taken on the mantle of Africa's team and they will likely be embraced as such by the South African fans. In short, the US are not going to be just taking on Ghana they are taking on Africa. But how Ghana plays under the pressure of such expectations is an open question. Despite expectations that South African crowds would lift each African team, the fact is that almost all of the African teams have been real disappointments thus far. Ghana advanced, but did so despite losing their last game and were aided by Australia's surprise victory over Serbia.

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It's an old story, but it never fails to shock--trading cash and equivalents for votes at the International Whaling Commission, the international convention that sets rules about the treatment of whales in the world's oceans.

Even though young people in Japan are hardly interested in eating whale meat, the government is still committed to killing whales, and seeks each year greater validation from the IWC for its currently unauthorized whale-killing gambits. The upcoming meeting, the 62nd annual gathering, starts in a couple of days in Agadir, Morocco. This year, the run up to the IWC meeting has been intense and fraught with controversy. The participating nations have been deliberating for some months already on the merits of a proposal that would suspend the commercial whaling moratorium, and allow Japan, Norway, and Iceland to hunt whales openly, under a system proponents claim will feature monitoring by the IWC and a schedule for reduction in catch over ten years.

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Why should we listen up to Tricky Stewart, of RedZone Entertainment shouting about his new voice-of-now and Swedish-born beauty Ulrika Lindstrom? That is, apart from the fact that he's bagged hits with Beyonce's "Single Ladies," Mya's "Case of the Ex," Rihanna's "Umbrella," Mary J. Blige's "Just Fine" and Justin Bieber's "Baby"...

It's not a list of accolades to be sniffed at. But the way we all seem to hear about new musical talent is through American Idol, Britain's Got Talent, or another television-based incarnation of musical democracy, laden heavily with Schadenfreude. Average Joe (i.e. not the son or daughter of actor/pop star X) slides through one of these trusted channels, where lives go from mediocre-to-media darling, sparkling with instant overnight fame powder, all double stamped by the singles-buying public. If they haven't got that in their fame passport, how on earth are they found on this over-crowded, hyper-connected planet? (A rhetorical question.) Does old-fashioned hard work and raw talent count for anything these super-networked days? (Not a rhetorical question.)

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