January 2011
27 posts
Drink sake from the skull of your vanquished...
Yes, this is a real thing. So cute.
“Each of these states have their very particular histories, very particular...”
– My friend Manan Ahmed begging — begging — people to stop seeing pan-this and trans-that movements and conspiracies behind the Middle East’s explosion of anger against their abusive governments. We’d do well to listen.
There can be inspiration and reinforcement without social...
“It worked. Last fall a Ugandan tabloid splashed the headline “100 Pictures of...”
– What is going on in Uganda is beyond despicable. And the extremists on the Christian Right who promote it need to be publicly identified and shamed, incessantly, for it.
It's amazing how badly Obama is doing on... →
Airport Security, Pt. II
Сделать муляж взрывчатки оказалось несложно. Ничего лишнего. Только подручные материалы. В коробку из-под чая легко умещаются несколько аккумуляторов и телефонная зарядка. Чтобы добавить остроты, на коробке пишем слово “бомба”. И все это помещаем в обыкновенный пояс фотокорра и отправляемся в Домодедово. Здесь действительно теперь многое изменилось. Везде рамки, очереди и...
If Only Iran Would Build a Fence
Like many others who live near the border, Ibrahim slips into Iran for seasonal work at the end of each winter to supplement his meager earnings at home. He is no stranger to Iran because he lived there for years during the 1990s as a refugee from Afghanistan’s civil wars. But he says now the attitude of Iranian officials toward Afghans has hardened and brutality has become...
Heart-stopping dispatch from the back of a police... →
“Viewed this way, the case for Aulaqi’s importance just doesn’t make sense. I...”
– I’ve been having a really fascinating debate with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Director of Radicalization Studies, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, on the importance and power of the preachers of jihad, over at the appropriately-named Jihadology.
aatombomb:
mikehudack:
Music Industry Braces for the Unthinkable - NYTimes.com
shaneguiter:
In each of the past two years, the rate of increase in digital revenue has approximately halved. If that trend continues, digital sales could top out at less than $5 billion this year, about a third of the overall music market but many billions of dollars short of the amount needed to replace...
“PARIS—At a press conference Tuesday, the World Heritage Committee officially...”
– The Onion trafficks in pure, unadulterated brilliance.
“As soldiers arrive on the battlefields of Afghanistan, they face enormous...”
– Me, in The Atlantic today, on how our obsession with tactics is ruining our chances of ever winning the war in Afghanistan.
Do I feel any shame at having spent a substantial portion of my weekend in sweat pants, playing Mass Effect 2?
Absolutely not. I also turned in edits for an article for The Atlantic. So I wasn’t wholly unproductive.
The eternal wisdom of National Review Online's...
“…the downward side of our military from a formidable fighting force with an ethos of service, sacrifice, comradeship and manliness to a social welfare organization with an ethos of multicultural cringing and pandering. Or to put it another way, from an instrument for winning wars to an instrument for celebrating the moral vanity of our ruling class.
Our military today Consists of a...
“Because of this wave of self-determination culminating in sovereignty, there are...”
– I challenge you to make sense — any sense whatsoever - of this Parag Khanna piece in Foreign Policy.
“Which makes one wonder: if it were transported back to 1787, would the Tea Party...”
– Fascinating perspective, to view the Tea Party as anti-federalists. It makes a lot of sense.
Maybe he thinks American businessmen live on...
Over the course of three December days, Petraeus meets with two separate delegations, including Vashistha’s, and has a separate briefing with Brinkley. The general is appreciative of the visitors’ curiosity about Afghanistan—and quick to press them to move beyond interest and into commitment. “Just like you can’t commute to a fight, you can’t commute to...
This week, I made an important change in my life: I quit the world of defense contracting. It wasn’t too hard of a decision—those of you who know me personally have probably noticed I’ve become incredibly frustrated with the U.S. military’s inability to get things right—but still: that’s something I’ve done for a substantial portion of my adult life, and it’s not something to walk away from...