I don't agree with Rodger that the Iraq War was totally unjustifiable. Rodger and I do, presumably, agree that the Bush administration's marketing of the war was marked by "threat inflation" at best, and outright deceit at worst.I am certain, however, that we agree...
Listing beloved books from my adolescence is so much more enjoyable than prepping for class…Also, I'm choosing to interpret the meme quite strictly, as asking for fictional books read as an...
Yesterday, Dan "tagged" me and the other bloggers at the Duck to participate in one of those circulating book threads (or "memes"). I am now supposed "to describe the 'five books I liked enough as a...
Not that long ago I questioned whether David was giving realism a fair shake. Recently, David shared an email on his blog that does the work I should have done:First off, the notion that a nuclear...
Dan Drezner briefly reconsiders the security benefits of hegemonic orders. The reason? A recent AP report that global military expenditures are on the rise. After digging a bit deeper, though, Dan finds that most of the rise can be accounted for by increased US defense expenditures since 9/11.What are the normative implications of this? We go back to the AP report:"It's hard to put the United States in the center, or blame everything on the U.S.," said Alyson Bailes, the think tank's director. "Despite all the ongoing problems, the state of world security is a great deal better than it was...
My wife and I started watching æœˆè© -MOON PHASE the other day. It is far from the best anime we've seen, but it is definitely entertaining.The main female character is an adolescent vampire. Given the general idioms of vampire fiction, it should come as no surprise that Moon Phase is full of psychosexual themes that run from the interesting (e.g., awakening of adolescent sexuality) to the disturbing (e.g., sexualization of young girls). The latter is quite common in Japanese anime and manga. Even the relatively innocuous - and extremely popular - Inuyasha stars a female character, Kagome, who...
Guicciardini on the perils of bandwagoning (allying with the strong against the weak), and generally of being a minor power:I was in Spain when the news came that the Venetians had made an alliance with the king of France against His Catholic Majesty. Upon hearing it, Almazano, his Secretary, told me a Castilian proverb which says in effect that the thread breaks where it is weakest. What it means is that the weakest always get it in the neck; for men do not act according to reason or consideration of others. Rather each seeks his own advantage, and all agree to make the weakest suffer...
The BBC:Mauritania has accused Islamic insurgents from Algeria of attacking a Mauritanian army base in the Sahara desert killing at least 15 soldiers. Defence Minister Baba Ould Sidi said the gunmen were from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) - suspected of links to al-Qaeda.... In recent months the Mauritanian government has arrested about 50 people accused of links with al-Qaeda.Critics accuse the government of using the US-led war on terror to crackdown on Islamic opponents.Human Rights Watch:Uzbek authorities deny responsibility for the killings. The government claims...
Gordon Tiger, a long-time friend of my family, died last Tuesday. Gordon had a distinguished career in the foreign service, yet he never sought the limelight or attention his expertise and experience could have brought him. The Washington Post ran his obituary today.M. Gordon Tiger, 87, a retired Foreign Service officer, died May 31 of lung cancer at his home in Alexandria.Mr. Tiger was born in St. Louis. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in the late 1930s and a master's degree from Columbia University journalism school in 1939. During World War II, he served...
Bill recently argued that, contra left-wing grumbling, the Bush administration has consistently embraced democratic enlargement as an element of its grand strategy. His post struck a nerve with some commentators, generating the kind of debate I hope happens more often as the readership of this blog expands. I want to shift the debate a little bit towards the issue of "framing." George Lakoff's arguments about political framing have become a hot topic among liberal and left-wing bloggers. Many embrace Lakoff's work. They believe that one of the major problems for "the left" in general, and...
Cross-posted on my blog. Since 1991, I've been the faculty sponsor for the University of Louisville campus chapter of Amnesty International. Some years the students are very active, other years there really isn't much of a chapter.In any case, I have a long-time interest in AI and have a lot of confidence in their human rights work. Needless to say, Amnesty has been unhappy with some Bush administration policies and practices against suspects in the "war on terror." From a CNN report: "The U.S. is maintaining an archipelago of prisons around the world, many of them secret prisons, into which...
What, exactly, is the target market for this?Saw one driving on the road the other day. My wife exclaimed "a Cadillac truck?!" I guess some people just want to show off when they pick up some plants and light bulbs at the local Home Depot.Filed as: urban wannabes, suburban wannabes