Current Affairs

One of the best perspective pieces on the challenges in the Afghan war against the Taliban and the foreign insurgents was in this sunday’s NYT magazine.  It’s told in my personal favorite style, focused on the activities on one individual, at a low level in the organization, in the middle of the maelstrom.  It centers…

Remember when I said that the Europeans were sanctimonious jerks for running the Muhummad cartoons repeatedly?  Well there are jerks on both sides.  I can’t imagine how any tradition that puts people to death for religous choices can expect to be taken seriously in the modern world. Link: CNN.com – Clerics to West, Karzai: Back…

Holocaust historians often complain that as World War 2 fades from history, every new generation is less and less familiar with the atrocities of the Nazis.  This is a valid concern, every  new generation will find that the horrors of the Holocaust carry less weight because they are more distant in history.

Joe Grossberg, my coworker whose blog you should be reading, pointed out an interesting take on the war in Iraq that’s worth a read.  My favorite excerpt: "What Iraq has that Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia do not is not oil, but fresh water. In fact, Iraq has almost all of the fresh water in…

So it was my first day back in the office after being out for a month and a day.  I was only there for five hours, but I caught myself twice reaching reflexively my shoulder where my son would be.  For a month now, he’s only been four steps away from me.  Not having him for five hours was weird.  I’ll obviously get over it, but it was weird.

My favorite deployed soldier blogger, "365 and a Wakeup", has a compelling argument about why "how we got to Iraq" is moot, and why we have to stay to finish the job.  I can’t really tell if I’m more angry about the incompetence of the Bush Administration’s approach to WMD’s that got us to Iraq,…

Medicinal marijuana gots its day in court, and the Supreme Court has decided that if you cultivate it in your home, for personal medical use as proscribed by a doctor, that its still illegal, even if you’re in a state where it’s legal.

The logic here is fascinating, even if in some case tortured, and worthy of a few minutes of your attention.