Iraq: At least 34 people have been killed in series of bomb attacks across Iraq, several of which targeted mainly Shia districts of Baghdad, officials say. Eleven blasts in the space of an hour in the capital left 23 people dead and more than 100 others injured. Bomb attacks also killed at least 10 people … Continue reading how are things going in our great experiments in middle east intervention?
Month: May 2013
caligula: emperor of #swag
If your perspective of history is limited to the American experience, then I guess you'd be the kind of person who finds Ronald Reagan to be the king of #YOLO, or Richard Nixon to be #fierce. But for those of us who have a slightly broader scope, there's no question that Roman Emperor Caligula (d. … Continue reading caligula: emperor of #swag
iran so far away
Oliver Willis observes that, now that it serves Republican purposes to make the Benghazi/IRS/AP/whatever scandals ("scandals"?) sound really bad, suddenly they've decided that Richard Nixon is History's Greatest Monster, or at least he was until Obama came along: Because up until recently, the right had Nixon as the good guy. The original sin of the … Continue reading iran so far away
Islamic History, Part 5: Muhammad in Medina, war with Mecca, and Muhammad’s death (622-632)
Islamic History Series Having established Muhammad's initial ministry in Mecca and his eventual flight from that city, just ahead of a plot to assassinate him, we now pick up the story with Muhammad having arrived in the oasis city of Yathrib, although it wasn't "Yathrib" much longer. The city soon became known as "The City … Continue reading Islamic History, Part 5: Muhammad in Medina, war with Mecca, and Muhammad’s death (622-632)
someday a real rain will come
John McCain's interview on "This Week" yesterday was just crazy, at least the part about Syria. McCain is in some kind of full-blown psychopathic breakdown on Syria at this point; he doesn't know who's fighting, why it matters, why America should or shouldn't be involved, or how America could be involved, but he knows that … Continue reading someday a real rain will come
Islamic History, Part 4: Muhammad’s Revelations and the Hijrah (~570-622)
Islamic History Series I was trying to decide how to approach the story of Muhammad, obviously the single most important episode in the development of Islam and Islamic civilization. I could start with the traditional narrative of Muhammad's life, but that risks people reading the narrative and treating it as though it were settled fact. … Continue reading Islamic History, Part 4: Muhammad’s Revelations and the Hijrah (~570-622)
Islamic History, Part 3: Arabia before Muhammad
Islamic History Series However little we really know of the Sasanian Empire, it was a major world power and it was written about at some length, so we have a fair amount of external sources even though nothing internal seems to have survived. On pre-Islamic Arabia, by comparison, we have really next to nothing. Histories … Continue reading Islamic History, Part 3: Arabia before Muhammad
Bigot is as bigot does
A different spin on the original. Last week Niall Ferguson said something stupid about John Maynard Keynes. Asked to comment on Keynes’ famous observation “In the long run we are all dead,” Professor Ferguson demonstrated a complete misunderstanding of the observation, then suggested that Keynes was perhaps indifferent to the long run because he had … Continue reading Bigot is as bigot does
Why, exactly, does PolitiFact exist?
Martina Navratilova is usually considered the greatest women's tennis player of all time, but couldn't you make a pretty strong argument that she's the greatest tennis player of all time, period? She won more Grand Slam titles than anybody, career Grand Slams (winning each of the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US … Continue reading Why, exactly, does PolitiFact exist?
Red, Red Line
I live in Chicago, and our mass transit system, the CTA, is organized into "lines" of different colors: orange, green, purple, etc. Maybe I'm biased because I live a couple of blocks from one of its stops, but in my opinion all the other colored lines are bullshit compared to the Red Line. Catching the … Continue reading Red, Red Line
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 