I probably throw the word "sociopath" around too often, though I really do think it's a lot more prevalent among our elites than we'd like to think. But what do you call the things that come out of Ann Coulter's mind? They're beyond sociopathic, so...depraved? Sadistic? She's at her worst in her most recent screed. … Continue reading Seriously, though, what the hell is wrong with Ann Coulter?

Yazidis who were forced from their homes in and around Sinjar after the Islamic State conquered the region over the weekend are now stranded on surrounding mountains with no food or water. Somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 of them are now slowly dying on those mountains, unable to continue their flight but also facing likely … Continue reading Iraq’s Yazidi population is in dire straits

The worst-case, runaway greenhouse effect scenario involves a concept known as "positive feedback," wherein changes in climate cause environmental changes that then, in turn, cause more and more rapid climate change, so the whole thing basically becomes a runaway train and there's little to nothing that humanity can do about it. Loss of plants, via … Continue reading What’s so bad about a little feedback?

I'm not, how you say, good at making political predictions, but I will hazard this one: if Rand Paul is going to literally bolt away from any potentially tough questions on immigration, I wouldn't get too excited about Rand 2016's chances for victory. Admittedly, Rand has the all-important Nader endorsement in his pocket, but even … Continue reading Running against the wind

Jonathan Schanzer is the VP for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the folks who think the Iraq War was so nice, they'd like to do it twice (just swap that "q" for an "n"). He's got a new piece in Foreign Policy, which is often most useful as a window into what … Continue reading With us or against us, ad absurdum

Former Republican Congressman Steve LaTourette arrives at the site of a battle that happened years ago and declares that he's worried about the outcome (via): Over the last few years we have seen the rise of a new grifter—the political grifter. And the most important battle being waged today isn’t the one about which party … Continue reading Talk about closing the barn door after the horse is already out

The House Intelligence Committee, with its Republican majority, declassified its Benghazi findings on Thursday. What nefarious misdeeds did they find that the Obama Administration committed? Among the Intelligence Committee's findings, according to Thompson: -- Intelligence agencies were "warned about an increased threat environment, but did not have specific tactical warning of an attack before it … Continue reading BREAKING: Benghazi still isn’t a scandal

Kaili Joy Gray at Wonkette celebrates disgraced racist Pat Buchanan's return to MSNBC: But MSNBC has fallen off the wagon and gone on a major bender, because Pat is back to pimp his newest book, Why I’d Still Get On My Knees And Fellate My Hero Richard Nixon If I Could, and the “Morning Joe” … Continue reading From the “comebacks that don’t make any sense” file

Friday in the Daily Beast:Right now Russia is moving troops, armor, and advanced antiaircraft missiles toward the border with Ukraine. In the last 48 hours, dozens of videos have been uploaded to social-media sites that show Russian armor very close to the border, many of them confirmed to be within mere kilometers of Ukraine.On Thursday, … Continue reading Something isn’t adding up in Ukraine

Here's one argument against supplying John McCain's best good friends with advanced weapons, like MANPADS, that could obviously be repurposed against Western targets by an extremist/terrorist group: we can't keep track of our shit. Specifically, we can't keep track of the almost 750,000 small arms we've sent to Afghanistan since 2004, to the tune of … Continue reading So about arming the Syrian rebels…