After dithering about it for a couple of days, yesterday South Sudan's President Salva Kiir reportedly told US Secretary of State John Kerry that he was prepared to sign an agreement to end that country's 20+ month long civil war. Salva Kiir told US Secretary of State John Kerry he had decided to sign after … Continue reading South Sudan’s Kiir finally appears to opt for peace

Fighting in Ukraine has been escalating again over the past ~10 days: Fighting between government forces and Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine has escalated sharply in recent days, with each side blaming the other for the violence. At least nine people were killed in artillery strikes on Monday in villages and towns on both sides … Continue reading Renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine looks worrisome

Given how much fun electoral politics is here in the United States, I can only imagine how happy the people of Greece are now that their (former?) Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, is apparently resigning in order to force snap elections. Congratulations, Greek folks! Now instead of spending all your time worrying about which kind of … Continue reading Tsipras gives Greeks the gift of another election

Folks, in times past on this here web log, and at Medium, yours truly has maybe had a little fun at the expense of one Senator Rand Paul (R-VonMisesInstitute), and some of his more ardent fans. Specifically, I might have mentioned the fact that the senator's brave and principled (and very public) stand against America's … Continue reading About to be proven wrong

Bahrain has been stripping people of their citizenship for, well, practicing the wrong kind of Islam, apparently: The Bahraini government began revoking citizenship shortly after the Arab Spring engulfed large sections of the Middle East, Bahrain included, in 2011. On Feb. 14 of that year, both Shiite and Sunni Bahrainis took to the streets to … Continue reading When your government takes away your identity

Noted civil rights pioneer Mike Huckabee (R-YouSureYouReallyWantToGoHere) on the Black Lives Matter movement: "When I hear people scream, 'black lives matter,' I'm thinking, 'Of course they do.' But all lives matter. It's not that any life matters more than another," Huckabee told Blitzer. "That's the whole message that Dr. King tried to present, and I … Continue reading Well, if anybody should know…

Today is the sixty-second anniversary (and the second time we've commemorated it here) of the 1953 coup d'etat, carried out by Iranian elements at the behest and with the support of British Secret Intelligence and the US CIA, that forced Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh from office. Mosaddegh was nominally replaced as prime minister by … Continue reading Mosaddegh, 1953: history swallowed up in legend

Last time it was a bunch of retired generals and admirals demonstrating that they obviously know less about military risk and national security than Chuck Schumer, on account of they think the Iran deal is actually pretty good whereas he knows that it's terribad. Today we have 75 experts on nuclear non-proliferation demonstrating that, unfortunately, … Continue reading More people who must not be as smart as Chuck Schumer