In other Syrian news, the Committee to End the Syrian War Without Talking to Any Syrians met today in Vienna and failed to end the war: Major powers meeting in Vienna have failed to reach an agreement on Syria, especially the future role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but found enough "common ground" to meet … Continue reading At least they agreed to keep talking

President Obama made Ash Carter's testimony from Tuesday official today, announcing that America is putting a small Special Forces detachment on the ground in Syria. They'll be advising and training, uh, somebody, and probably mixing it up with ISIS a little although nobody's allowed to say so explicitly. They'll be working with "local forces," which … Continue reading The moral of the story

Since Saturday we've been in the midst of the 86th anniversary of the stock market crash that kicked off the Great Depression. The whole thing started on October 24, 1929, AKA "Black Thursday," when the Dow lost about 11 percent of its overall value shortly after trading began, and only some concerted action by a … Continue reading Today in history: the Great Crash of ’29 ends and the Great Depression begins

Paul Ryan just gave up his, ah, dream job to become Speaker of the House today, ending a long national nightmare of media hand-wringing over the fate of the Speakership in the post-John Boehner era. Throughout that hand-wringing, we were treated to the oft-repeated observation that Speaker of the House is the "worst job in … Continue reading “Prime Minister of Iraq” must be a pretty crappy job

I didn't watch the debate last night. Maybe I'll never watch another presidential debate again. I don't know. But I do know that the prospect of watching the best and brightest in the "Screw the Poor" party hold a debate on the "Screw the Poor" cable network was just too much for me to bear. … Continue reading I found Ben Carson’s new campaign slogan

The House of Saud isn't just beset by princes getting busted for drug possession in foreign airports; there's also apparently at least one Saudi prince talking out of school about King Salman, according to The Guardian's Hugh Miles: A senior Saudi prince has launched an unprecedented call for change in the country’s leadership, as it … Continue reading Princes behaving badly

Word broke yesterday that Iran would be invited (with US approval) to participate in the next round of international talks over ending the Syrian civil war. The Guardian is calling this a "significant shift" in US policy, and I guess it is, but it's one that was long overdue. You can't get a political settlement … Continue reading A necessary step, but will it matter?

I spent a while living in the Persian Gulf many years ago, a place where the resources (lots of money) and conditions (not a ton of really livable land, what with all the desert all over the place) make it both feasible and desirable to pursue major offshore land reclamation projects. "Land reclamation" in this … Continue reading Making your own dry land