Remember how when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the head of FEMA was some disgraced (really) Arabian horse judge who turned out to be pretty incompetent at running a disaster relief agency? And then everybody wondered why he was so bad at his job? Was he just in over his head? Completely unqualified? Or was … Continue reading Brownie’s still doing a heckuva job

Refugees are coming to Europe in huge numbers, fleeing horrific conditions in Syria, Eritrea, and Afghanistan. These are not migrants looking for welfare, or to "take" somebody's "job," or whatever other racially-charged stereotype that frequently gets attached to migrants. They're refugees fleeing war and persecution, and as such they are specifically entitled to legal protections … Continue reading Europe’s handling of its migrant situation is ugly, and probably illegal

At "War on the Rocks," Cheryl Rofer, a former chemist at Los Alamos, offers another thorough debunking of that shady AP Parchin story from last week. She argues that the premise of AP reporter George Jahn's piece, that IAEA inspectors won't be allowed on site and this is Bad because Iranian technicians will inevitably cheat … Continue reading The AP Parchin story’s post-mortem

The Guardian published a report yesterday on the mounting evidence that ISIS used mustard gas in an attack on the Syrian town of Marea, near Aleppo: Doctors said the patients, who come from the town of Marea, suffered from skin lesions, respiratory problems and redness in the eyes following a barrage of attacks on Friday. … Continue reading ISIS has “fun” with chemistry

I'd be offended at Iowa audiences calling Bobby Jindal an "anchor baby" (he's not) if the whole "anchor baby" phenomenon weren't a product of the dankest parts of the right-wing conspiracy fever swamp that Jindal and his fellow Republicans have been cultivating for the past four decades plus. But as it is, I can't feel … Continue reading Reaping the whirlwind

We can't talk about gun control today (or any other day), because it's not (ever) the time to politicize things, at least not in that particular way. Also because a flawed document written by flawed men over 200 years ago must be treated as though it were literal Truth at all times or else Scary … Continue reading What to talk about when you can’t talk about anything

Actually, that title is literally true; as part of a deal announced today to deescalate recent tension on the Korean peninsula, South Korea agreed to stop blasting anti-North Korea propaganda via loudspeaker across the DMZ. In return, North Korea expressed "regret" over the fact that two South Korean soldiers were injured in a mine blast … Continue reading All’s quiet in the DMZ