Voters in Burundi will head to the polls in a couple of weeks to decide whether or not President Pierre Nkurunziza deserves a "second" (or third, if you're one of those sticklers for "accuracy" or "math" or "reality") term in office, but meanwhile they voted today in parliamentary elections. Or, rather, some of them did; … Continue reading Burundi votes amid violence

Usually when major events reach the level of media-driven frenzy that they get their own names, we slap together something so silly that it can actually take away from the seriousness of the situation. Here in the US, ever since the Watergate Scandal, we like to slap the suffix "-gate" onto major political scandals for … Continue reading Grexit: is the prescription worth the side effects?

While I am obviously very happy about today's Supreme Court decision, and the news that cops appear to be closing in on on those two escaped murderers in New York is also welcome, this wouldn't a very good "what's happening in the rest of the world?" blog if I didn't note that today was unfortunately … Continue reading Today was also a good day for the bad guys

Well, it's been quite a couple of days for the Supreme Court. Not content merely to force America to grind out its (probably few) remaining days in the Communist hell that is a country where even the poors are able to afford health insurance, the court's tyrannical majority today doomed our national soul to damnation … Continue reading Which “American people” are we talking about?

Claire McCaskill is a big Hillary Clinton supporter and often appears on TV in a surrogate capacity on Clinton's behalf. That's fine; whatever floats your boat. Hillary Clinton is polling 50 points ahead of her closest competition, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and I know everybody points to her flame-out in 2008 as evidence that no … Continue reading Too liberal for whom?

One of the big questions hanging in the air after Turkey's recent indecisive elections is what it all means for Tayyip Erdoğan's Syrian intervention. Obviously that depends on how the election results resolve themselves (a coalition government, and if so what coalition, or early elections), but given that there's only a small number of possible … Continue reading Turkey’s election and what it means for Syria, at LobeLog

How we name our children is informed by our community and our sense of history, isn't it? I mean, at least it can be. We might name our children after older family members, or after a particularly admired figure from the past; even naming our kids after ourselves is meant for posterity, although saddling a … Continue reading How war is changing Iraqi names

As the dust settles from Wednesday night's horrific attack on the Emanuel Church in Charleston, some of America's keenest thought leaders are furrowing their brows in wonderment over what could have possessed 21 year old Dylann Storm Roof to commit such violence upon 9 other human beings. So far, all we have to go on … Continue reading Why is it so hard to admit that it’s racism?

Among the final pieces that need to be ironed out before a comprehensive nuclear agreement can be reached with Iran is the issue of the "possible military dimensions" (PMD) of Iran's past nuclear activities. Essentially, the P5+1 and the International Atomic Energy Agency have been after Iran to fess up to anything it may have … Continue reading Getting hung up on the past