I'm not on the "wanker of the day" committee, but surely the rich person who wrote to Slate's "Dear Prudence" column in dismay at the thought of having to give Halloween candy to poor children is a strong front-runner, no?

Predictions that the United States is on the verge of collapsing like the Roman Empire are pretty old hat, usually among the kind of people who are more worried about the national debt than about whether or not their fellow citizens have enough to eat (though there is a strain of this particular mania on … Continue reading Don’t know much about history

Or, if you prefer, "time for another blogger ethics panel" (apologies to Atrios): In an opinion piece published Tuesday by Politico Magazine, "No, BP Didn't Ruin the Gulf," author Geoff Morrell writes that the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, the worst off-shore oil spill in American history, was much less disastrous environmentally for the Gulf Coast … Continue reading It’s about ethics in business journalism

At Vox today, Dara Lind distills a report from The Urban Institute and Northwestern University on the underground forced labor market here in America, which in several respects sounds an awful lot like the kafalah system in place for migrant workers in the Persian Gulf: Here's how it happens: a person in Mexico or the … Continue reading America’s kafalah system

A Congress that has made doing nothing into an art form is getting very mad that the Obama administration might try an end-run around them if it comes time to start relieving sanctions against Iran: Demanding a bigger role in the Iran nuclear negotiations, key Democrats are beginning to openly criticize the Obama administration for … Continue reading Congress demands that it be given every opportunity to wreck Iran talks

Somewhat underplayed in this story about a firearms company profiting off of the irrational fears of a bunch of rubes is the far more important revelation that somebody invented canned bacon that has a 10 year shelf life. Maybe the post-apocalyptic hellscape won't be so bad after all.

This is a great report from NIQASH on the attitude among non-Daesh Sunni factions in Iraq, who seem to have mostly had enough of the "Islamic State" but haven't seen nearly enough out of the Abadi government for them to start working with Baghdad: “We are against the acts of the hardline Islamic State. And … Continue reading Iraq: Arab Sunnis unhappy with both Daesh and Baghdad

In my professional status as Some Guy What Writes Words on the Internet, it's always a pleasant surprise when I see people who are real actual experts saying stuff that I say on here. Two recent examples have been particularly appreciated by me. First there's Joshua Keating, Slate's excellent foreign affairs writer (and I'm not … Continue reading Who’s with me?

Two pieces of evidence for you to peruse. First, it turns out that there are proportionally a whole lot of Saudis working for Daesh as suicide bombers: UPDATED: 31 suicide bombers in #Iraq in 45 days 46% of them are Saudis. Over 50 tons of explosives used. pic.twitter.com/L49jhLazow — Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) October 18, 2014 … Continue reading Can’t quite put my finger on it…

If you're going to appoint a "czar" to coordinate a national response to a disease that has infected all of two people within the United States, my vote would be for somebody who will give a press conference every day about how completely ridiculous it is that we've appointed a "czar" to coordinate a national … Continue reading Republicans: Ron Klain shouldn’t be Ebola Czar because he’s not a medical doctor like Colin Powell or Robert Gates