Shocker of all shockers, the Supreme Court's narrowly defined "it only applies to these four specific methods of birth control" decision turns out to apply to all forms of birth control, and it looks like Republicans in Kansas want to use the decision to reintroduce legislation that will permit private businesses to discriminate against The … Continue reading That Hobby Lobby decision sure was narrow

Richard Mellon Scaife died on Friday and I upheld the whole "don't speak ill of the dead" thing by not writing anything about it. As a native Pittsburgher, I still remember the newspaper strike in the early 90s that allowed Scaife to expand his Greensburg Tribune-Review into the city-wide peddler of fringe right-wing sleaze that … Continue reading In the club

Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the horrible murder of three Israeli teenagers a week ago thusly: The Israeli leader lamented the killings of the three "gifted, pure, honest and decent teens," bloodshed that he said shows "a broad moral gulf (that) separates us from our enemies." "They sanctify death, we sanctify life," Netanyahu said, comparing the … Continue reading Hamas and Netanyahu: two lousy tastes that taste even worse together

The Iraqi parliament is apparently in no hurry to resume beating its head against a wall to try and come up with an alternative to Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister: Iraq's newly elected parliament has postponed its next session until August 12, state television said, amid political deadlock over choosing a new prime minister. Parliament met last Tuesday … Continue reading Nowhere man, don’t worry; take your time, don’t hurry

While the idea of a "caliphate" and a "caliph" does resonate back into Islamic history, I hope I've managed to dissuade you or your impressionable relatives of the notion that the office has some kind of special magic powers or that Muslims all over the world must be irresistibly drawn to any old schmuck who … Continue reading The ups and downs of building your caliphal #brand

Although I think he's hurt his chances by saying that the infamous anti-Islam YouTube video really was a motivating factor in the Benghazi attacks, I still think there's an outside chance that my long-term prediction about Abu Khattalah's fate could come true: At some point I expect that we’ll hear from some Republican or other … Continue reading The GOP’s Abu Khattalah 180 continues apace

Al-Arabiya, Saudi Arabia's answer to a question nobody asked Al-Jazeera, except without Al-Jazeera's admittedly debatable level of editorial independence from its government, is reporting that KSA had to deploy 30,000 troops along its border with Iraq to protect against encroachment by the Islamic State, after the Iraqi army abandoned its positions there. The Iraqi government … Continue reading Could you really blame Iraq if it stopped defending its Saudi border?

Hey, American public? I know you don't care too much about climate change, or global warming, or whatever you want to call it. The numbers on that score are pretty conclusive. What I can't figure out is why you don't care. Is it because you don't like environmentalists telling you what to do or something? … Continue reading As Kiribati’s islands sink into the ocean, does anybody want to reconsider their stance on climate change?

If you ever thought you'd see the day when people talked about jihadi networks the way they talk about competing cola brands, give yourself a gold star. Me, I'm a little shocked at how fast we've gone from ironically referring to Al Qaeda's "brand" to unironically seeing Al Qaeda's new competitor putting out an actual … Continue reading The top brand in jihad