This should be an ongoing series. Our first entries are: 1. White comedian unclear why he shouldn't use the n-word: A: “I’ve had this argument on stage a million times. I do a movie with Martin Lawrence and pretty soon they’re referring to me, 'hey, my n-----’s up.' So I’m the n----- if I’m around … Continue reading What else is “confusing to the European mind”?

Iraq Body Count figures for July 24: 37 civilians killed IBC total to-date for July, 2013: 759 civilians killed The AP reports 42 dead today, which is likely low because somehow they're only counting 550 killed in Iraq this month when the number is probably much higher than that (I can't say that the IBC … Continue reading The Daily Iraq: 25 July 2013

The little Google bio for John S. Dickerson tells us that he "is a Christian pastor, author and a nationally-awarded American journalist." He wrote a book called The Great Evangelical Recession, and I don't plan on reading it, but I'd like to find out if it contains any warning labels about John S. Dickerson's Christianity. … Continue reading First they let Muslims write books, and I did not speak out because I was not a Fox News hack

I wanted to link to this piece written by Juan Cole on Monday because he does a much better job of saying something I tried to say a couple of weeks ago. Last week a rocket attack by Syrian rebels struck on or near the grounds of the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque outside Damascus. Zaynab was … Continue reading More on sectarianism

Iraq Body Count figures for July 23: 38 civilians killed IBC total to-date for July, 2013: 722 civilians killed AP reporting 17 more killed today in multiple attacks. The biggest attack again came around Mosul, whose status as a "disputed" city (with a Sunni Arab majority but in a province claimed by the Kurds) seems … Continue reading The Daily Iraq: 24 July 2013

Iraq Body Count figures for July 22: 28 civilians killed IBC total to-date for July, 2013: 684 civilians killed Agency France Presse reported another 28 killed on Tuesday in attacks on two Sunni mosques in Kirkuk and one in Baghdad, while a fourth bomb exploded outside the Imam Ali Mosque in Qut, which, despite AFP … Continue reading The Daily Iraq: 23 July 2013

Last week, as it looked like Harry Reid was going to invoke the "Nuclear Option," if we've defined the term "nuclear" down to mean "allow the President to fill vacancies in his administration without repeated and unprecedented interference from the minority party in the Senate," which seems like a pretty lame definition of "nuclear," a … Continue reading John McCain: against the filibuster on nominees before he was for it, before he was against it, before…

At ForeignPolicy.com, Brent Sasley paints a more optimistic picture of Israeli domestic politics, and how they might impact the possibility of new negotiations with the Palestinians, than I did yesterday. The pessimistic scenario says that Netanyahu himself is a right-wing nut to begin with, leading a Likud Party that has lurched from center-right to hard-right, … Continue reading Still hope for peace talks?

Iraq Body Count figures have not been updated for July 21. At least 25 were killed, three of them civilians, in a suicide attack on an army convoy in Mosul. Another attack in a different part of Mosul killed 4 police officers. Mosul is something of a disputed city, since it has a Sunni Arab … Continue reading The Daily Iraq: 22 July 2013

It's looking more and more like John Kerry's announcement Friday of a new round of peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians may have been premature. Over the weekend it became clear that what Secretary Kerry announced was not that there will be new talks, but that both sides had expressed an interest in … Continue reading Over before it gets started? (Israel-Palestine)