Until yesterday, Senator Mark Kirk, from my old home state of Illinois, was one of the few elected Republicans willing to acknowledge the reality of climate change and man's impact on it. Then this happened: Kirk, who was serving in the House at the time but is now running for reelection in the Senate, described … Continue reading Money always talks

I was away from the blog yesterday (and most of today, for that matter; that's what happens when they cancel school and you have a car that needs a new battery) when news broke of the unspeakable terrorist attack on the offices of the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. I'm not sure I could have … Continue reading Provocation is the point

Everybody, meet John P. Hannah: John's illustrious career in public service included a brief period in the Bush State Department as an aide to John Bolton in the Office of Arms Control and International Security (2001), followed by stints as Dick Cheney's Deputy Assistant for National Security Affairs (2001-2005), his Assistant for National Security Affairs … Continue reading Yes, Dick Cheney’s former national security adviser, let’s try war with Iran; what could go wrong?

If you're like me (and you're reading this blog so, duh), you're a big fan of Frederick County (MD) commissioner Kirby Delauter. Oh, ha ha ha, I can practically hear you saying "who the hell is Kirby Delauter?" right now, because you are obviously making a joke, and I really love the fact that you … Continue reading Kirby Delauter (yes, that Kirby Delauter) upset that reporter used Kirby Delauter’s name in article about Kirby Delauter

My newest at LobeLog looks at some cautiously optimistic developments in the Iran nuclear negotiations (unconfirmed reports that the Iranians have agreed to ship a substantial portion of their uranium stockpiles to Russia for conversion to fuel rods, comments from Rouhani that suggest he's beginning to make the domestic political case in favor of a … Continue reading Up at LobeLog: Signs of momentum on the Iran talks, but can negotiators act before Congress does?

Late last week Egypt's Court of Cassation, its highest appellate court, ordered a retrial for the three Al Jazeera journalists -- Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed -- who were arrested there in December 2013 for reporting that was deemed too sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood (you know, because Real Democracies like Egypt often … Continue reading Egypt is retrying three Al Jazeera journalists

Welcome back to our show, folks. There's a lot of world news to talk about and I'm working on a little Islamic History when I find the time, and we'll be getting to that stuff as the week rolls on and in between my attempts to do a little paid work here and there. But … Continue reading Speaker is as Speaker does

If I were a steadily employed person who regularly commuted to a workplace and had to fill his tank frequently, I'd probably be harping about low gas prices all the time. "Have you seen how low gas has gotten?" I'd say. "Man, gas was twice this expensive just a few months ago," I would remark, … Continue reading Saudi Arabia and oil prices

Forward: Kurdish forces liberated Sinjar and saved a whole bunch of Yazidis from their desperate straits in the mountains around the town. Back: ISIS has probably regained control of the key refinery town of Baiji from the Iraqi army, though while they likely have retaken the town it's not clear that they've captured the refinery … Continue reading Iraq: 2 steps forward, 1 step back

Of all the things Kiev could have done to try to defuse its conflicts with its eastern rebels and their Russian backers, this was definitely, um, a thing that they did anyway: Ukraine's parliament has voted to drop the country's non-aligned status and work towards Nato membership. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the move … Continue reading Ukraine and NATO, sitting in a tree…