Pyongyang wants you to know that it didn't hack Sony but it's also SUPER MAD about "The Interview" and it will WREAK TERRIBLE VENGEANCE on all of us for such a flagrant insult: While steadfastly denying involvement in the hack, North Korea accused U.S. President Barack Obama of calling for "symmetric counteraction." "The DPRK has … Continue reading Yappy North Korea demands attention, and we should stop giving it to them

I've been trying to think of what to say about the tragic and senseless murder of those two NYPD officers in Brooklyn last night, or the one who was killed in Florida, and about the people who are now using those deaths as an excuse to attack the Michael Brown and Eric Garner protesters, but … Continue reading Read Jamelle Bouie on police and protesters

Yesterday I noted that it's still not clear to a lot of observers that North Korea is actually behind the Sony Pictures hack. Around the time I was writing that post, the FBI was releasing a statement definitively laying responsibility for the hack at Pyongyang's door. Here's their case: As a result of our investigation, … Continue reading The undisclosed evidence better be good

Iraq's Kurds have reportedly finally broken ISIS's encirclement of Mount Sinjar and rescued the Yazidis who have been struggling to stay alive there. That's clearly an excellent thing, even if relief efforts are currently being hampered by mines that ISIS laid in the area. Also good, presumably, are reports that three top ISIS leaders in … Continue reading Good news in Iraq, terrible news in Syria

At Al Jazeera, Michael Pizzi asks: No. Well, I hate talking in absolutes about the future, so let's go with "most likely not, at least not without some conciliatory moves by the West." Pizzi makes a good case for why almost anybody else would back down in Putin's situation: But the collapse of the ruble … Continue reading Simple Answers to Simple Questions, 19 December 2014 #2

Over at EvenTheLiberalAlthoughNowItsActuallyDead New Republic, Yishai Schwartz takes a break from cheering on the killing of children in Gaza and hilariously overreacting to recent developments with respect to Cuba to ask this question: The answer is simple but multi-part: Apart from the government saying "trust us, it's North Korea" (which, you know, fool me once...) … Continue reading Simple Answers to Simple Questions, 19 December 2014 #1

Pat Robertson is 723 years old, so maybe it's unfair to note when his brains don't work too good, but really? In comments made on his show "The 700 Club" on ABC Family that were then posted on YouTube by Right Wing Watch, Robertson replied: "You know those who are homosexual will die out because … Continue reading Area man sure gays must have all died out centuries ago

People who really understand Pakistan are trying to make some sense of Tuesday's horrific school attack by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). Ostensibly the attack was meant as retaliation for a recent Pakistani military campaign in Waziristan that has reportedly killed hundreds of Taliban fighters (and, undoubtedly, a considerable number of children in its own right). … Continue reading The TTP’s internal weakness and the Peshawar school attack

In case you missed it, and you almost certainly did, the last chance to make any progress in the P5+1-Iran talks before the new Congress scuttles the whole negotiating process came and went this week with little fanfare. This round of negotiations was conducted in Geneva at the deputy foreign minister level, which explains the … Continue reading Come and gone

Well, today was a real downer if you're a fan of decades-long, body-laden exercises in Latin America-based futility. Along with the announcement that the U.S. and Cuba would begin normalizing relations, the Colombian Marxist paramilitary group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, declared an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire in its fifty year long rebellion against … Continue reading FARC (tentatively) ends 50 year rebellion in Colombia