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

Turkey seems to have had a change of heart over Kobani: Turkey’s foreign minister said Monday that the country would facilitate the movement of Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to the embattled Syrian town of Kobani to join the fighting there. At a news conference in Ankara, the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, … Continue reading And we didn’t even have to destroy NATO to do it

Republican legislators who have criticized President Obama's use of unconfirmed "czars" demand the appointment of an "Ebola czar." This Ebola czar's job would be pretty much what the Surgeon General should be doing right now, only the country doesn't have a Surgeon General at the moment because Republican legislators won't allow a vote on Obama's … Continue reading Everything you need to know about this Congress in one story

Two people have contracted Ebola in the United States, so obviously it's time to panic: While we flail around proposing counterproductive policy like flight bans to and from West Africa and pointless gibberish like "close the Mexican border to keep the Ebola terrorists out," one debate worth having is, you know, how do you like … Continue reading BREAKING: Nice things cost money

The BBC is reporting that Daesh is being "driven out" of the areas of Kobani that it had previously occupied: Speaking by phone, Kurdish commander Baharin Kandal told the BBC's Kasra Naji that she hoped the city would be "liberated soon". Ms Kandal said her militia group had been receiving arms, supplies and fighters but … Continue reading Tide turned in Kobani?

For once, let's talk about Iran without bringing up the elephant in the room, by which obviously I mean the shocking revelation that Iranians seem to regularly have and even enjoy sex. No, wait, I mean the nuclear talks. The nuclear talks. Let's ignore them for today. Iran has a serious religious freedom problem. The … Continue reading America’s Middle Eastern hypocrisy, part infinity of infinity