So I've been trying to get myself knowledgeable enough about what's happening in Ukraine to write about it, and events are just blowing past me while lots of people who already know quite a bit about the region are writing excellent, thoughtful pieces breaking the whole situation down. Please seek them out and read them. … Continue reading If you’re watching Ukraine right now, pay special attention to Crimea

Step 1: Get a prominent job in politics Step 2: Write a book, ideally something salacious; for example, you could defend torture as a legitimate practice in counter-terrorism Step 3: Get hired as a columnist for the worst editorial page in America Step 4: Kick back, collect the bucks from your sinecure, and churn out … Continue reading How to be a big-time news-paper columnist, just like Marc Thiessen

RNC PR BS assures us that Hillary Clinton's inevitable 2016 campaign will allow the Republicans to recycle all the Greatest Hits of the 90s: ABUHWHA???!?!?!?!!? A pass? "I don't see how someone just gets a pass"? Is that what the anagram said or did I black out? SERIOUSLY? "A PASS"? With all due respect, Mr. … Continue reading Thank goodness we won’t be giving Bill Clinton a pass over that thing he got impeached about

I've written briefly about Qatar's kind of horrific system of indentured servitude before, but they've been under increased scrutiny for their labor practices of late. Qatar imports almost all of its labor force, and that's understandable; with only about 300,000 or so Qatari citizens they are kind of forced to bring labor in from the … Continue reading It’s perfectly normal to have a few hundred migrant workers drop dead every year

Chevron blew up a couple fracking wells near Bobtown, PA, a week ago, which left one worker presumed dead and gifted the town with natural gas leaking into the air and a soon-to-be heavily contaminated groundwater supply. So they did what any responsible corporation would do, and offered the residents of Bobtown a gift certificate … Continue reading You have the power (and also a free pizza and soda)

...arguing that climate change is a real danger and that the federal government must take action to address it, please welcome Newt Gingrich 2008! Opposing him, arguing that climate change "hasn't been proven," and calling on the current Secretary of State to resign for suggesting that climate change is a serious threat to American security … Continue reading In the Crossfire tonight!

It's been a bit of a rough month or so for President Obama's ambassadorial nominees, which may have something to do with the fact that he keeps appointing people too comically inept to make it through a confirmation hearing without sounding like babbling idiots. Some highlights: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate … Continue reading How much for that ambassadorship in the window?

Remember how TLC used to stand for "The Learning Channel," before they realized that there's not that much money to be made in TV programs that help people learn things? Now TLC teaches us about families that have lots of babies, and about families that have LOTS of babies, and about families that exploit those … Continue reading Channel initials that don’t mean anything anymore

This is what it looked like outside ATTWIW Worldwide HQ at around 10 this morning, after some warmer temperatures and a light misty rain had actually melted some of the snow we got overnight: For more perspective, here's what it looked like as I was about a third of the way through the hour plus … Continue reading I heard that Al Gore uses electricity at his house and flies in an aero-plane sometimes

Friends, as a Very Serious Foreign Policy Thinker, I have many Very Serious Ideas about good places for American troops to go and intervene all over everybody. I would like to share with you ten current "hot-spots" and the rationale for or against (SPOILER ALERT: mostly for!) American military intervention there: Syria: The obvious pick. … Continue reading Your Very Serious Guide to Future American Military Adventures