Any candidates or would-be candidates out there who might happen upon this, let me offer you some advice. I am not a veteran of the war room or the trenches or whatever dumb war metaphor you people like to use to describe taking money from very rich people to pay for the advice of other … Continue reading Free political advice

The Washington Post's editorial board wrote a pretty blistering attack on Bernie Sanders and his "fiction-filled campaign" last night. It includes a few fair points--Sanders does tend to brush off questions about the very real legislative challenges his agenda would face with a lot of way-too-optimistic talk about "political revolutions" and the like--and a bunch … Continue reading The opposite effect

The Nation has a very interesting piece today by Madeleine Schwartz called "The Origins of the Blood Libel." It's a book review for E.M. Rose's The Murder of William of Norwich, which I haven't read so I can't say whether it's worth reading or not, but the review at least is definitely worth your time. … Continue reading Your blood libel reading for today

Rio de Janeiro, as you may know, is hosting the Olympics this August. I'm sure many people are very excited. I'm not sure that any potential participants in the open-water swimming or sailing events are too excited, though, since it appears they'll be competing in the microbial equivalent of an open sewer: A new round … Continue reading Looking ahead to the 2016 Summer Poolympics

Sorry for the light posting today. I realized that I'm very backed up on paid projects and was able to clear one of those and part of another. While we're on the subject, posting may be light for the rest of the week while I try to get back on top of things. Also, I … Continue reading Watching Moldova

Lake Poopó, which was once Bolivia's second-largest lake, is now gone, its water content down to a shocking 2% of what it once was. A few days ago, NASA released a satellite image showing the extent of the situation, which resembles nothing so much as the destruction of the Aral Sea in Central Asia. And … Continue reading Trashing the place

Militias like these Bundy folks in Oregon are always talking about how they want to take America back to whatever they imagine its founders intended. Their group calls itself "Citizens for Constitutional Freedom," for example, and Ammon Bundy apparently thinks he's the new George Washington. My question is, have any of these people ever read … Continue reading Whatever happened to “the consent of the governed”?

Aside from getting people to talk about Michael Bloomberg, Michael Bloomberg's presidential campaign is apparently about one thing: making sure that America's political and financial establishment don't lose control of the country to those damn primary voters after all. That's the only thing I can gather from reading things like this: If Republicans were to … Continue reading Rescuing democracy from the voters

The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, announced earlier today that this week's Syrian peace talks in Geneva--which were supposed to happen today--will instead be held on Friday. Presumably, this is because "Friday" is the last work day of the week, and he could not have announced that they were being held … Continue reading Talking just to hear themselves talk

Salon's Ben Norton reports that America's dear Saudi partners appear to be deliberately targeting medical aid workers in Yemen through the use of "double-tap" and even "triple-tap" airstrikes: A Saudi-led coalition airstrike struck the ambulance of the Doctors Without Borders-supported Al Gomhoury Hospital in Yemen’s Saada governorate on Friday, killing the driver, who was a … Continue reading Shared values on display in Yemen