Online journalism is running headlong into its own funeral pyre. Outlets are increasingly turning over content to places like Facebook, where more people might see it, but where it becomes increasingly difficult to find a financial model that can actually sustain the business of paying people to write and report about stuff. Enter Twitter, which … Continue reading Say, could these two things be related?

Has Saudi Arabia put Jimmy Malone in charge of selecting targets in Yemen? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZ6eaL3S2E Well, maybe: Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out airstrikes against the Iranian embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, which it claimed left a number of guards wounded and damaged its diplomatic building, although witnesses said the compound was intact. Tensions … Continue reading Well, if it’s bad for the goose…

Thanks to The Federalist's M.G. Oprea for explaining to us all that people who try to properly pronounce foreign words of an Islamical derivation are clearly ISIS sleeper agents: You may have noticed something different in the way some people, including various presidential candidates, talk about Islam depending on whether they are Republicans or Democrats. … Continue reading Your PATRIOTIC AMERICAN GUIDE to pronouncing terrorist words like a REAL AMERICAN

I'm tired of doing that "welcome to 2016" thing, but here's another story that doesn't bode all that well for the new year, this time out of Ukraine: Highly destructive malware that infected at least three regional power authorities in Ukraine led to a power failure that left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity … Continue reading Maybe doomsday preppers are on to something

Yeah, so a funny thing happened right around the time I was trying to put the blog away last night. First, a 5.1 seismic event was detected near North Korea's usual nuclear testing site, which Pyongyang quickly confirmed was a nuclear test. In fact, they announced that North Korea had just tested its first hydrogen … Continue reading Welcome to the glorious H-Bomb of Justice

(OK, last one of these--I hope) So, uh, in case you'd forgotten about North Korea in all the craziness... A 5.1 magnitude earthquake has been detected in North Korea, close to a site previously used for nuclear tests. Chinese and South Korea officials said there were indications the tremor was man-made, meaning the North may … Continue reading Welcome to 2016: how’s your bomb shelter looking?

Over at Slate, Josh Keating has a rundown of the Obama administration's hilariously convoluted attempts to condemn Saudi Arabia's mass execution of political prisoners without really condemning it: Saudi Arabia is a U.S. ally, obviously and unfortunately, and no one seriously expects the U.S. to take major diplomatic action over this, but these circumlocutions are … Continue reading Overlooking the bad things our pals do

Although there may still be some pockets of ISIS resistance that need to be cleared out, it appears that the Iraqi army has retaken the city of Ramadi. It will take some time to fully secure the surrounding countryside and to clear the city of any IEDs the retreating ISIS fighters may have left behind, … Continue reading Ramadi and its aftermaths

(fifth and hopefully last in a series; see parts one, two, three, and four) Today's 2016 crisis isn't as acute as yesterdays crises, and it's a bit of a long-shot, but it's potentially pretty big: if you're a fan of the Palestinian Authority, you may need to start preparing yourself for a future in which … Continue reading Welcome to 2016: are generators pretty inexpensive these days?

(fourth in a short series: here are part one, part two, and part three) This tweet is so good, I'm stealing it: https://twitter.com/sexypitabread/status/683716453388828672 Now, I am no expert in the details of grazing rights or the Bureau of Land Management and its long history of conflict with western ranchers (or the apparent connection with Mormonism). … Continue reading Welcome to 2016: don’t forget potable water, it’s very important