A couple of weeks ago some enterprising "US official" declared that plans were in place for an Iraqi force to attempt to push ISIS out of Mosul in "April or May." This seemed like a pretty odd way to go about your business in a time of war. For one thing, no sooner had the … Continue reading Iraq (and Iran) are screwing up the fight against ISIS

Now that we've all put Bibi's Big Adventure in the rear view, it's probably worth mentioning that, while I've been taking it easy here on the site of late, the prognosis for the Iran talks is actually pretty good leading up to the March 24 (or 31, depending on who you ask) deadline for a … Continue reading With deadline looming, the Iran negotiations are actually making progress

If you want to play along with the fiction that Benjamin Netanyahu's big speech before Congress today had to do with anything apart from helping to goose Benjamin Netanyahu's suddenly waning reelection chances, then as I see it he had two main goals: Make the case that Iran wants a nuclear weapon and that a … Continue reading Bibi, it’s not rocket surgery

Sunday was the 35th anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice," the amazing 1980 Winter Olympics upset of the dominant Soviet national team by the amateur US team (a team that had lost to those same Soviets 10-3 in an exhibition a couple of weeks earlier). What gets lost in the remembrance of that game is … Continue reading Happy Gold Medal and/or Marbury v. Madison Day!

Is it possible that most Republican state legislators have never actually seen a woman before? BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho lawmaker received a brief lesson on female anatomy after asking if a woman can swallow a small camera for doctors to conduct a remote gynecological exam. The question Monday from Republican state Rep. Vito Barbieri … Continue reading “The toe bone connected to the heel bone, the heel bone connected to the foot bone…”

Well today certainly marks an important anniversary in the annals of the modern Middle East. Yes, that's right, 56 years ago today Great Britain organized six states in its Aden Protectorate in southern Arabia into the Federation of Arab Emirates of the South. A little more than 3 years later they would add nine more … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: February 11

The Alberto Nisman story just keeps spiraling in new and bizarre directions. The last time we checked, the Buenos Aires Herald reporter covering the story had fled the country in fear for his life. Since then, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has announced that she's going to get rid of her country's current Intelligence … Continue reading Seriously, what the hell is happening in Argentina?

The justifiable happiness over Al Jazeera reporter Peter Greste's "deportation" (i.e., release) by Egyptian authorities earlier this week has been understandably tempered by the worldwide horror over ISIS's latest display of inhumanity. It should also be tempered by the knowledge that Greste's two Al Jazeera colleagues, as well as dozens of other journalists who have … Continue reading Let’s not forget about Baher Mohammed

In the latest news from the 2016 circus clown cavalcade, Governor Chris "solitary confinement for anybody who visits Africa" Christie thinks that parents should be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not their children should be able to infect other people's infants with life-threatening yet thoroughly preventable diseases: Mr. Christie, when asked about the … Continue reading Is it too late to get Mitt back?

One of the things that got lost in my week of light blogging was that, on Sunday, Egyptians marked the fourth anniversary of the start of the Tahrir Square protests (I realize how misleading that is, since there were protests all over the country) that ultimately forced Hosni Mubarak from office. For a couple of … Continue reading The anniversary of Egypt’s revolution went about as you’d expect