At least two people are dead and one wounded after a counter-terrorism raid in Verviers, in eastern Belgium. It's obviously far too early to say whether this was a separate cell or somehow related to the Charle Hebdo attack and its related hostage incidents (or whether it was anything at all, innocent until proven guilty … Continue reading Your post-CH counter-terrorism roundup

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's answer to the Tea Party and connoisseur of fine vintage fear-based xenophobia, gave an interview to Al-Jazeera yesterday and offered this commentary on Islam and secular society: AJ: Do you believe then that, at a certain level, Islam as a religion is in some way incompatible with French values?  … Continue reading Dear Marine Le Pen: that’s not what “secular” means

Days after millions marched through the streets of Paris, ostensibly to show their support for free speech, French authorities have arrested 54 people for, um, saying Bad Stuff: At least 54 people have been detained by police in France for "defending or glorifying terrorism" in the wake of last week's attacks in Paris. Many of … Continue reading This is how you do Free Speech

At Al-Monitor, Arash Karami reports what might be an interesting development with respect to the nuclear talks: Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi has spoken on Iranian television about the political and technical setbacks in the most recent nuclear talks between Iran the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1). ... … Continue reading One Iran/P5+1 gap appears to narrow

NOTE: When I wrote this I had not yet heard of Robin Pierson's excellent "History of Byzantium" podcast. You can keep reading this if you like, but I think you'd be better off going and listening to the episode on the Nika Revolt, here, though you should probably start with the episode before it for … Continue reading The day a bunch of hooligans almost toppled the Emperor

There's no evidence-based reason why cities shell out hundreds of millions of dollars to build new sports stadiums for teams that are owned by billionaires. The economic benefits that are supposed to accrue to a city from the presence of big league sports franchises and from the crowds they attract to their games almost never … Continue reading Civic blackmail, NFL (MLB, NBA, NHL) style

Estimates on the exact size vary, but millions of people marched in Paris yesterday to show support for freedom of press and opposition to Islamic extremism. I guess. I mean, I don't doubt the motives of the vast majority of the people who participated in that march. It was an inspiring show of strength in … Continue reading Reacting to the reaction to Paris

The U.S. Army Central Command's Twitter and YouTube feeds were hacked today, possibly by ISIS or someone sympathetic to ISIS (although the possibility that the hacker is just maximizing the LULZ cannot be ruled out): The first rogue tweet was posted about 12:30 p.m. It appeared to come from sympathizers with the Islamic State militant … Continue reading WELL THIS IS REASSURING

Remember the other day when we looked at a delightful "bomb, bomb Iran" piece from Dick Cheney's former National Security Adviser, John P. Hannah? Well, we need to revisit that piece briefly. See, in the midst of a rant about the efficacy of military action in preventing states from developing WMD, which was mostly a … Continue reading I’m sure this is central to his point

Without minimizing what's happening in France, let's also note that Boko Haram may have just killed 2000 people in a sustained assault on the northeast Nigerian town of Baga: It’s not clear how many people were killed in Baga. Early reports on Thursday said hundreds. Others said it was many more. Musa Alhaji Bukar, a … Continue reading Bad all over