So this post–like some others–is meant to be diagnostic. It’s a postmodern and conservative observation on who sophisticated Americans think they are these days. As an attempt to be an […]
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One really never knows what one will find cruising around the jihadi forums. The other day I came across a pretty interesting thread asking who was the true Amir al-Mu’minin. […]
The military is investigating the first-ever U.S. casualties due to drone warfare. Today Big Think takes a look at a day in the life of a drone operator and the psychological stress that remote warfare puts on our troops.
On a day filled with tragic images of the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, it seems absurd to blog about anything else. As advertised, this is […]
A year ago I wrote a piece in the National entitled “Yemen’s Coming Power Struggle.”* Much of the article focuses on what I saw then as the coming battle between […]
If you read as much about art as I do, things that seem unrelated on the surface tend to pool together in the eddies of my consciousness. Two unrelated concepts […]
Today’s papers are, as you can imagine, full of stories about Muhammad al-‘Awfi and how and when he turned himself in or was captured.CNN has this story on al-‘Awfi that […]
[This is Post 3 for my guest blogging stint at The Des Moines Register.] Archimedes said “Give me a lever long enough and I can move the world.” This week […]
So I’ve said before evolution is getting more personal. I’m now going to say a few things about the personal point of view of our time. I’m just trying to […]
Greg mentioned below that there is news about the Huthi rebellion being drowned out a little by all the AQAP coverage. For those new to the blog, we won’t get […]
My goal for June: 30 days, 30 book reviews. This post is a review of Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling by Rick Hess. My short recommendation? I […]
Friday December 17 marked the one year anniversary of the US air strikes in Majalla, which killed, along with some al-Qaeda operatives, a number of women and children. The incident […]
I got a few messages on Twitter the other day about Keith Olbermann’s abrupt departure from his perch at MSNBC. But I’ve never been a fan of Olbermann’s style of […]
One of the difficulties of following or writing about Yemen is that alarmism tends to become a series of “oh, and also”, which lessenes its impact. Right now it looks […]
In today’s version of the daily papers – late, as usual- I attempt to comment on all three of Yemen’s security crises.Al-QaedaFirst, up is the al-Qaeda threat and the finances […]
A whole generation of only children is coming of age in China, notes the NYU professor. What will their mentality mean for business, government, and foreign policy?
Maureen Dowd brought it up, but we are happy she did: it’s an excellent time to remember Kipling, and in particular to remember his most celebrated line from “Arithmetic on […]
It’s the season for highlighting the best that was written, said, and done in 2010. The consensus is emerging that the most thoughtful TV show (and so the one that […]
One of the great fallacies of our time is that of American reasonableness—a fantasy that obscures the violent and often contradictory actions of many of this country’s citizens and its government.
We’ve been reading a lot lately about the rediscovered remnants of the Pink and White Terraces (also known as Te Tarata and Otukapurangi) near Mt. Tarawera in New Zealand, but […]
As noted below, the Yemeni Parliament has overwhelming agreed to postpone elections for two years, pushing them to the futuristic 2011. The Yemen Observer, taking an angle I hadn’t thought […]
To say I’m busy this week is the understatement of the year – we have our finalist coming in to interview and that eats more time than you might imagine […]
My goal for June: 30 days, 30 book reviews. This post is a review of The Future of Management by Gary Hamel (and Bill Breen). My short recommendation? This book […]
Or, could Call of Duty: Black Ops take precedence on syllabi over The Illiad? This question has fresh relevance when considering Charlie Crist’s current dilemma: to pardon, or not, the […]
Like Satan, he is known by many names—Sinterklaas, Père Noël, Tomte—but we Americans call him Santa Claus. The long white beard, red outfit, reindeer, etc., all seem like givens to […]
Here are my notes from Day 2 of the World Technology Summit. I’ve been hangin’ with Dr. John Nash, my colleague at ISU. Today we learned about India’s Barefoot College […]
On November 7th, Pope Benedict XVIconsecratedAntoni Gaudí’s weirdly wonderful masterpiece of religious architecture, the Sagrada Família (shown above). The Catholic Church tends to distrust anything modern these days, so seeing it […]
Imagine being a soldier in Afghanistan today. Your platoon is attacked by a group of insurgents who set your outpost on fire. In the chaos and confusion, you step into a pile […]
“Telling the history of art without the history of gay people is like telling the history of slavery without mentioning black people,” says David C. Ward, curator of Hide/Seek: Difference […]
I recently wrote of the bear pit into which habitual ‘Twitterers’ can fall, and today the British newspapers are full of writer and broadcaster, Stephen Fry’s Twitter comments about women […]