Two American journalists working for Current TV demonstrated a rather poor sense of geography and got themselves captured on the south side of the Yalu River. For their trouble, they won a 140-day trip through the North Korean penal system, a journey that only ended when Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang and got them out. [...]
Archive for the ‘Military’ Category
Lunch in Pyongyang
Posted in Foreign Policy, Foreigners, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Military, North Korea, Obama, War on Terror, Weapons of Mass Destruction on August 7, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Declaring Victory
Posted in John McCain, Military, Obama, War on Terror, Weapons of Mass Destruction on July 31, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The conventional wisdom seems to be that Vietnam was a bad war because we lost. Pity, because the tragedy is that there was nothing there to win. It is a distinction that I fear has been lost among our political leadership on both sides of the aisle. It’s easy to imagine war as capture the [...]
Waterloo
Posted in Foreigners, Health Care, Military, Obama on July 29, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Jim DeMint believes health care will be the President’s Waterloo: He may be right…but I’m not sure Waterloo is the metaphor he thinks it is.
Tranquility Base
Posted in Corruption, Foreigners, Industrial Policy, Inspirational, Military, Miscellaneous on July 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Forty years yesterday man walked on the moon. It was a beautiful accomplishment, perhaps the fitting coda to the giant waves of nationalism that engulfed the planet from 1914-1945. It was also, like any piece of pure art, completely pointless.
Silk Road
Posted in Africa, China, Foreigners, Germany, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Russia, South Asia, War on Terror on July 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »
And then the riots were in China: This shouldn’t be surprising. It just is.
Depart, I Say
Posted in George W. Bush, Middle East, Military, Obama, War on Terror on July 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In my sluggish attempt to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winners for General Nonfiction (damn you, Douglas Blackmon), I came across this from Norman Mailer’s The Armies of the Night. When reading it, consider that it was written in 1968, and at that point more than half the names on Maya Lin’s wall were [...]
Volatility
Posted in Basketball, Germany, Hockey, Meltdown, Military on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Catching up on missed reading and came across this exchange between Bill Simmons and Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell is a famous writer, but his talents are most obvious when commenting on sports – there are several other excellent social commentators, but a comp set that includes Dan Shaugnessy offers far more room to excel. Here is [...]
Terrible Criminals
Posted in Military on May 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Take a good look at this: Is that really the best target for the aspiring pirates of the world?
Self-awareness
Posted in Military, Miscellaneous on April 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
At what point in the preparation of a memo that is going to be distributed to the FAA, Secret Service, and NYPD requiring secrecy for an Air Force photo op over Manhattan do you catch yourself typing: the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes and think to [...]
Jane, You Ignorant Slut
Posted in Middle East, Military, War on Terror on April 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Jane Harman (D-CA), the minority leader of the House Intelligence Committee before the 2006 midterm elections, should have a special appreciation for the NSA’s signals intelligence ability. After all, she was one of the folks who approved the government’s warrantless wiretap program. War on Terror and all. Well, the good folks in Fort Meade have [...]
