Andrew Sabl

It’s often said that terrorist groups, are, compared to plain old states, a relatively minor threat to the security of the U.S. and other Western countries. That’s true. But due to their unique interest in failed rather than strong states, they’re a profound threat to the people who live where they’re based. I thought of […]

The President’s proposed jobs plan contains a provision that would bar employers from saying no currently unemployed people need apply for their jobs. Hit & Run’s Tim Cavanaugh doesn’t like it. He objects to creating a “new protected class” and thinks that barring employers from putting a no-jobless proviso in their job ads raises “First […]

The title of this post more or less speaks for itself, I think. I wish the issue did as well. Pamela Geller wants to run an ad in the New York subways that says opponents of Israel personify “the savage.” The ad is bigoted and idiotic (image below the fold, if one cares). But the […]

Headline from yesterday morning’s New York Times (fixed in the online edition, but with the original headline noted): “9/11 May Have Been Stopped but for High-Level Dysfunction, Ex-F.B.I. Agent Writes.” Even as conspiracy theories go, this one is extreme. I’ve never heard anyone claim before that the twin towers may not have fallen after all—that […]

What do you get when you cross a Jehovah’s Witness with a Unitarian? Someone who knocks on your door for no particular reason. I thought of that joke when reading James’ recent comment alluding to his (excellent) post from 2008 about how Obama’s grassroots movement was like the New Model Army. In both cases the […]

I’m the process of moving house, and admit that I got to Friday morning’s Krugman column 24 hours after every other blogger. But I couldn’t let this go. Quoth Krugman: For more than a year and a half — ever since President Obama chose to make deficits, not jobs, the central focus of the 2010 […]

Steve Benen notes, and has long noted, that Republican references to failed economics in Europe are inconsistent. We’re supposed to decry Europe as socialist for its high-speed rail, national health insurance, and value-added taxes, but love it as hard-headed for its austerity, tight money, and nuclear energy (well, in France anyway). Of course these references […]

This past weekend, I attended a workshop on the future of social conservatism. Though this was a somewhat odd experience for someone with my politics (which I stated openly), I’m determined not to get lazy by only talking to people I agree with. In the end I learned a lot and, I hope, contributed at […]

When the Israelites under Jephthah wanted to tell friend from foe, they famously asked those claiming to be on their side to say “shibboleth.” Those who couldn’t—who mangled it as “sibboleth” instead—weren’t Israelites (Judges 12:6). In English there are a few such hallmark sounds that non-native speakers find famously difficult, but we don’t talk about […]

Bruce Schneier’s talk on how we get risk wrong contains (per Ezra Klein’s summary—who has time to watch 21 minute nonfiction videos?) this observation: “What newspapers do is they repeat again and again rare risks. I tell people, if it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. Because, by definition, news is something that almost […]