Ogged

The Christian Left Atrios says (I think) that liberal hostility to religion is just a Republican talking point. That’s true, in the sense that most liberals are also religious. But isn’t it undeniable that “religious” and particularly “Christian” have come to be synonymous in politics with “conservative evangelical Christian?” Recovering the sense of “religious” as […]

The Secret Police The recent New Yorker article on Iranian exile groups isn’t online, but Jackmormon has a very good summary. The motivations of both the US and Iran are hard to read, but there’s one point that everyone should keep in mind. The Iranians in Iran–the ones who are speaking out, going to jail, […]

Happy To Help I’m sure we can all set aside the recent acrimony about religion and politics and agree that this proposed logo for the Republican Party is perfect.

No One Benefits Stunning news this morning that an unprescribed antibiotic–one that would have made his high blood pressure medication largely ineffective–was found in Slobodan Milosevic’s system. This is disastrous news for institutions of international justice, since it will be played as murder in a lot of the world. The tribunal maintains that Milosevic was […]

Competence The Dubai ports debacle, which to many people signaled for the first time the unseriousness of the administration with regard to national security, is the Democrat’s opportunity to finally change the context of the national security debate. Instead of playing “I’m tough too,” Democrats should talk about national security in terms of competence. In […]

Having A Plan My unimpeachable sources at the Powerline relate this development. It’s happening already. Waiters at New York City restaurants are starting to introduce themselves to customers by saying, ?I?m a blogger–I?m just doing this while I wait for my big break.? On the one hand, this is crazy. As the article apparently goes […]

Filling The Gap Insightful commenter “nut” writes, This is a remarkable moment. Amy writes a column without mentioning basketball or exhorting Democrats to be religious nuts. We can’t have that. Over at the great basketball blog, True Hoop, Henry Abbott notes the political contributions of several NBA players and owners. Unsurprisingly, 100% of the unlovable […]

The Pie Strategy You bastards already hate me. Probably. As the war in Iraq grinds into its fourth year, a growing proportion of Americans are expressing unfavorable views of Islam, and a majority now say that Muslims are disproportionately prone to violence, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. This is not only depressing, […]

The Condition of the Possibility of Mimesis Damn that Drum (to whom, many thanks). I wasn’t planning on doing any Swedish swim instructor blogging–my Swedish swim instructor having moved away–but I can’t just leave you all hanging, so… As my body began to creak more loudly on the basketball court, I decided to take up […]