It’s winter solstice time. to be precise it happened at 00:22 UTC this morning, 22 December, 2006. You already know that the solstice marks the fewest hours of daylight until this time next year (9 hours 20 min in Central Illinois; we gain 1 second of daylight tomorrow), but I bet you don’t know that [...]
Thank God I voted first | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited Competence, of course, brings us back to Iraq. Apparently, and unfortunately, Bush is right that the Democrats have no “plan for victory”. (Neither does he, of course.) For national security in general, the Democrats’ plan is mostly about new cash benefits for veterans. [...]
A Mormon in the white house? I don’t quite know what to think about the “White Horse” prophecy. My Christian world-view tends to regard it as a “gift” from God that may remind us that we voters in the US usually get what we deserve. And that God may have in ironic sense of humor. [...]
If you share my morbid curiosity about the Middle East, and if you are up to reading a long analysis of the situation, this article’s for you. I found it illuminating, but Your Mileage May Vary. Foreign Affairs – The New Middle East – Richard N. Haass THE END OF AN ERA Just over two [...]
Harry Levins writes about military matters for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In today’s column he reflects on professional armed forces vs. the draft. A recent article in Proceedings, a magazine aimed at military readers, has caused Levins to rethink his anti-draft position. The article was written by Navy Captain John Byron, who wrote, Thirty years [...]
This interesting article compares the election of 2006 with 1958 when Eisenhower was president. Niall Ferguson’s thesis makes a lot of sense. We’ll find out how apt his comparison is an another week or so. Niall Ferguson: 1958 and today’s GOP A better analogy may be 1958, when the Republicans lost 48 House seats (giving [...]
I’m not all that sure that Peggy Noonan is right here, but it’s worth reading. OpinionJournal – Peggy Noonan But the temperature of the world is very high, and maybe we’re not stuck in a continuum but barreling down a dark corridor. The problem with heated words now is that it’s not the old world [...]
I’ve been mildly curious about what the pope said to pull the Islamist chain, but not curious enough to actually read his lecture. The talking heads have now had their say, and I hoped that soon someone would say something about the brouhaha that actually makes sense. Kathleen Parker of the Trib finally came to [...]
As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, everyone is putting on their wise-retrospective beanies and pontificating about the significance of the twin-towers attack. Now it’s my turn, but first read this: Guardian WatchBlog Five years ago, I cared for little outside my own circle of friends and family. Caring was for fools and patriotism mostly nostalgic [...]
How worried should we be about Iran’s alleged nuclear program? I probably wouldn’t have thought about wondering, but I have been reading too many thrillers based on the turmoil in the Mideast. [...]
