- Proverbs for Paranoids, 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.—Gravity’s Rainbow
‘Is it about a bicycle?’ he asked.—The Third Policeman Categories
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Tags
- Armenia
- art
- blogging
- Cleveland
- cycling
- daily life
- ecology
- education
- family
- fauna
- food
- genocide
- Great Britain
- hearth and home
- history
- humor/farce
- Iraq
- Israel
- language
- literature
- mathematics
- media
- Middle East
- militarism
- music
- mysteries
- nature
- patriotism
- philosophy
- phone
- photography
- politics
- privacy
- psychology
- religion
- Russia
- science
- security
- Slovenia
- technology
- terror/-ism
- Turkey
- TV
- U.S.
- Washington DC
Archives
Our Pledge
You will never see an ad here. If you want or need something, we trust you will be able to want or need it without us planting the urge or ache. You certainly do not need our help finding what your heart desires on the internet.- “When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.”—H.G. Wells
More bicycle quotations »
Tag Archives: politics
Terrific
For fans of the “war on terror,” the last few days have been downright terrorlicious. Other minds more loquacious and quicker with their fingers have explained why they preferred not to mark the anniversary of an attack by a handful of … Continue reading
Willpower
Ever since the news of the foiled alleged liquid-explosive multiple-airliner plot in the UK, I’ve been racking my brain trying to recall where I’d read that the primary approach to terrorism should be internationally cooperative police work, not large-scale military operations, but … Continue reading
Posted in Agora
Tagged Iraq, media, Middle East, militarism, politics, security, terror/-ism
2 Comments
Virtues
The thought once occurred to me, years ago, late at night as I was doing the dishes: “Would Henry Kissinger do the things he does, and think the things he thinks, if he did his own dishes?” What I had … Continue reading
FOIA
Happy Birthday, Freedom of Information Act! Forty years old today. Having just watched Syriana, which purports to show how the world really works, I can say I fully endorse the headline of Jimmy Carter’s commentary: We Need Fewer Secrets. And … Continue reading
Clarification
Yesterday I asked a quasi-rhetorical question: … but would this administration be smart enough to accept the invitation to depart? This obviously assumes the US has the best interests of Iraqis at heart. There are several competing assumptions: The Iraq invasion … Continue reading
InstaPudhead
Why I don’t read InstaPundit. (I know you’ve been dying to know.) I don’t bother with Mickey Kaus either. That guy’s always on the verge of making sense, but never really does. Wait a minute—if I start listing all the … Continue reading
Neighbors
Memorable lines come flying unbidden … Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. Writing at Slate, Shmuel … Continue reading
Pugilist
Since his campaign headquarters is on the same block as my illustrious place of daytime employ, James Webb‘s thumbnail self-characterization is constantly popping up during my periodic escapes from the asylum.* The former Assistant Secretary of Defense (under Reagan) is … Continue reading
Boonies
Salon has passed on a wire service report about a Russian journalist arrested for making fun of Vladimir Putin: The article was published by Vladimir Rakhmankov, editor of the online newspaper Kursiv in the central city of Ivanovo, said Andrei … Continue reading
Shattered
Even Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor at large at Sun Myung-Moon’s Washington Times and United Press International, thinks the Putin-bashing is excessive: Beating up on Russia’s shrinking democracy has become a geopolitical blood sport from Vice President Dick Cheney down to … Continue reading
