By: Thomas Macias Chavista strategists have decided its best course of action is to run Chavez for president for a fifth time, only this time by proxy. Read more »
Close reading, Synoptic- and Sembl-style, for parallels, patterns
[ by Charles Cameron -- if we omit all mention of the Qur'an, will the jihad perhaps disappear, you think? ] . On Friday, Oct. 29, 2004, just before the 2004 US Presidential Election, a videotaped speech by Osama bin Laden was released online and variously reported: . . Being a theologian at heart, I’ve [...] Read more »
US Foreign Policy, Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood
The Obama administration, though they would not characterize it as such nor have much desire to acknowledge it at all, have attempted a strategic detente with the “moderate” elements of political Islam. This policy has not been entirely consistent; Syria, for example, is a quagmire the administration has wisely refrained from wading directly into despite [...] Read more »
A Tale of Two Victories and Two Falls
My co-blogger Charles Cameron is fond of his “DoubleQuotes” postings that feature frequently uncomfortable juxtapositions designed to prod thinking. Here’s a wordier one from me: ….Planning for a second term has been under way for months, with Lew and Pete Rouse, the counselor to the president and Obama’s internal management guru, preparing lists of possible [...] Read more »
A Qualit’s tribute to Quants
[ by Charles Cameron -- now the election dust has settled, let's hear it for Nate Silver, Megyn Kelly, Zeynep Tufekci and xkcd ] . . I’m about as Qualit as you can get on the Qualit vs Quant side of things, and if I had a bête grise, it might well be statistics. Why? [...] Read more »
The Republican Party: A Strategic View
Generally, I eschew writing about partisan politics, but like everyone else in America – and possibly a plurality of the planet – today the election was a topic of discussion, deconstruction and debate for me. President Obama and his supporters are reveling in their victory, Republicans and conservatives are organizing circular firing squads, but the [...] Read more »
Fortitude Down the Stretch
By: Butch Bracknell The challenges that our nation will face over the next four years measure up in quality and quantity against the yardstick of history - so stay strong down the stretch. Read more »
The Person / Position Paradox: once more, with avatars
[ by Charles Cameron -- a follow up to my previous post -- and it's not religion that's the alternate reality this time, but games ] . . I just posted a long and potentially contentious post about what I called a person / position paradox: that of the member of the US House Committee [...] Read more »
The Twilight War—a review
[by J. Scott Shipman] The Twilight War, The Secret History of America’s Thirty-year Conflict with Iran, by David Crist When President Obama made a heartfelt opening, a smug Iranian leadership viewed it as a ruse or the gesture of a weak leader. Iran spurned him. Obama fell back on sanctions and CENTCOM; Iran fell back [...] Read more »
Islamism and Dissent vs. Identity in the Voting Booth
by Jeffry R. Halverson* “If a group of people feels that it has been humiliated and that its honor has been trampled underfoot, it will want to express its identity.” [...] Read more »