Yesterdays Washington Post ran a guest column by Ron Asmus in which he lays out an argument for using NATO to contain Iran if it develops nuclear weapons. The plan calls for bringing Israel formally within NATO as a way of making the implicit defensive commitments the West shares with Israel more formal and therefore more credible.The column is less than impressive. The greatest problem with the piece is that Asmus manages to go the entire column without discussing the fissile elephant in the room: Israel's nuclear capability. Why is this a problem? Because his argument makes no sense once...

It appears as if the Horowitz crowd is conducting an on-line straw poll to identify the "worst" of the 101 most dangerous professors in America.So far, the results are not encouraging for the IR competitors: Professor School VotesMichael Bérubé Penn State University 150931[skip dozens of names]Ali al-Mazrui SUNY,Binghamton 79[skip another dozen names or so]Matthew Evangelista Cornell University 19Richard Falk Princeton University 16Lisa Anderson Columbia University 16 Even if all the IR professors put their votes together in some kind of grand alliance, they would be relatively powerless...

Last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC he thought that his government had "won the argument" about its identity card plan. The House of Lords voted overwhelmingly in late January to make any plan voluntary, but the House of Commons voted last week to compel people applying for passports to obtain the new biometric cards.Despite Blair's proclamation of victory, it is clear that his government continues to encounter opposition. While the cards are being sold as a means to prevent fraud, illegal immigration, organized crime and terrorism, the House of Commons also voted last week to...

Okay, so now President Bush wasn't properly notified about the pending sale of shipping operations at major US ports to a firm from the UAE. It seems that the President is always willing to tout his accomplishments and leadership when things go well, but when they don't he simply wasn't aware (read: some lower-level bureaucrats undercut his authority and I will now throw them under the bus). Even if we believe the White House spin I don't think this gets Bush off the hook: If he wasn't aware of a pending deal of this magnitude that has potential security implications what does this say about...

If there remained any doubt about just how scrumtralescent mothers are I think this story should erase it:Bear crashes hockey game, mom saves kidsEspn.comFiled as: Moms

Mark over at Zenpundit draws attention to an interesting post which discusses the contents of captured al Qaida documents revealing that they provide members with a substantial benefits package. It would appear that, like most other things in life, idealist zeal must always be balanced with practical concerns.Filed as: Al Qaida

We haven't had cable for over a year. I get my news almost exclusively from my.yahoo subscriptions to wire reports; most of these concern regions outside of the United States.I notice, however, that Rodger posted earlier on Horowitz's blacklist. I've read some of Michael Berubé's ongoing mockery of Horowtiz. Of the man himself, I once wrote::My take on David Horowitz has been pretty consistent throughout the years: he may have changed his ideology, but he hasn't changed his basic way of understanding the world. For many radical leftists, the world is divided into good and evil. You can...

Holy smokes!Via the comment thread attached to Rob's brilliant rejoinder to my "Second Civil War" challenge I find: a little corner of history-geek heaven. Thanks D! Go. Now. Read. Bask in alternative history goodness.Filed as: alternative history