Recent days have seen a number of articles like this one from the New York Times, in which it is claimed that people are changing their commuting patterns because of the high price of gas. The equation is pretty simple: higher gas prices = more expensive to drive to and from work = more use of...

Never knew the word "bleg" before today, when Dan asked me to put up the following request from Russell B:"How can I send a bleg to the readers of the Duck? Being the Ultimate Part-timer, I've finally secured myself some rather stable work but have to concoct a course on Globalization and Security...

I've been following the steroids controversy in baseball for some time. In 2005, major league baseball implemented a restrictive policy that was meant to be taken seriously. Since then, Congress has held hearings, many players have been outed as users, and even more draconian policies have now...

Happy 2008 everyone.

This weekend, the AP's Katherine Shrader wrote a fine story about the "myth" of suitcase nuclear bombs."The suitcase nuke is an exciting topic that really lends itself to movies," said Vahid Majidi, the assistant director of the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. "No one has been able...

I'm already de facto on hiatus from blogging, so I might as well come out and say it: I'm not going to be writing much, if anything, on the Duck for a bit longer.Our regular readers may have noticed my lack of posting lately, and that I haven't contributed anything of substance in an even longer...

How much more excitement can the Senate handle? With prospect of a confirmation hearing heating up the Hill, this crosses the web-page of the Washington Post: Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested back in June and plead guilty to disorderly conduct.First, how on earth does this not come out...

Posting at the Duck has been thin of late. Some quick explanations:I'm tied up by teaching responsibilities and the task of finishing my book manuscript. Patrick's similarly swamped with his own responsibilities. Peter's a new dad. Rodger's probably thick into the Grawemeyer-award process. Peter's...

Bennett Richardson of the Christian Science Monitor reports that some LDP politicians are raising the nuclear issue in Japan. The article provides plenty of food for thought about the impact of North Korea's nuclear test on Japanese politics, but it also includes a rather strange quotation from a...

If you missed IR scholar John Mueller's appearance on the Daily Show, watch it soon on the Comedy Central website.Mueller has been writing a great deal about the overblown threat from terrorism -- and he managed not only to plug his current book, but also his next one!Incidentally, that next book...

Always be wary of office furniture that comes in a nice compact box and then says "assembly required." This weekend was the weekend to reclaim the basement and reclaim some functional workspace at home. For the past 10 months, i've been using a half-sized card table as a "desk" in the basement....