A state of mind is a contagious thingSpread it around you never know what the future brings…Marillion, “State of Mind” n his later writings, Ludwig Wittgenstein spends quite a bit of time thinking about the problem of exactly what we are...
Last Sunday, I was having a walk around the city centre of Cambridge when I saw a demonstration of around 50 people rallying for their right to vote in a referendum for independence from Spain. They...
I am (sort of) on vacation and visiting the Motherland. In the meantime, I allowed myself a couple of days of couch potato mode that included some Russian TV. A political scientist in me is never on...
This is a guest post from Aidan Hehir, a Reader in International Relations at the University of Westminster. He has published widely in a number of academic journals including International...
...a few stories worth your time as you begin your holiday weekend:The Christian Science Monitor has a great article discussing the multiple motives and objectives behind Israel's recent Gaza operations.Great Britain sought the services of the US nuclear deterrent to help protect Hong Kong during...
A bit of good... well maybe just decent news today burried on page 15 of the Post, behind all the goings on in Gaza and the Supreme Court Ruling on Gitmo.The Bush administration is expected to announce today that it has dismantled the last of the most powerful nuclear missile warheads left over...
Apparently, he is also an expert on Central Asia. That is what I like about Rall, he never lets facts or logic get in the way.Nathan over at the excellent Registan has the story.Filed as: Ted Rall
As most are aware, Baseball commentator Peter Gammons suffered a brain aneurysm at his home in Cape Cod, MA. As of this morning he is out of surgery but still in the ICU. He has been listed in good condition.My colleagues and I here at the Duck are avid baseball fans. Speaking for myself, I can...
Russian President Vladamir Putin announced today that he has ordered the Russian Federal Security Service to “find and destroy” those responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Russian diplomats in Iraq (for background on the story, see here).The announcement by Putin was followed by a statement...
I knew that there was a large problem as soon as I pulled my car out of the driveway. There was entirely too much traffic running through my normally quiet suburban neighborhood -- we're kind of buried back in the middle of a tangle of winding streets, so we don't usually get many people driving...
...I submit the latest from Ted Rall (click here for larger image) :I will leave aside the weak argumentation about the lack of importance of Afghanistan to the fight against al-Qaeda (however, who the hell cares where Bin Laden was physically on 9/11/01?? Wow, great argument Ted...), but will...
Over the weekend former defense secretary Richard Perle wrote an op-ed for the WaPo excoriating—no, not the Democrats, but Neoconservatives' other favorite punching bad—the State Department for the current standoff with Iran over its nuclear program.Besides throwing in the now requisite amount of...
In April I discussed a story making the rounds that the Bush administration failed to take Iran up on an offer to talk about its weapons program and support for anti-Israeli terrorists shortly after the President declared the end of 'major hostilities' in Iraq. Of course, whether the offer was...
It was revealed this week that the Bush Administration:has secretly been tapping into a vast global database of confidential financial transactions for nearly five years, according to U.S. government and industry officials.Initiated shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, the surveillance program has used a...
Just saw this headline at the BBC: Iran calls halt to petrol importsI have no evidence for this statement, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Iran was somehow readying itself and the public for potential punitive sanctions by the West, which may include disruptions to imported, refined oil.For all the...
Sunship has alerted me to some problems with the XML feed. Feedburner has detected two sets of problems:1. We're using 0.3 rather than 1.0. I'm not sure how to change this. If someone could let me know, I'd appreciate it.2. Peter wrote his first post using a wysiwyg editor, and that created some...