From my fellow Quakers over at The Apollo Creed, a must read on the fallacious 'War on Christmas'. Check it out.Filed as: War on Christmas

On the topic of why the secularization of politics is not such a bad thing.Short, eloquent, and to the point.Filed as: secularism and sectarianism

Now certainly we can all agree that many of the most inflamatory, anti-Israeli statements from Iran's newest President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been targeted towards a certain segment of his domestic audience and possibly segments of the Arab world. This is quite common for politicians of all...

A friend of mine emailed me a link to Barry Posen's "Exit Strategy: How to Disengage with Iraq in Eighteenth Months", which appears in the next issue of the Boston Review. Posen argues, citing familiar evidence, that the occupation is not going particularly well. The insurgency shows no evidence...

As I alluded to in my last post, I've been doing exploratory research for a possible blog piece on the general vapidness of the "network" metaphor in a great many popular writings on terrorism and global change. In the process, I stumbled upon a Belmont Club post containing this gem:However...

Part of the Duck's ongoing mission is to highlight articles in academic international-relations journals that speak to topics of general concern among the blogging and blog-reading community. In that spirit, I want to call attention to the latest issue of International Security, which includes a...

Speaking of orgiastic consumerism, here's EB Game's order page for the Xbox360:I guess you can't say they didn't warn you (although the duplicative "please read the bottom of the page for important information" suggests they weren't always quite so explicit that ordering an Xbox360 from them for...

Another year, another faux controversy about the secular humanists, liberal atheists, and assorted no-goodniks stealing Christmas from the righteous and god-faring. Their methods haven't changed much from last year: preventing municipalities from establishing religious icons on public property...

What would happen to Iraq if America withdrew almost immediately?In other words, what would happen if Representative Murtha's proposal was implemented? Gary Boatwright at Seeing the Forest is taking this question seriously -- as is Nir Rosen in The Atlantic Monthly.The conventional wisdom, is that...

[updated on 12.4.05]I know I promised to comment on the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, but to be honest it isn't worth the effort and I don't know if I have the strength. Those who read this blog are intelligent enough to see the Victory Stratey for what it is--a transparent attempt to...

President Bush spoke at the US Naval academy today. His theme? Well, Bush wants to close off talk of troop withdrawal from Iraq:These decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgment of our commanders -- not by artificial timetables set by...

I don't have time to comment on the document yet since I just got my hands on it, but I will definitely post my thoughts soon. In the meantime, here is a link to the full-text.Filed as: Iraq, Exit Strategy