by Peter | 16 Feb 2008 |
Apparently so.The NYT has a book review that treads the familiar ground of why Americans are so dumb when it comes to supposedly vital information about the world. The old X% of Americans support a war in Iraq, but only Y% can actually find Iraq on a map... This is especially upsetting to the classic, old-school curmudgeons who think that a classic education involves knowing a lot of key names, dates, and classical cultural references. This...
by Dan Nexon | 15 Feb 2008 |
Another major development on the national-security front today: the US plan to shoot down one of its own spy satellites.President Bush, acting on the advice of his national security advisers, has decided to attempt to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite that is expected to crash to Earth early next month, a spokesman for the National Security Council said today.NSC spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the president made the decision within the...
by Peter | 15 Feb 2008 |
I'm sure you've all be closely following the story of the 5000-pound, bus-sized top-secret satellite that is tumbling toward earth and set to re-enter the atmosphere in the next several weeks. The satellite, reportedly a top-secret NRO advanced imaging device launched in December 2006, died soon after launch. Its big enough that a sizable chunk is expected to survive the re-entry process. Obviously the most important question of the day is who...
by Dan Nexon | 15 Feb 2008 |
The United States has decided to strongly back the Ukrainian and Georgian bids to begin the process of becoming NATO members.Despite fierce objections from Russia, the United States is pushing NATO to start membership negotiations with Ukraine and Georgia at an alliance summit meeting in Bucharest in April, diplomats said Wednesday.The U.S. pressure is likely to lead to divisions inside the 26-member alliance, with Germany and several West...
by Rodger Payne | 14 Feb 2008 |
In my world -- currently Acting Department Chair -- PTL stands for "part-time lecturer," not "praise the lord."I'm looking forward to May 22, when the ultimate part-time lecturer returns -- to the big screen: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Apparently, the plot concerns...According to MTV's Shawn Adler: 1:26: The biggest spoiler of the trailer: a shot of a box with the words "Roswell, New Mexico 1947" etched on the side in...
by Charli Carpenter | 13 Feb 2008 |
Steven Spielberg has withdrawn from his role as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics to protest China's policy towards Darfur. Seemingly, yet another example of "celebrity activism" around human security issues. I blogged about this before. As I continue to think about the role of celebrity activism in human security campaigns, I've been pondering who actually counts as a celebrity? Performers clearly do. But what about other well-known...
by Dan Nexon | 12 Feb 2008 |
The Maryland Presidential Primary is tomorrow, and I still don't know if I'll vote for Clinton or Obama. But if any of our readers vote in MD-04, I want to urge you to vote for Donna Edwards against our incumbent representative, Al Wynn.Donna Edwards has been a favorite of progressive bloggers since 2006, when she lost to Wynn by about 2700 votes. Now, our readers know that I'm further right than the median progressive blogger. I'm also a bit...
by Peter | 11 Feb 2008 |
For the past 5 months, I've been following the strange story of Israel's bombing of a mysterious site in Syria. In this month's New Yorker, Seymour Hersh has an excellent look into the subject. Hersh takes a round-up of the major media stories of the event, analyzing how they advance the narrative of the episode, and adds some first-rate reporting from Israel, Syria, and Washington. While his article sheds new and important light on the...
by Dan Nexon | 9 Feb 2008 |
US forces are preparing for operations in Mosul, but can't rely on the Awakening Councils to provide much help. Iraqi and American commanders are preparing for a prolonged — and possibly pivotal — fight against al-Qaida in Iraq in this vital northern hub. But they are missing an essential tool used to uproot insurgents elsewhere: groups of local Sunni fighters.The so-called Awakening Councils remain conspicuously absent in Mosul and efforts to...
by Rodger Payne | 7 Feb 2008 |
I don't typically blog about domestic elections at the Duck, preferring to save my analysis and preferences for my personal blog.However, Super Tuesday was a unique political event. No primary election ever had so much at stake -- at least in terms of the number of states and delegates to the national convention.Hillary Clinton was once the odds-on favorite to win the 2008 Democratic nomination. She secured backing from much of the Party...
by Peter | 5 Feb 2008 |
Life imitates art, art imitates life, or the wondrous powers of our own Dan Nexon... The following takes place between 4:00 and 5:00 pm on the day of the California Presidential Primary:You might remember that the plot of Day 1 of 24 was today: The California Presidential Primary, when the first major African-American Presidential candidate stands to win a major victory that will propel him to the White House. In the show, special agent Jack...
by Dan Nexon | 5 Feb 2008 |
Something I forgot to mention in my latest post about the Svalbard threat: the online World Factbook now only ranks defense spending as a percentage of GDP, rather than on a nominal or PPP-adjusted basis.I wonder why they might have made that change....