Driving in the Columbus metropolitan area during the Superbowl is indistinguishable from doing so at 2 am. 'Nuff said. Filed as: football

I came across a new book meme the other day at The Republic of Heaven. Apparently it originated at Scholar's Blog. Here are the rules:Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Cross out the books you probably won't read. Underline the books you have on your shelf to read or have started reading.Have fun!The Da Vinci Code - Dan BrownThe Catcher in the Rye - J.D. SalingerThe Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas...

...I'd go with the Steelers giving four points and also take the over (46.5) in Super Bowl XL tonight. My prediction--Steelers 28 Seahawks 21. Feel free to let me know your picks in the comments section.Filed as: Super Bowl XL

Mark over at Zenpundit has a nice post on the ongoing ridiculousness which is the Danish cartoon row. Andrew Sullivan has a link to the "extra cartoons" and the lowdown on the apparent propoganda roadshow that has helped bring the issue to the forefront in the Muslim world. For an interesting analysis of the pattern of the protests see 'Aquol. The discussion of Syria sounds eerily similar to the recent protests in China over Japan and the...

The US Quadrennial Defense Review is finally out (only a year late, but who's counting).Some of the highlights include a shift in the "two-war doctrine"--which envisioned the US being able to battle in two seperate wars with the option of regime change in one--so that one of the major conflicts can be a protracted war against an insurgency. The document also argues that the composition of US forces must shift, incorporating larger numbers...

The world inched closer to confrontation with Iran today, but it is not yet clear what will happen next. One huge problem for security analysts is the question of Iran's motives. Would Iranian want to pass a bomb to terrorists, use one or more against great powers, or perhaps versus Israel? Patrick has argued in an academic work with Ronald Krebs that scholars, at least, cannot discern states' motives. He notes that Hans Morgenthau agreed with...

[Hat tip here to Dan Nexon and the discussion going on at Crooked Timber]Does projecting the image that one is irrational actually confer that person with an advantage in bargaining situations, specifically when nuclear weapons are involved? This seems to be the question taken up by Lee Harris over at Tech Central Station, to which he answers "yes" (Glenn Reynolds provides the pom-poms, imploring the US to do this more often).Harris is...

I'm in Tampere, Finland, at a conference on the idea of a 'post-Western West' sponsored by some European colleagues. I must admit that it's extremely refreshing to be the only American -- and in particular the only American academic -- in the room, both because among Americans there's a shared political context that I rather easily get darn tired of talking about (war in Iraq, Patriot Act, terrorism, yada yada yada) and because among American...

I can't believe it, but I'm actually linking to a post from Daily Kos. One of their regular posters, georgia10, calls attention to something that's been bugging me ever since information about the illegal NSA wiretapping program began to surface. At first glance, doesn't it seem a bit like the Total Information Awareness program that Congress pulled the plug on back in 2003?On January 16, 2003, Senator Feingold introduced S. 188, the...

Hamas offers Israel an olive branch shaped like a scimitar.We will never recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state that was established on our land," Meshaal, the Damascus-based head of the political and military wings of the militant Islamic group, wrote in a column titled "To whom it may concern," published in al-Hayat al-Jadida newspaper.Hamas leaders have said they might heed a truce with Israel as an interim measure that could include...

From the "galactic politics" department:At the edge of solar system, a 10th planet may lurkWith a title like that, how can you resist? Especially since it provides a convenient occasion to clarify some persistent ambiguities in the notion of "social construction." Ian Hacking has already done this quite brilliantly, but I think that point is important enough to repeat it in a different context: 'the solar system' is a construct, a human...

If anyone still needed any evidence that political speech -- public rhetoric intended to legitimate certain courses of actions while ruling out others -- is governed by the demands of social sustainability rather than by the demands of logic, they need look no further than President Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday evening. My favorite howler in the speech came near the end, when Bush called for determined commitment by suggesting that...