Unqualified Offerings

Via Glenn Reynolds comes this story of Al Qaeda camps in the wilds of Mali. Bu-but – shouldn’t the builders all be in Iraq now?

Apparently Donald Luskin of National Review Online has threatened legal action against Atrios. From his lawyer’s letter:

You recently linked to Mr. Luskin’s October 7, 2003, posting on his website entitled “Face To Face With Evil,” in which he chronicles his attendance at a lecture and book signing presented by Paul Krugman. You chose the unfortunate [...]

Henry Farrell has a good defense of good academic prose, worth reading despite Henry’s unaccountable assertion along the way that “One may not agree with Edward Said on the facts – but his prose is compelling precisely because of its vigor and clarity.” I’ve really only read Said’s journalism, but it was gaseous nonsense, with [...]

Brendan is rapidly turning Human Liberty into an advice column. See his reader mail (”The thing is, I never wanted to load Linux anyway, I just took the CD to humor him. Now I’ve lost a friend. What can I do?–Sad in Austin” and “I am so fascinated by radical subsidiaritanism, but I noticed that [...]

Not blog birthday; Happy Human Birthday to Nate of Polytropos, his last as a pre-parent. Nate is as nice and bright a guy as his blog suggests, by the way. Tonight’s offering, an even-handed appreciation of 24, complete with first-season spoiler.

but then I realized – the connection between the previous two items is pretty freaking obvious, isn’t it?

Do you mean before or after this?

NEW YORK — A 14-year-old New Jersey schoolboy — whose dad and stepdad are in the military — was suspended for five days because he drew a “patriotic” stick figure of a U.S Marine blowing away a Taliban fighter, officials said yesterday.
“He’s been punished for the drawing,” said Tinton [...]

Liberty&Power reports that the Alabama Scholars Association is protesting more shenanigans:

Drawings and photographs by Trobaugh depict scenes that could be construed as homosexual in orientation or theme.
The exhibit had been approved by the chair of the Art Department for display in the entrance to the Bean Brown Theater at Shelton State. The day after the [...]

Mrs. Offering and I are surely the last couple in America to pick up on 24, but we both watched the season opener tonight, me fortified with spoilers from the Tony Kornheiser Show. I mean, I liked it, but who would want to work in that office? (The CTU office.) All those reflective surfaces, the [...]

Daniel Drezner vs. Max Sawicky. So far it’s an entirely indirect smackdown, as the two items seem to have been written independently, but they make an interesting contest. Naturally, I think Drezner has the better of it, though I hasten to point out that I haven’t seen the TV special in question.