Unqualified Offerings

Adventures in Pictorial Biography – Kevin Michael Grace gives us the life of Mark Steyn.

Thinking Outside the Box – Hesiod suggests that we ought to be worried that Al Qaeda might assassinate Baby Sadr. It’s actually a pretty good point.

Peninsula Woes – The Korea section of last week’s Grand Strategy item, revisited. Note that I have already recanted my enthusiasm for promiscuously nuking the place.
Korea is hard.
In some ways it’s not. On basic non-interventionist grounds, it’s simple: leave the DPRK alone. Its mere existence threatens no US core interest. It poses the biggest threat [...]

A Fanboy’s Ditto – Rather than write all kinds of stuff about the delight that is Superman:Secret Identity 4 of 4, I’ll just point you to Johanna Draper Carlson’s appreciation and urge you to buy it. And also note that the miniseries as a whole is a great example of the “literature of ethics.” If [...]

Less, But Still Somewhat, Grand Strategies – Matthew Barganier weighs in with a UO-like program, which is not surprising. He wisely steers clear of saying anything about Korea.
Tonight I’ll start in with responses to the reactions to specific topics of my original item. I figure on handling these largely piecemeal: Korea tonight and maybe Israel; [...]

Weekly Fitness Blog Item. Weekly?? Weekly???? – Well, whatever. 168 pounds, up seven from my low of 161. (Or is it six from my low of 162? I don’t remember.) Down 48 from my official high of 216. Anyway, I was pushing 170 a couple weeks ago so this is progress. The great thing about [...]

But What About the Truth? is Arthur Silber’s question. A useful consideration of Richard Clarke’s recent writing, and much more. Money quote from Clarke:
Once we recognize that the struggle within Islam – not a “clash of civilizations” between East and West – is the phenomenon with which we must grapple, we can begin to develop [...]

Oh the Irony – One of the knocks on the idea of partitioning Iraq is that the Kurds and Shiites get all the oil, leaving the Sunnis with nothing. This is not thought to be a recipe for regional harmony.
Of course, if 70%-Sunni Kuwait were “the 19th province of Iraq” and given over to the [...]

Before We Begin II – I’ve gotten lots of good e-mails on the Grand Strategy brouhaha, and I hope to get to all of them, but this one from Matthew Hogan stands out:
I just saw Juan Cole talking about Perle shilling for Chalabi at a hearing he (Cole) was also testifying at. Now [...]

Before We Begin there’s something we need to get clear. I am speaking to the hawks here, especially the liberal ones.
You are the last people on Earth who get to say someone else is “naive,” “impractical” or ignorant of how the world really works at this point. The absolute last.
I’m glad we cleared that up.
More [...]