Mideast Sympathy Calculator

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Wednesday July 19, 2006 · 5:33 AM PDT

2006/07/19 · 05:33

This is a quasi-mathatical exercise meant to determine which of the currently notable middle eastern actors in the drama about Israel is most deserving of my sympathy. This isn't necessarily a contest of who's right, though that matters, but a question of whether these people are worth caring about in more than abstract humanitarian terms. I've considered the most visible players in today's events (Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine), but neglected other significant ones, such as Egypt and especially Syria. Details are further constrained to post-1945 or so. Read More

America: Horse Pen or Coffee Stain

Keifus

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Saturday June 03, 2006 · 5:12 PM PDT

2006/06/03 · 17:12

I've never been a horse guy (or really any kind of animal guy, really), but my parents both had them when they were young, and of the many observations I was subjected to regarding the basic idiocy of these creatures* was their tendency to denude the landscape they inhabited. Horses in pens quickly reduce the earth to a bladeless, rootless desert, chomping and stomping down the vegetation well beyond any level of sustainability. Read More

Jigsaw logic (a war retrospective)

Keifus

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Friday June 02, 2006 · 6:32 AM PDT

2006/06/02 · 06:32

Back in the heady days of 2003, a big story emerged: WAR, on Saddam, again, in large 72 point type. Though it was already the age of terror alerts, a few timid souls did manage to pipe up, "Why war? Why Iraq? Why so fast?" and the question was echoed shyly by the press and then cravenly by the congress, anxious to cloud their misgivings with an image of being strong on something.
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The Luxury of Being Conservative

Keifus

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Friday May 26, 2006 · 12:58 PM PDT

2006/05/26 · 12:58

Even though you can still manage to sell books about it, the red/blue cultural divide is a tired animal to flog these days. Liberals don't get the conservatives' loyalties, and conservatives don't get the liberals' priorities. There is, to tread old ground, a canyon between rural and urban values. Read More

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