Excellent article

I don’t know why this article hasn’t been more widely noticed. Nir Rosen, a journalist for the NYTimes who is fluent in Arabic, went to Jordan and interviewed jihadis past and present, visited mosques, and generally brought back a vivid and interesting picture of what is going on there. It adds a lot of context to Israeli Gen. Naveh’s recent undiplomatic remarks about the danger to the present regime in Jordan, as well as giving a good picture of where the major players in Iraq today are coming from.

(The article doesn’t explain all the names as well as some articles do, though, so you may want to pop over to Wikipedia occasionally while reading it.)

Related

Published in: on February 22, 2006 at 22:34  Comments (8)  
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News snippets

Two bits from the Washington Post: An editorial by George Will about a president acting like a monarch – noteable since it comes from one of the leading conservative writers in the country. And a good history of the cartoon protests going on across the Muslim world.

On a lighter note, here’s a London Tube Map with the names replaced by anagrams, and a standard Tube map for comparison. My favorite is the “Aleph & Tentacles.”

Published in: on February 16, 2006 at 10:32  Comments (4)  
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Your tax dollars at work

Apparently, police investigations of prostitution in Spotsylvania, MD are very thorough:

According to the affidavit, after receiving a tip about possible impropriety at Moon Spa, two unidentified Spotsylvania detectives promptly visited the spa and each paid $60 for 30-minute massages in separate rooms. A woman known only as Mimi gave the detectives a bath, a brief massage and then performed a sex act on them. “For her services, ‘Mimi’ was paid a $50 ‘tip,’ ” Doyle wrote. Police made two more visits with similar results.

Published in: on February 13, 2006 at 15:06  Comments (10)  
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Munich

Just got back from seeing “Munich.” The film was quite good, and a lot more apolitical than I expected. Even though it’s about a specific historical event and its aftermath, after a while it becomes clear that the original event was almost incidental to the real story; the film itself is about moral choices, and what wars do to the people who fight them. The choice of original event (the kidnapping and murder of the Israeli olympic team in 1972 by Palestinian terrorists) seems to be more to give a clear simplicity to the beginning, and it makes the contrast with the progressing murkiness all the more relevant.

So if you’ve been avoiding this movie because it’s too political, don’t worry – it’s not. It’s a bit on the heavy side, but worth a watch.

Published in: on February 11, 2006 at 22:27  Comments (6)  
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Background on the Hamas victory

Hmm. After hearing about this on the radio today, I figure it’s time for some background on the Hamas victory

Published in: on January 30, 2006 at 09:59  Comments (9)  
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Random events roundup

Murder at the Indonesian Consulate; this has the makings of a hell of a story, whatever was behind it.

And Condi Rice admits that the U.S. underestimated the political strength of Hamas.

“I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming,” Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. “It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse.”

Nobody saw it coming? Has someone removed the brains of the entire State Department and replaced them with Folger’s Crystals? A blind man could have seen that. A golem could have told you what popular sentiment in the West Bank, to say nothing of Gaza, was like. What the hell is going on up there?

Also: Good editorial summary of the choices we need to make with regards to Iran’s nuclear program. Very clear summary of the situation.

Published in: on January 29, 2006 at 23:18  Comments (12)  
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Where do we go from here?

Something important has happened in the Middle East: a terrorist organization, wholly unrepentant in its aims and bloody methods, has been elected as a government in a free election. Hamas has vowed to continue, turning its armed wing into a national army and, in effect, turning its campaign of mayhem into a formal war.
Reasons why this is important

Published in: on January 28, 2006 at 17:05  Comments (8)  
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Dubious arguments

Alberto Gonzalez defended the President’s domestic espionage program today.

The biggest thing I see wrong with his statements is that they could apply equally well to anything: if those arguments are acceptable in this case, why do they not also allow the President to order summary execution of anyone suspected of involvement with an enemy? Does this theory acknowledge any limits at all to executive power?

Published in: on January 24, 2006 at 16:43  Comments (6)  
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*snrk*

The New York Times has a very short article about changing rules for credit on scientific papers. Somehow, a creative writer managed to sneak in a sample page from the “Journal of Imaginary Genomics” after these rules are implemented; it’s worth the look.

Published in: on January 17, 2006 at 10:51  Comments (2)  
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Fuck YEAH!

The Stardust probe returned to Earth safely after a seven-year mission to collect comet dust. The return capsule landed safe in the Utah desert with about a teaspoon of the fundamental matter of the solar system, and is en route to Johnson Space Center.

Published in: on January 15, 2006 at 15:50  Comments (9)  
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