drat fink
View current page...more recent posts
by george
i just wanted a chance to say that if mcgovern had been elected president we wouldnt have had all these problems were dealing with now.
face off
"In the mid-1700s a new strain of Muslim extremism began to flourish in a small village in the Arabian desert—a strain that would have a profound effect on Islam and the world as a whole. As Stephen Schwartz describes it in his recent book, The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud from Tradition to Terror, little is known about the early life of the sect's founder, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, except that as a young man he is thought to have traveled through much of the Ottoman empire. He returned from his travels with a belief that Islam had been corrupted and weakened by the Ottomans, and that it needed to be brought back to its roots. But his brand of "an original, authentic Islam," as Schwartz writes, was both harsher and more stripped down than the religion that the Prophet Muhammad had founded centuries before. Al-Wahhab forbade many practices and traditions that were an established part of Muslim culture, such as the celebration of the Prophet's birthday, the decoration of mosques, and the use of music in worship and daily life. But most striking was his attitude toward those people—both Muslims and non-Muslims—who didn't share his beliefs. As Schwartz describes it, "Shi'as, Sufis, and other Muslims he judged unorthodox were to be exterminated, and all other faiths were to be humiliated." Al-Wahhab soon established a political-religious alliance with a local bandit, Muhammad ibn Sa'ud, and they agreed that any territory they conquered could only be ruled by their descendants. The House of Sa'ud—which rules Saudi Arabia—is directly descended from that alliance, and Wahhabism (though Saudis don't use the term) is the religion of the regime."
fly paper
"GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The future of surveillance aircraft will take off next Saturday from a small hayfield in northern Florida, but observers will have to look hard to see it. The next generation of spy planes will be small--perhaps less than 6 inches in diameter--and agile as a hummingbird."
con housekeeping
"What do William Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Elliot Abrams, and Robert Kagan have in common? Yes, they are all die-hard hawks who have gained control of U.S. foreign policy since the 9/11 attacks. But they are also part of one big neoconservative family – an extended clan of spouses, children, and friends who have known each other for generations."
looks like gibsons been mucking around the blogs (and his referrer log) lately. yesterday he gave shoutouts to agonist and salam pax, and im guessing today he is stealing links from hesiod, unless hes a drudger outright. in other news, this is funny."Umm Qasr is a town similar to Southampton", UK Defence Minister Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons yesterday. "He's either never been to Southampton, or he's never been to Umm Qasr", said one British soldier, informed of this while on patrol in Umm Qasr. Another added: "There's no beer, no prostitutes, and people are shooting at us. It's more like Portsmouth."
i thought i was going to be clever and say he had a case of Blogorrhea but apparently thats been appropriated for other maladies.
am i josh or not?
has josh marshall come fool circle?
cheers and jazeeras
wow. pbs just cut off a bbc world news feed about a report on al-jazeera. im guessing because they deemed the images too imflammatory. somebody forgot to tell the brits about our fair and balanced journalistic standards. meanwhile, the english version of al-jazeera online remains unreachable due to denial of service attacks.
bread lines
"IS HALF A LOAF worse than none? That's the question posed by the surprise Senate vote yesterday in favor of a measure that would cap President Bush's proposed $726 billion tax cut at $350 billion, and the answer, apparently, is no. While this country is fighting a war of unknown duration, while overall tax revenue is down thanks to recession, while hundreds of thousands of people risk losing their health insurance because of state fiscal crises and proposed Medicaid cuts, it is irresponsible of Congress even to consider passing a tax cut worth $350 billion -- let alone $726 billion -- over 10 years, thereby creating a vast budget deficit for the next decade and possibly beyond."
judtment of history
"What is missing in recent American commentary is not so much an appreciation of history—there has been too much of that, with "Munich" invoked at every turn. What is lacking is a sense of the tragic. If the US has had such a long run of foreign policy successes in the modern age, it is in large measure because, as Dean Acheson once put it, "we were fortunate in our opponents." This may not last. We were also fortunate in our leaders. This has certainly not lasted. There is much confident talk of the coming American century; but one hundred years ago many thought it was Germany that held the keys to the new era—and they had good reasons for thinking it. As Raymond Aron once remarked, the twentieth century could have been the German century."
pnac sack
another pnac article from asia times.