The silence of some on the Left is deafening as to the Russian adoption issue, if not surprising, if now their ideological homeland is lead by a KGB officer worth billions of dollars who supports a flat tax. 

Like Marx said, history repeats, first as tragedy, then as farce, and life… Read full post »

For MEB, forever. 

There was once something called the Monroe Doctrine, in fact the core of American diplomacy until 1940, for the good reason that if Great Powers intervened in the Americas, that wouldn't on average be good for the United States, if we made certain allowances for large European… Read full post »

 For MEB, forever.

Now the Boeing 787 Dreamliner isn't a "dangerous" plane, as to a Kentucky Fried Professor, taking leave of the ground is always dangerous, as to leaps of faith just a little bit.

As to economics, the fact that not only Kentucky Fried professors get nervous before flying… Read full post »

For MEB, always.

Must only means that to be realistic, one has to consider Afghanistan geographically as to constructing a strategy for American policy, which by the nature of things is a Heartland strategy per Mahan- Mackinder-Spykeman's writings on sea and land power.

Otherwise one is merely using… Read full post »

 For MEB, forever. 

"Item, qe nul soit si hardy de crier havok sur peine davoir la test coupe."  

It's curious, if it hasn't gotten a lot of attention here in the United States lately, that the Falklands Islands, dare we say that, or Islas Malvinas, dispute has been heating up ove… Read full post »

It hasn't been a great time for heroes in the news lately, if no one of course is a hero to everyone.

Like they used to say, at least the butler knows feet touch the ground.

And yet we seem to need heroes too, maybe because when we are children, our… Read full post »

I left out the usual if increasingly long so as to not offend anyone  Gay/Bi/Curious, Transgendered and whoever else is that acronym of political correctness lately, as to the emerging if somewhat unusual political coalition of those willing to oppose Senator Hagel as Secretary of the Defen… Read full post »

The first reason for optimism, of a wary form, is that the North Koreans didn't detonate a nuclear weapon to generate an electromagnetic pulse over the United States with their alleged satellite, a not impossible thing for them to have accomplished.

Second, as to now having reason to be cautiously op… Read full post »

 For MEB, forever and ever.

 De gustibus non disputandam, there's not accounting for tastes,is a standard trope of economics, except that we do, don't we?

That's why the discipline of Tweakonomics was created. 

It was almost too bad that the story of New York City welfare recipients go… Read full post »

The welfare state as we know it is a fairly modern invention, partly because states in the past lacked the administrative ability to manage such a thing, although states have always encouraged charitable relief to prevent disorder from hungry people, and many as in Rome did have a food dole.

The… Read full post »

It is a common trope to point out the large percentage of world military spending done by the United States, depending how you measure it, between 40 and 50 per cent, to be immediately followed by expression of outrage.

Actually, to a point, that is good news that we spend more… Read full post »

For MEB, forever and ever. 

John Brennan is going to raise some hackles on the Far Left as to his being a CIA career employee when some decisions were made after 9/11 as to enhanced interrogation, what some call torture.

It would have been lawful to execute many of those subjected… Read full post »

For MEB, forever, and Libby and Barry Rich, who never liked to see my cry as a kid when Alabama lost, and so always rooted for Alabama.

Now when I was a boy, and Bear was my coach, he used to occasionally walk on water, when the team needed a little… Read full post »

 For MEB, forever.

"Some people like the Jews, some don't...but none can deny that they are among the most formidable races." Winston Churchill.

First of all, it's not like Reichsmarhall Hagel, so German sounding, got up there and said "Madagascar." 

The only "if" some have about the apppoi… Read full post »

Syrian President Bashir al Assad hadn't made a speech in public in a good while, and so what he had to say is important for the future of Syria, important for a variety of reasons.

As to possibilities, it's worth noting that he explicitly cites Russian, Chinese, and Iranian support, if… Read full post »

As President Obama meets with Afghan President Karzai this week, the future of American involvement is reaching a very important point.

Anyone who roots for an American defeat either isn't Americans or is a traitor, and defeatism is a form of rooting for defeat.

As to that American involvement in Afg… Read full post »

There are things that are reasonable to ask of presumptive nominee for Secretary of Defense Hagel, and things that are not.

As to what is not really very important, those involve his remarks about the Ambassador and his "agressive" homosexuality, and the Israeli lobby, as opposed to policies involvin… Read full post »

For all the caterwauling on Left and Right, the good news is that reality based policymaking is settling in, in which one can't borrow more of GDP than the economy grows forever without becoming a basket case.

Thus, President Obama wasn't incorrect to say that revenues have to come up, just… Read full post »

Those are the other curiously unstated issue swith the Benghazi affair, as to why did someone do that, on the theory that tells you who did that.

That's most especially because it was not widely known that Ambassador Stevens was going to be in Benghazi in the first place, because the… Read full post »

The United States isn't an empire in an old sense of physical control, although it is an empire in the scope of its interests that lead at times to exerting physical control, as with helping get rid of Muammar Gaddafi.

For those people who want to look at the unfortunate deaths… Read full post »

Eto starei v gopher moskve.

This article is from our Moscow Bureau gophers.

It seems Vladimir Putin is unhappy he wasn't named Man of the Year with Barrack Obama, and is planning to nuke New York, unless he makes an additional cover of Time as co-Man of Year.

Vladimir Putin ne… Read full post »

http://www.goforbroke.org/about_us/about_us.asp

"Go for broke" was the motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in World War II. Considering that it was composed of Americans of Japanese ancestry, many of whom had been interned after Pearl Harbor, go for broke was a pretty good motto indeed. The 442… Read full post »

Pyongyang, North Korea

That is good news, that North Korea decided not to start World War III to celebrate Kim Jong Il's departure.

Many a person with a betting interest in End of the World betting pools this Friday were thinking that North Korea would get to kick off that extravaganza,… Read full post »