…to make a “progressive” omelet. Which gives me an idea:  Bush simply needs to go on TV and re-frame the Iraq War as a “protest” against “the Ba’athist / al Qaeda / Iranian Man,” and before too long, thousands of papier-mâché puppet heads will be reporting for surge duty.  All the DoD need do is arm the “protesters” with country-style barbecued pork ribs or eggs blessed by Jews, and voila! 

Well now.  From NRO’s Rich Lowry, an examination of reality-based nuance: A Hill source forwards along these quotes:  Sen Harry Reid (D-NV) : “…I don’t think anyone can find a war that this country was engaged in where the funds were cut off. No one is talking about cutting off the funds.” Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) : “I do not support cutting funding for American troops.” Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)

“…you know what I hate?  Those little paper umbrellas bartenders are always putting in my Planter’s Punches.  A MAN doesn’t need garnish.  Hell, I don’t even like my drinks in a bloody glass.  Were it up to me, I’d be sucking dark rum out of the blanched skull of someone like Sean Hannity—and those little paper umbrellas I’d turn into tiny, poison-tipped darts, which I’d then thrust with my tongue

Speaking of identity politics… Tman sends along a link to former Jemaah Islamiya member Tawfik Hamid’s “The Trouble With Islam,” published in today’s WSJ.  Writes Hamid: Not many years ago the brilliant Orientalist, Bernard Lewis, published a short history of the Islamic world’s decline, entitled “What Went Wrong?” Astonishingly, there was, among many Western “progressives,” a vocal dislike for the title. It is a false premise, these critics protested. They

It’s been out for a while now, but I just got around to reading Charlotte Allen’s piece on Deaf culture, “Identity Politics Gone Wild” (April 2 Weekly Standard).  It is a lengthy article, but it throws into high relief many of the machinations of identity politics discussed here in more traditionally politicized contexts.  In fact, regular readers of this site will find much that is familiar in the piece, a

From the Independent UK: A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines. Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan.

From “Brickbats,” Reason, May 2007 (subscription only).  First, there’s this: Denver authorities gave Cynthia Roberson 24 hours to remove the snow from the sidewalk in front of her home or a face a $150 fine.  Roberson is 60 years old and disabled.  But what really galled her is that she had already paid someone to remove the snow.  City snow plows that cleared the street had piled more snow in

While my wife curses TurboTax in the kitchen, I find myself listening to Billy Joel’s “Great Suburban Showdown” and thinking that, if I ever get the chance to grow old and crotchety, I’m going to wear black socks with shorts and sandals in public just so that younger married men can use me as an object lesson to reinforce their tenuous and largely illusory self-images. Because—as you all know—I’m a

Before the start of the season’s first game, the Rockies rewarded manager Clint Hurdle and GM Dan O’Dowd with 2-year contract extensions (so much for performance incentives, I guess).  By way of celebrating, Hurdle managed the game in the same predictable way he always has—Manny Corpas breezed through the heart of the Diamondbacks’ order in seventh inning with dominating stuff, only to be replaced in the eighth by LaTroy Hawkins,

Somebody wheel Country Joe and the Fish on stage and give the dusty old farts a celebratory kazoo: U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced today that they are introducing legislation that will effectively end the current military mission in Iraq and begin the redeployment of U.S. forces. The bill requires the President to begin safely redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq 120 days from