A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

War & Peace

  • Clinton and Iraq

    Michael at Levellers expresses some well-justified outrage at Bill Clinton’s recent attempts to whitewash history and portray himself as an early opponent of the Iraq war. But as I mentioned in a comment to Michael’s post, not only did Clinton not oppose the war, his Iraq policy made it much more likely than it otherwise Read more

  • Just doesn’t apply himself

    Report Card on the War on Terror via Balkinization Read more

  • As we go marching or It’s the war, stupid!

    Ross Douthat offers the logical response to this Jonah Goldberg column wondering why mainstream Republicans and conservatives are down on Ron Paul (who, after all, believes most of the things conservatives are supposed to stand for) and not Mike Huckabee, who exhibits many more deviations from conservative ideology: [T]he reason Paul has been treated differently Read more

  • Rev. Paul

    Turns out Ron Paul’s older brother David is an ELCA pastor in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And the Paul family originally hails from Pittsburgh. Who knew? David Paul is proud of Ron Paul, but he is enough of a realist to understand that his brother’s candidacy is a long shot. Some of his stands—for example, he Read more

  • Go, NPR!

    One of the annoying things about the recent debate over waterboarding has been the media’s tendency to refer to it as “simulated drowning.” This is inaccurate and gives a distorted view of what the process involves. Having water poured into your lungs is not a simulation. So, I was gratified to hear Nina Totenberg on Read more

  • Moneybags Paul

    Ron Paul raised $4.2 million in Internet contributions in a 24-hour period yesterday as part of a concerted fundraising campaign. Wow! Paul’s total deposed Mitt Romney as the single-day fundraising record holder in the Republican presidential field. When it comes to sums amassed in one day, Paul now ranks only behind Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton, Read more

  • Will on congressional spinelessness

    Also from today’s Post, George Will has a terrific column on how Congress has abdicated its responsibility for decisions to go to war: “Congress’s Unused War Powers.” Read more

  • When waterboarding was a crime

    Excellent piece in today’s Washington Post by a former JAG in the Nevada National Guard: “Waterboarding Used to Be a Crime.” Read more

  • Rudy’s brain?

    I’m not wild about anybody currently running for president next year, but I’ve been convinced for a while now that Rudy Giuliani is objectively the worst candidate of either party in the 2008 race. He appears to display all the authoritarianism and militarism of the GOP circa 2007 without any shred of pro-life restraint or Read more

  • Pete Stark learned to love Big Brother

    Via Jim Henley I see that my former congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) has gotten himself into a heap of trouble on account of some intemperate remarks he made during the S-CHIP debate: House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) filed to censure Stark in order to express his disgust with comments the lawmaker made last week Read more