A while back I wrote of the danger historical metaphors pose to statesmen, analysts, and others concerned with public affairs. While the focus of that post was analogies of a historical nature, the general points of concern extend to any metaphor we use to explain the world around us. Human beings have a difficult time […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING: Haiti, Disaster Sociology, Elite Panic, and LootingGary Peterson. Resilience Science. 2010 January 30. This is one of the more compelling defenses of decentralization to be found under 2,000 words. Looking at disaster situations, Mr. Peterson does not find the disorder and chaos of […]
This author has waged a long crusade to turn public attention towards the greatest challenge now facing our Republic – the irresponsible and unaccountable elite that rule America and the citizen apathy that allows this rentier class to stand unopposed. While much of the traffic on this site comes from my posts on the matter, […]
The big news to hit today’s foreign policy press was the release of several thousand DoD documents to The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Speigel by Wikileaks. As the title of the Times piece suggests, the top story to emerge from the leaks is the numerous field reports detailing how the Pakistani Inter-Service […]
Peak oil is a divisive topic. Bitter battles over its timing and consequences plague the blogosphere. I rarely comment on these debates. My experience with the subject is limited, and thus the insight I can bring to any discussion on the matter is even more so. My attention is spent simply trying to catch up. […]
Economic historian Angus Maddison provides us with our first “Intriguing Passage of the Week”: It is interesting to speculate on India’s fate if it had not had two centuries of British rule. There are three major alternatives which can seriously be considered. One would have been the maintenance of indigenous rule with a few foreign […]
Earlier this month many of us laughed when Forbes Online published their satirical photo essay, “Would BP’s CEO Have Been Executed In China?” It seems that the jest has presaged reality. China now has their own oil spill. Let us see if they can handle it any better than we did.
It must. For try as I might, I cannot come up with another explanation for this: U.S. to unveil large aid package to win the hearts of Pakistanis Saeed Shah. McClatchey’s News. 18 July 2010. The U.S. will announce Monday hundreds of millions of dollars worth of civilian aid projects for Pakistan, American officials said, […]
Earlier this month Antoly Karlin (of Sublime Oblivion) wrote an interesting post outlining several possible trajectories India may take in the near future. A fair amount of the post is devoted to comparing India with Asia’s other billion-person behemoth, China. The two giants are likely to remain engaged in intense strategic competition for the next […]
Rufus F, of the League of Ordinary Gentleman, has written an interesting post on the Confucian way of politics. Its centerpiece is a lengthy excerpt from a previous discussion in which this author took part. Those interested in a few of my thoughts concerning the Chinese political order circa 450 BC are encouraged to read […]
