Author Archives: David Hume

Sarah Palin, not so topical

I noticed today that Center-Left establishment tool Jacob Weisberg is still posting his “Palinisms” at Slate. I never read these because they never seemed as funny as the Bushisms. It seems likely that the George H. W. Bush and George … Continue reading

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A trichotomy of terrorists

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A humble foreign policy in 2012

The New Republic has a long take on the G.O.P. turn away from foreign policy interventionism between 2008 and 2011. The article presages the fact that the recent debt deal seems to open the door to defense spending cuts if … Continue reading

Posted in politics, Religion | Tagged , | 5 Comments

What if all music was ‘Christian’ music?

I think this sort of rhetorical question is a good way to understand the role of religion in much of the Islamic world: there is no distinction between pop culture and religiously inflected culture. I thought of that when noticing … Continue reading

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Iraq’s attempt at a free lunch

In Shadow of Death, Iraq and U.S. Tiptoe Around a Deadline: The government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki is privately telling American officials that it wants their army to stay here after this year. The Americans are privately telling … Continue reading

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Canadian multiculturalism is like holding up a “blow me up!” sign

It’s Muslim kids, not parents, who are embracing a politicized Islam: I’ve attended two universities in Toronto and, at both, joined the Muslim students associations. I was told to sit behind the men, not next to them. That it would … Continue reading

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The superficiality of ‘pop-libertarianism’

I’m sympathetic to a lot of the specific policy prescriptions of publications like Reason. Though I’m no philosophical libertarian, I converge with libertarians when it comes to attitudes on specific issues. But outside of think tanks like Cato a lot … Continue reading

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A star is born?

It will be interesting to see if Michele Bachmann’s media quasi-luster lasts. Liberals in particular seem to praise her as kooky but effective in getting her “malevolent message” out. There’s no contempt and condescension in the aversion. Yet.

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The value of democracy

Obama Opts for Faster Afghan Pullout: President Obama plans to announce Wednesday evening that he will order the withdrawal of 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year, and another 20,000 troops, the remainder of the 2009 “surge,” by the end … Continue reading

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Millet systems are stable (relatively)

Comment below: Furthermore, Millet systems are extremely unstable, to say the least. There being a reason there’s no longer any Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian empires. I take a different lesson. The Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungary (if you include its de facto … Continue reading

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