I was finally able to remember that ISIS, the jihadist group that’s rolling through Iraq now, stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Learned it well enough to type it without having to look it up every time (don’t count just now, when I originally typed Iran instead of Iraq). Then this afternoon I turned on the … Continue reading ISIS or ISIL, they’re still just terrorists
No sooner did the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) offensive in Iraq hit the headlines than a particular song refrain popped into my head: “You break it, you pay for it.” It was a ferocious earworm that I couldn’t identify and cannot get rid of. (I finally tracked it down. It’s from a song “You Break … Continue reading Iraq and the Pottery Barn rule
A week ago U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was released after five years of captivity by the Taliban. Since then you’d have to be a cave dweller to have missed the firestorm that’s erupted. President Obama invited Bergdahl’s parents to a reception in the Rose Garden to make the announcement and I think that was … Continue reading Bashing the Bergdahls
This is one of ten interactive D-Day images featured on The Guardian website. (You’ll have to visit the site to see the images change.) By moving your cursor over the images, you can change the scene from June 1944 to present day. There’s a magical and disturbing effect as peaceful scenes morph into war and back again. A fascinating way … Continue reading From D-Day to present day
(Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the June 6, 1944, Normandy invasion — the beginning of the end of World War II. The following post from last September is as appropriate for D-Day as it was for International Peace Day.) British artists Jamie Wardley, 33, and Andy Moss, 50, and a team of volunteers traveled to Arromanches beach, … Continue reading D-Day: Etched in the sands of time
In addition to being a pompous, power-hungry president rooted in last-century politics, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has been caught lying through his teeth. That, or some mischievous hacker gained access to one of his official websites. Paul Roderick Gregory over at Fortune posted this story yesterday: Putin Accidentally Posts Real Crimean Election Results; Only 15% Voted For Annexation … Continue reading Putin: The slips don’t lie
