Grand Theft Auto has nothing on this.
Month: May 2008
“No Sign until the Burst of Fire”
This brilliant article from International Security, subtitled “Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier”, is one of the best things I have read about the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and astride the Afghan-Pakistan border.
The main point of the article is that our problems in the region boil down to one troublesome community:
The Taliban and the other Islamic extremist insurgent elements operating on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border are almost exclusively Pashtuns, with a sprinkling of radicals from nonborder ethnicities. The implications of this salient fact—that most of Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s violent religious extremism, and with it much of the United States’ counterterrorism challenge, are centered within a single ethnolinguistic group—have not been fully grasped by a governmental policy community that has long downplayed cultural dynamics.
The British called these folks “Pathans”. The British were not notably successful in fighting them, though they did somewhat better recruiting them and bringing them into their employ.
Stupidity Kills
The headline reads….
NYC issues warning after aphrodisiac kills man
Why in the world would anyone need to be warned that taking the product was a bad idea? Or that they would think that sucking down something made from toad venom will get you in the mood for a romantic romp? The very last thing I would do to get all hot and bothered is to ingest something with the word “Venom” in the list of ingredients.
I think we’ll have to chalk this one up to evolution in action.
(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)
Guns For Me, But Not For Thee
Via Annie comes this gem from the Sun Times. Here is the money:
Mell forgot to re-register the weapons as required every year by the ordinance that he helped to pass as one of the City Council’s most senior members.
So, what does an alderman do when he finds himself in violation of the law? He writes a new law. Mell has quietly introduced an ordinance that would reopen gun registration in Chicago and create a one-month amnesty for himself and other gun owners in the same predicament.
During the monthlong window, gun owners who attempted to re-register their guns between May 1, 2007, and April 1, 2008, only to be rejected on grounds the registrations had lapsed would be allowed to re-register without penalty.
Some things in Chicago change, some things stay the same.
I have a feeling that after the Heller decision, the Honorable Richard Daley and other municipal leaders in the state of Illinois will be the next in line with lawsuits to defend…and hopefully lose.
Contango
I learned a new word today, perusing this article that I found at Drudge (do I really need to give Drudge a hat tip?).
I don’t know a lot about the futures markets, but the article states that some contracts have become more expensive than the spot price for oil, and that this is a rare event called a contango. The article also states that this means that either the futures markets are unhinged, or that participants in this market are wagering that there will be a supply issue in the coming years.
I would be interested to hear what our commenters and blogmates (who know a lot more about these types of things than myself) have to say about this.