Here’s a fine serve of boiling hot anger from Twisty about a report coming out of Pakistan. It’s unbelievable that any government officebearer, of any nation, could try to defend this. In 2008.

…This pretty much defines the global humanitarian crisis that we routinely downplay as “patriarchy.”
Hold onto your hats.
Balochistan Senator Sardar Israrullah Zehri stunned the [...]

Those whom the gods would destroy, they first send mad.
And if that doesn’t work, they send a hurricane:
Republican White House hopeful John McCain has warned Hurricane Gustav could force the suspension of his nominating convention, as the [...]

Looks like they didn’t all go to Afghanistan after all.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 30 (UPI) — Coalition forces have arrested 26 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists, including an alleged leader taken near Mosul, officials said Saturday.
I can imagine now the standard question to be inserted in all job interviews in Iraq if and when they ever get [...]

Move over Alexander. Napoleon, you’re yesterday’s news. Hannibal, Julian, Slim, Rommel, all you other guys who thought you were good at the art of warfare, step aside. We have a new pre-eminent military genius with a strategy for victory in Afghanistan that will just blow you away:
Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, recently [...]

Until recently, I had tended unthinkingly to adopt the received wisdom when it came to comparing US political parties to those in Australia, viz (acknowledging it was not a perfect fit):
Republicans = Liberal/National Coalition
Democrats = ALP
Having followed the latest presidential campaign in fits and starts since it began in, oh, 1973 or whenever it was, [...]

Even though I can never forgive Leonard Cohen for ‘Hallelujah’, I have to admit that this is rather nice.

The government’s latest contribution to the education policy debate has generated the predictable responses from various quarters. Rudd’s main theme seems to be that whereas Howard’s mob talked a lot about changing things, he’s actually going to do them … i.e. he thinks Howard was right but lacked administrative acumen and/or political courage. Well, we’ll [...]

From Joe Biden’s acceptance speech:
Again and again, on the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama has been proven right.
Folks, remember when the world used to trust us, when they looked to us for leadership? With Barack Obama as our president, they’ll look at us again, [...]

Our prime minister must have spent so much time in opposition nodding in agreement with Howard’s mob that his neck got sore. Fresh from making life even harder for the poor sods on welfare, the government has now announced a package of education measures that could have been lifted straight from a Howard Government cabinet [...]

Now that the Iraqi government has betrayed John McCain by saying a timetable for the yanks to piss off is a great idea, he’s had to find a new reason to be elected president. And the best he can come up with is …. Georgia???
McCain told a crowd that wife, Cindy, was to accompany him [...]