Category Archives: Uncategorized

Morality takes different forms. “A zoo in Denmark is asking for donations of small pets as food for its predators. … That way, nothing goes to waste — and we ensure natural behavior, nutrition and well-being of our predators,” the zoo said. Meanwhile over in Sudan: “‘We’re suffering’: People in Sudan’s el-Fasher eat animal fodder …

Continue reading “Tale of Two Cities”

New at PJMedia VIP. The power of the Bomb lay in its nearly supernatural quality; in the ability of magic not megatons to break the enemy will.

New at the Belmont Club: The storytelling of war. From the thrill of victory to the pathos of defeat.

New at PJMedia VIP. The days when nations sailed with hatches open under sunny skies are over. Fear is rising again and general quarters is sounding in many places.

New at the Belmont Club. The rise, fall and rise again of pirates. The bad old days are back. But what is the West going to do about it?

New at PJMedia VIP. Maybe the best way for Taiwan not to be invaded by China is to be ready for it.

New at PJMedia VIP. Remembering Michael Ledeen, who anticipated Iran as a challenge even when most were focused on Osama bin Laden.

Donald Trump warned people to get out of Tehran before it’s too late. Too late for what?

New at the Belmont Club: Why would Vladimir Putin, like a Hollywood movie villain, dramatically announce that he will wreak his revenge on Ukraine to the world instead of just doing it?

New at PJMedia VIP. A man blows up a fertility clinic because no one asked him to be born. A Latino from Chicago is suspected of killing two Israelis to “free Palestine”. How ideas turned deadly.

New at the Belmont Club. If astronomers have truly detected biological signatures from a fairly common type of nearby exoplanet then, why given the age of the universe, haven’t monitors picked up signals from extraterrestrials?

New at PJMedia VIP. Britain was prepared to denounce Washington’s tariffs but China came for it first. Parliament reconvenes to reprieve British Steel.

New at the Belmont Club. Donald Trump’s great gamble on America. Calculated risk or forlorn hope?

New at the Belmont Club: For many the problem is not how to be remembered. It’s finding a way to be forgotten. Our problematic relationship with causality.

New at PJMedia VIP. Once the public didn’t have official truth. Then they had nothing but. Now what can we trust? How does society cope with authority that may either be dishonest or uncertain?

While I shall express no opinion on the subject of his innocence or guilt, here are a few thoughts on Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest on a warrant by the ICC for allegedly summarily executing thousands of criminal suspects during his war on drugs. Typically “salvage” victims are the disposable poor, though not always. Perhaps the most …

Continue reading “The Meaning of “Salvaging””

New at the Belmont Club. Does time flow like a river to the sea? What does your GPS app have to say?

My latest at the Belmont Club. How data science and AI have made it possible for the public to see things never seen before.

My latest at PJMedia VIP. What are the ways forward for the West in the war? Is peace possible at all? What are the incentives to reach agreement? Could it become a quagmire?

Kash Patel has been confirmed as FBI director. The New York Times says many Democrats are uneasy about Kash Patel. “Mr. Patel will now oversee the vast surveillance and investigative powers of the F.B.I.” This fearsome apparatus, formerly in Democrat hands, is now controlled by their enemies. …