Michael Totten has written a good piece about the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, albeit as seen from the Azerbaijan side of things. We tend to think that the Soviet Union broke up ‘peacefully’ (just as we inaccurately think that South Africa’s transition from apartheid was ‘peaceful’). This is because the vastness of the […]
Sarah Palin did well last night in her debate with Joe Biden, and Biden in turn landed good shots. Democracy at work. Maybe despite all the spinning and media/blogosphere ravings one way or the other, Obama just has to keep it steady to win: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. famously said of Franklin […]
President Tadic has hinted that Serbia will contemplate partition of Kosovo if "every other possibility is exhausted". Oops. What he meant to say was that he was not suggesting partition, merely mentioning a purely hypothetical possibility. If all other possibilities are exhausted. Hypothetically speaking. Down the road Montenegro is being […]
Reader Willie Garvin asks (via my previous post): How many of the 47 states that have recognised Kosovo as independent have done so for reasons other that the belief it was the right thing to do for the region and international relations in general? I mean, how many Croatias are […]
Via Volokh Conspiracy an interesting account of the way top chess Grandmaster Vishy Anand prepares to face his rival Vladimir Kramnik over a long series of games. How best to focus Vishy’s analysis – on countering Kramnik’s likely strong systems, or hammering his (relatively) weaker ones? Which reminds me of the famous […]
Spengler gives some alarming projections: It’s also the case that by 2050, there will be fewer than 100,000 Georgian women of child-bearing years (between the ages of 18 and 35). The number of potential mothers who speak Georgian will have fallen so far that Georgian will be in danger of […]
What an annoying problem it has been for so long, not being able to shoot someone hiding behind a wall or deep in a trench. What you need is a gun which sends out a shell which explodes just as it goes past or over the hiding-place, zapping the person lurking below. […]
The Instapundit Glenn and Helen Show podcasts always hit a good note for me – the friendly and open-minded co-hosts letting interesting guests talk at some length about their ideas, many of which go way beyond the sort of thing we are used to hearing in Europe. Here is a full […]
Another mediation for me looms. I am busy contacting the parties to get things ready for the mediation session itself. In the UK it takes up to £20,000 to take a not especially complicated case to a final verdict in court. Just say you are being sued for £50,000 over a […]
My posting Manzi On Money wrongly attributed an article by Jim J Manzi to my former college friend Jim P Manzi. Thanks to Jim J himself for pointing that out. Anyway both Jim J and Jim P (and for all know many other Jim Manzis) are smart people. Here is […]
