Sooner or later we may need to ‘think the unthinkable’ and talk to Al Qaida, according to senior UK police officer Sir Hugh Orde, who cites the IRA precedent. Meanwhile Al Qaida is said to be in retreat, according to the head of the CIA: But now, Mr Hayden said, […]
On the subject of Pollarding, the case of Jonathan (Jay) Pollard is interesting. Basically, JP in 1986 was sentenced to life imprisonment in the USA for spying for Israel. He is still in prison, despite the generally close US/Israel relationship and numerous public and private requests by Israel at the highest level […]
Controversy rages (zzzzz) over plans (or not) for the EU to have its own Embassies within the new External Action Service. As previously described, this proposal of course is being hotly debated in Brussels, not least because hundreds of EU officials’ jobs as currently funded are at stake. This latest […]
Tim Worstall (again!) links to a couple of examples of Pollard-like behaviour, namely hiding messages in a seemingly normal text. This has been done in the FCO too, of course. Telegrams have been sent with the first or last letter of each new line spelling out a cryptic message. Plus […]
Following my post about Russia’s dire demographic trends along comes this sad story about suicides in the Russian armed forces. All armies have these problems and do their best to play down the problem. The British Army in Bosnia had a significant number of suicides. One theory had it that […]
A nice observation from Tim Worstall this morning on why speculators send us all the right signals. Money is great for buying much-needed gardening equipment and the like. But more importantly it is the ultimate information system. Reflecting the accumulated choices of trillions of daily free transactions, money tells you everything […]
A report by Russian experts under UNDP auspices makes grim reading on Russia’s demographic problems. Basically, Russia has a uniquely dire set of trends combining to reduce fertility rates and increase mortality rates, leading to a notably shrinking – and ageing -population: demographic ripples from the massive loss of men […]
Tragedy is said to be unfolding within the UK Labour Party. Phil Collins (former speechwriter for Tony Blair) with Richard Reeves argue that the Party has lost touch with its liberal tradition. The full text is in Prospect (subscription only). But the core thought is here: Labour politicians too often see a social problem—obesity, […]
Some things just need to be pointed out for the edification of us non-Americans. Thus yesterday Syracuse beat John Hopkins 13-10 in the NCAA men’s lacrosse final. So what? Only that a crowd of 49,000 people watched the match. Blimey. HT: Power Line
Back in February I wrote about Communism and Nazism as the two vampires, asking which was worse. Ayn Rand back in 1946 through the words of Ellsworth Toohey, uber-collectivist, explains it all in a brilliant passage: Remember the Roman Emperor who said he wished humanity had a single neck so […]
