Women of the world, fear not! Broadview Security is here!
Posted: January 15th, 2010 under Uncategorized - No Comments. Tags: everybody is trying to kill you, satire / humor writing
Harper, pundits, & democracy – oh my!
Every once and a while something happens in Canadian politics that’s just so goddamn crazy that one can’t but replace their comfortable numbness with burning shame. This shame, of course, stems from Prime Minister Harper’s recent prorogation of Parliament- a move so brazenly cynical that even Harper’s former chief of staff calls it ‘childish.’ When I first heard about it on the news, I mistakenly thought the newscaster said, ‘the Prime Minister has scuttled parliament so that the government can focus on watching the Olympics,’ which, though absurd, is far better than the final rationale of needing to ‘get important work done.’
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Posted: January 12th, 2010 under Uncategorized - No Comments. Tags: canadian politics, punditry
Iraq: a state divided – GPM Article & Commentary
Iraq is being interpreted as somewhat of a success story vis-a-vis the more apparent failure unfolding in Afghanistan. There is a kernel of truth to this- the Iraqi insurgency has ebbed and the new political infrastructure has taken a more comprehensive hold outside the capital of Baghdad. However, the overall sectarian situation within Iraq is anything but stable and there’s no reason to believe it will get better anytime soon. Here is what happened in Iraq over the course of just one day, December 16th, courtesy of Iraq Body Count :
Man shot dead in Alya, Khanaqin
Policeman shot dead in al-Hajj Ali, south Mosul
Off-duty policeman shot dead in Mosul
Policeman on Dec 22, from wounds from bomb explosion, al-Muaalimeen, Kirkuk
Body of 42-year-old man found shot dead in al-Nada, south Khanaqin
Posted: December 31st, 2009 under commentary, foreign policy analysis - No Comments.
High noon at Copenhagen: GPM Article
Here’s this week’s situation report from GPM:
Posted: December 14th, 2009 under foreign policy analysis - No Comments.
Ferguson: An empire at risk
Harvard’s Niall Ferguson wrote an interesting piece for Newsweek titled an empire at risk. His article touches down on several scenarios that may come out of America’s massive deficit spending ($176 billion in October alone). According to Ferguson, as the federal budget is more and more encumbered by debt repayments, the first thing to go will inevitably be defense spending. Makes sense to me.
The people over at the RealClearWorld Blog, however, point out that a reduction in American defense spending from the present 4 percent of GDP to a projected 2.6 percent by 2028 would be enough to maintain America’s hegemonic status. Perhaps this is true, but if we assume that China continues its breakneck growth, by the 2030s the international system should be shifting into bipolarity with several other powers (India, Brazil, Russia) in the wings.
Posted: December 1st, 2009 under commentary, foreign policy analysis - No Comments.
How we made it suck: Vampires
In the past few years, no other cultural staple has been more pummeled into retardation than vampires. Back in the day, they had the romantic depth to please the ladies while still maintaining enough killer integrity to get a nod from the men. Bram Stoker’s vampire turned the boon of immortality on its head – so much so that the upside of being able to watch the rise and fall of human empires didn’t compensate for the inability to enjoy human pleasures: sex, sleeping, eating, etc. Of course, real human contact is also off the table because of a vampire’s thirst for blood. The thirst frames the real symbolic potency of being a vampire- they end up destroying whatever they love. Pretty deep stuff, might even have one thinking about the nature of humanity, mortality, and other such lofty questions.
Too bad we made them suck.
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Posted: November 27th, 2009 under how we made it suck, satire writing - humor - No Comments.
Medvedev dreams of economic reform
Here’s this week’s situation report on the Russian economy. President Medvedev is setting about the Herculean task of luring educated Russians back to a place where dead lawyers and journalists are increasingly common. Due to space constraints, I couldn’t even touch down on Russia’s absolutely insane demographic crisis. According to conservative estimates, Russia will lose 11 million people over the next 19 years. Full text after the jump.
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Posted: November 26th, 2009 under foreign policy analysis - No Comments.
What would an early exit from Afghanistan look like?
This week’s GPM forecaster is about what a post-NATO Afghanistan would look like. I personally think it’s an interesting topic, because the debate over whether or not we should pull out is more determined by emotional factors- not wanting to ‘lose’ and have made such sacrifices in vain- rather than practical ones such as whether the whole thing is actually ‘winnable.’ It’s starting to seem a lot like that Vietnam thing I’ve heard so much about!
Full text after the jump…
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Posted: November 25th, 2009 under commentary, foreign policy analysis - No Comments.
Karzai to world: don’t fret, I’ll make it all better!
That war in Afghanistan was looking pretty bad for a while there! What with Transparency International dubbing Kabul as the world’s second-most corrupt government, and the fact that Afghanistan has pretty much become a narco-state, one could get the impression that Afghanistan has become somewhat of a lost cause.
But wait! President Hamid Karzai is back to take one more kick at the can.
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Posted: November 19th, 2009 under commentary, foreign policy analysis - No Comments.
Back and a few GPM articles
Back from Florida, will have some nice new content in a few days after my mind recovers from being beaten down with alcohol for twelve nights running. Until then, here are some nice articles from the GPM:
India, China & the IPI Pipeline
Arctic ownership update
The India lobby in the United States
Posted: November 17th, 2009 under commentary, foreign policy analysis - No Comments.