The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Rednecks: A Global Phenomenon

It’s like the punchline of a Jeff Foxworthy joke: BEIJING, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) — Two people were killed and 223 have been injured in the Chinese capital amid traditional New Year fireworks frenzy that lasted from Wednesday evening to Thursday noon. . . . On Thursday, Beijing dispatched more than 20,000 street cleaners after a […]

Spare Us Your Sermons

“We Are All Egyptians,” Nicholas Kristof declares in a New York Times column with a Cairo dateline. Except we aren’t Egyptians, and the vast majority of us will never set foot in Cairo. For those of us who aren’t traveling the world on an expense account, the Atlantic‘s Clive Crook offers this helpful reminder: The […]

EGYPT: Today’s Latest News Updates: Mubarak Warns of ‘Chaos’ (Video) UPDATE: Five-Day Internet Shutdown Cost Egyptian Economy $90 Million UPDATE: Blogger ‘Sandmonkey’ Free UPDATE: Tanks Fire on Protesters?

Christiane Amanpour interviews Hosni Mubarak: He said he’s fed up with being president and would like to leave office now, but cannot, he says, for fear that the country would sink into chaos. . . . When I asked him what he thought seeing the people shouting insults about him and wanting him gone, he […]

El-Baradei: CNN’s Choice, Not Egypt’s

A little-noted passage in a Wednesday news article: The Obama administration also reached out to Egypt’s top military officer, stressing the U.S. desire to see calm restored to the streets of Cairo, where pro- and anti-Mubarak forces fought with fists, stones and clubs. One of the things that has puzzled me for the past couple […]

VIDEO: Battle of Tahrir Square

One of my Twitter friends is closely following events in Egypt: You may have already seen some of this footage showing Wednesday’s charge (by what one of our blog commenters called “irregular cavalry”) on the anti-government protesters in Cairo. But it is, as Alyssa says, “astonishing.” The Christian Science Monitor has an account of the […]

Obama ‘Siding With Chaos’?

So says a leading Egyptian businessman: Shafik Gabr was one of President Obama’s greatest fans eighteen months ago. Today, as Mr. Obama presses for the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, not so much. “The United States is siding with chaos if they force Mubarak out now,” says Gabr. Gabr is the Chairman of the […]

Egypt! Egypt! Egypt!

Turn on the TV news, and that’s all you hear. Whereas Jehovah smote the ancient Egyptians with a series of plagues, now we’re cursed with a repetitive plague of Egyptians on TV news. Dan Collins reacts poetically: In Aegyptus did Kubla Bam A peaceful transition decree . . . Read the rest, although I prefer […]

Egypt Gets Violent, Obama Gets Angry, Networks Get Ratings, I’ll Pop the Popcorn

Let’s start with the basics: When you carry signs and chant slogans, that’s called a “protest.” When you start throwing rocks and molotov cocktails, that’s called a “riot.” So it’s time for the talking heads on TV to stop using terms like “protesters” and “demonstrators” to describe the mob in Cairo. Furthermore, don’t ever try […]

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