Matthew Duss

Given that Ann Coulter is, surprise, classless enough to use an obituary for her father as an opportunity to attack, in typically brutish fashion, her political enemies, I don’t feel bad at all noting that my suspicions about her career as an insult comic serving as therapy for her deeply rooted parent issues have now […]

Via Steve Clemons, a good short doc on Hollywood’s vilification of Arabs. Among the many offensive images and representations in the program, the clip from Back to the Future is particularly ridiculous. The year was 1985, Muammar Khaddafi was being sold to us as the new Hitler, (this was several new Hitlers ago; since then […]

Last month I briefly commented on reports that Muqtada al-Sadr has returned to his religious studies. This is a potentially significant enough development to merit a bit more. Contrary to reports like this one, Muqtada can’t really “study to become an ayatollah,” at least not in the way the story frames it. He can study […]

Jesus’ General shares this Jonah Goldberg gem from a recent NPR interview: Jonah Goldberg: The benefit of Bush’s compassionate conservatism [in 2000] was that it was majorly a marketing slogan… Alex Chadwick: You mean you’re worried Mike Huckabee might actually mean it? Goldberg: Yes, that’s what I’m terrified of. Sadly, No! interprets this in light […]

Mike Huckabee, the candidate for transfer: When asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives, noting that the Arabs have far more land than the Israelis and that it […]

I strongly recommend Brian Katulis‘s article from yesterday. As he indicates, we are in a key moment for progressives on national security right now. Given the momentous and comprehensive failure of conservative ideology in the Middle East, progressives have an opportunity to redraw the boundaries of the national security debate in the U.S., and it’s […]

One of Victor Davis Hanson‘s readers asks “whether the ancient world offered any parallels in our modern war on jihadism?” Those of you familiar with Hanson’s ouvre will understand that this is a bit like asking a French chef whether you should put butter in things, or asking Wynton Marsalis whether Louis Armstrong was important […]

The New York Times leaves a flaming bag of poo on America’s doorstep, in the form of Bill Kristol‘s first regular column. But gratitude for sparing us a third Clinton term only goes so far. Who, inquiring minds want to know, is going to spare us a first Obama term? After all, for all his […]

(via Ezra) Briefly: America simply cannot afford to have as president a man so utterly clueless about the nature of Islamism, and how so much of its appeal lies in its ethic of resistance to Western encroachment, as to blithely suggest that the U.S. stay in Iraq for “a hundred years.” The last seven have […]

Daniel Pipes, the well-funded Muslim-hater and Rudy Giuliani Middle East adviser, considers whether Barack Obama is now, or has ever been, a Muslim: Was [Barack Obama] ever a Muslim or seen by others as a Muslim? More precisely, might Muslims consider him a murtadd (apostate), that is, a Muslim who converted to another religion and, […]