Matthew Yglesias

TIME FOR A TIMEOUT. This seems smart from Michael Young: The five permanent Security Council members, perhaps at this weekend�s Group of 8 meeting, should consider a larger initiative based on the resolution that would include: a proposal for the gradual collection of Hezbollah�s weapons; written guarantees by Israel that it will respect Lebanese sovereignty […]

OUT OF ORDER. Here‘s some smart stuff on the burgeoning Israel-Lebanon war from Greg Djerejian. I have to say that I’m baffled as to why Israel is proceeding in this manner. I would have thought that between Hezbollah’s attack on Israeli troops and Israel’s decision to retaliate in such a large-scale manner, one would have […]

OY VEY. I’m trying to restrain myself from further Lieberman-blogging, but after reading this in the Observer, I can’t help but wonder if Rep. Anthony Weiner has ever actually read The New York Review of Books: �We do have a problem with progressives and those in the blogosphere, because the Palestinian position seems to be […]

UH-OH. The past 36 hours have had a bit of a clash of civilizations feel to them, what with Russia killing Shamil Besayev, India pointing the finger at Pakistani “militants” for yesterday’s bombing in Bombay, and Israel invading Lebanon after Hezbollah captured some soldiers. Meanwhile, Yossi Klein Halevi informs me in The New Republic that: […]

BOMBAY/MUMBAI: ENGLISH IS ENGLISH. In light of the recent bombing in India, I’ve been looking into the whole Bombay versus Mumbai question a little. Here’s the story: The city was founded by the Portuguese, who originally called it “Bom Bahia,” which later degenerated to “Bombaim.” The British took the territory over and started calling it […]

POLARIZATION WHY? Howard Kurtz reports that “a group of political strategists who have spent years firing heavy artillery at each other came together at the Hay-Adams Hotel yesterday, put aside their weapons, decried the polarized state of debate in America and vowed a new approach to peaceful coexistence.” My first instinct is to say that […]

INCIDENTALLY. . . . No day is complete without at least one Corner-centric post, so cast your eyes hither where Michael Ledeen is musing on the merits of killing people rather than taking them prisoner and then after three grafs of that tosses off this aside, “But one thing I do know: I would insist […]

GOOD NEWS. The Bush administration plans to start following the Geneva Conventions. I expect conservatives everywhere who’ve written on this in the past to now denounce the President for his evil, appeasing ways. Today’s laugh-or-cry moment: “Unlike four years ago . . . the debate now seems certain to include the views of the military�s […]

INFORMATION! RUN! HIDE! I was kind of skeptical of the whole concept underlying The Democratic Strategist when it first launched, but Scott Winship‘s blog posts are rapidly becoming a vital — and all-too-unbloggish — source of actual empirical information. For example, during various recent blog wars it had occurred to me to hypothesize that both […]