On Syria: the most cogent explanation I've seen of what that mess is all about (four or five civil wars at once) is from Patrick Coburn, a Brit who is over there and was in Iraq for the better part of a decade. I would describe our administration as incompetent to understand, much less intervene in it -- and am glad Obama is going to Congress. More and more, he seems adrift: good instincts, lousy execution. Let's just hope the health insurance law gets implemented competently; then he'll have been worth something for all the sweat we put into getting him elected.

Sick. Twisted. Stupid.

I just want to say, I love your blog. This is such an important insight -- that kids without a million flashing distractions are sponges, sucking up anything new and amazing. We don't get to see that much, though, like you, I've been a few places where it was visible. Yet, ending extremely poverty breaks that innocent receptiveness down. And yet, we must!

That's one of the more chilling photos I've ever seen. I have to wonder why the "day room" is set up so prisoners are essentially chained so they must face each other, interact with each other. What does that do for the security state?

Apparently propriety in the tradition she comes from requires that a woman nailed to the cross be clothed. Why?

Is it possible that our governing institutions have lost their ability to adapt and so have become simply frustrating expressions of our various forms of stasis? It looks that way. If so, economic and culture creativity will find easier environments for their expression.

I'd like to hear the President explain his health care reform to some people who actually understand the issue. The Republicans are easy pickings on this -- they don't have a policy on this or much else that goes beyond preserve provider profits and die quickly. But how would the Prez do with some of these people who actually know something? (second part of post.)

Despite current smiles, McChrystal=Westmoreland. Ignominious. Without the draft, Obama may not equal Johnson. How about Obama=futility? Sad.

I think we can probably date the popularity of ignoring Constitutional formalities back to when we stopped thinking Congress was necessary for declaring wars.

How old is this guy? Photo looks like a 50s kid's dream.

I had no idea Brooke was still alive. I encountered him in about 1963 when he sat on a panel with the Rev. James Bevel who would now be considered a civil rights agitator of ill-repute -- sort of an Al Sharpton. It was a different time.

That is one sad, sick looking woman. I feel kind of sorry for whoever is family with her.

I don't know if it is "realistic" but if we are serious about our agendas, we need to keep demanding that the President push on with the matters he campaigned on. That seems realistic to me. Otherwise we are acquiescing in the view that democracy is just theater. This may be true, but we can't afford to submit quietly to being necessary extras in the games of elites.

Great pic. I think you understand the significance rightly. Too bad Hillary happened to be looking down, pouty at that instant. Don't know if that catches anything real. She seems a worthy team player.

This bit of what you wrote is brave: I have always believed that the private sector is more efficient and better at getting things done than the government but I now believe that in the case of health care other countries are right and we are wrong. All of us are wrong sometimes (even me!) and it is hard to say so. Shannon: mostly when I read what Canadians say about their health system, they like it and think whatever waiting they have to do is reasonable. See, for example, this Canadian oped article: http://bit.ly/1bH3tG.

Congratulations on selling in this market. I hope you enjoy Portland. My partner was living there when we got together 30 years ago and we both liked it. And I trust you'll figure out where to go with a new approach to blogging!

As a liberal at the time, it wasn't so much Clinton's Sista Soulja moment as when he executed the retarded guy that got to me. Be that as it may, Ignatius is a dick.

Exactly -- the ball and chain of Afghanistan will likely sink this hopeful Presidency. Also probably Pakistan. There is no military solution. And covering for the lawbreaking (joining in it?) goes right along with the military adventure. Very appropriate to see the holdover Secretary of War upstaging the blithe young President.

Exactly my response!

With Jody, I imagine Obama has read Galeano. He seems too broadly thoughtful a guy not to have. Open Veins of Latin America is the classic, beautifully written, statement of the wrongs done to Latin America by US supported rapacious market capitalism, originally published in 1971. Galeano is one of the premier writers of the southern hemisphere, expressive of that continent's rage, pain -- and beauty. If Obama was paying any attention to current affairs the 80s, he has read Galeano.

Guess the idea of reducing/doing away with nukes makes The Economist anxious -- and they insist on sharing.

Nasty looking bunch of old white guys. Thanks to the Bag for finding this.

Has anyone seen the picture the NYT has in its slide show of the backs of 3 apparent Lubovitchers looking comfortably (happily?) at the smoke rising from Gaza? Here's a link. I find that one even more upsetting than the Sderot students, perhaps because it taps into very European images of "the Jew." And yes, I do think of Bull Run. And I am appalled.

Just want to note that if I were there, I'd probably be taking the same sorts of pics, rubble and victims framed by the holes blown in buildings, but they've become cliched. Unfortunately, over the years all images of the destruction wrought by modern militarys in overcrowded cities have come to look pretty much alike. It is very hard to capture visually the unremitting, daily violence that lies behind these events. But it is that undramatic grinding away at Palestinian humanity that hardens support for Hamas. And while the fears of Israelis seem close to insane given the balance of power, those fears must explain the willingness to inflict so much humiliation and pain upon the weak. But all this is so hard to capture visually...

Again, as in other war coverage, we Americans are shielded from the human carnage, the shredded bodies, the guts spewed out. Other peoples get to see those images -- why shouldn't we? I haven't known quite what to say about Gaza; it all seems such a mindless re-enactment of past atrocities, Lebanon 2006, Jenin, etc. But I have put an ugly picture of dead, dismembered humans at the head of my not very original Gaza post, because that is what all this means.