Leaving Afghanistan Robert Wright & Matthew Hoh Mar 16 + show topics Matthew’s experience in Iraq and Afghanistan How Matthew became disillusioned with the war in Afghanistan Matthew: Leave rural Afghans alone and they’ll leave us alone A critique of the Marja campaign The fallacy of fighting Al Qaeda in Afghanistan Negotiating a ceasefire with the Taliban Counter-Contrarian Edition Mark Schmitt & Noam Scheiber Mar 15 + show topics Explaining the current obsession with Rahm Emanuel An evaluation of Rahm Why didn’t Obama go confrontational on health care from the start? The social psychology of Senatorial gutlessness Why House Dems will be better off if health care passes Financial reform: Would Dems prefer no bill to a compromise? An Exceptional Diavlog Robert Farley & James Poulos Mar 15 + show topics Critiquing Lowry and Ponnuru on American exceptionalism What made Rob shake his military-historian fist in rage Rob: Hey, remember a little thing called slavery? The crosscurrents of race and Americanness in Obama’s identity Flag pins, the metric system, and the filibuster James unearths mass transit’s ideological underpinnings weekly programs Science Saturday The Week in Blog UN Plaza Values Added: Reinhold Niebuhr Edition Peter Beinart & Daniel Schultz Mar 14 + show topics Who Reinhold Niebuhr was and what he believed How his philosophy evolved from WWI to the Cold War Invoking Niebuhr in the torture debate The decline of theologians in public discourse Niebuhr’s odd place in today’s politics What would Niebuhr have said about Iraq and Israel-Palestine? UN Plaza: Peacekeeping in Sudan and Congo Mark Leon Goldberg & Erin Weir Mar 13 + show topics A quick tour of Sudan’s recent past and near future Is the comprehensive peace accord of 2005 unravelling? Conflict in oil-rich Abyei strains the UN mission Is a new outbreak of violence in Sudan inevitable? Congo: Peacekeepers adapt while attacks on civilians continue Getting smarter about peacekeeping Science Saturday: What’s Wrong With Transhumanism? Mike Treder & Massimo Pigliucci Mar 13 + show topics Is transhumanism fatally optimistic? Massimo’s ethical qualms with life extension The dangers of rapid technological advance Massimo vs. Mike on whether it’s possible to upload your mind Is the Turing Test a behaviorist blunder? Pesky limitations imposed by human biology The Week in Blog: Bocephus Edition Bill Scher & Matt Lewis Mar 12 + show topics The bizarre Eric Massa scandal fails to take down Rahm Bill: The Massa story reveals the downside of blogging Reconciliation: Conservatives jeer, liberals applaud Why Matt isn’t pinning his hopes on Stupak killing the bill Your moment of meta: TWIB talking about TWIB Financial reform and country music Intensely Resisted Worldviews Robert Wright & David Frum Mar 11 + show topics David (almost) endorses Mickey Kaus for Senate Are the Iraqi elections cause for celebration? David and Bob try not to refight the Iraq War. They fail Should/will Iran get bombed? Can Israel live without a Palestinian peace deal? The different flavors of the tea party Crisis in Nigeria Dayo Olopade & Eliza Griswold Mar 11 + show topics A history of violence in Nigeria Is the source of the conflict religious or economic? Clan loyalties threaten national coherence Could the country split in two? How Nigeria produced the underwear bomber Seventy million youths with no access to education The Academy and the Academy Heather Hurlburt & Daniel Drezner Mar 10 + show topics Why did it take so long to make a good Iraq war movie? Dan’s paean to Pixar The ivory tower vs. real-life experience Why it’s hard to bring together academics and policy makers After Iraqi elections, guarded optimism Heather to Dems: Run on national security in 2010 Degrees of Essential Mark Schmitt & Megan McArdle Mar 9 + show topics Is there a common thread in the New York Dem scandals? Megan defends lobbyists The idiots on the congressional finance committees The trouble with unemployment insurance What do the long-term unemployed most need? The inevitability/impossibility of passing health care reform

more diavlogs

Daniel’s book, Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village

John Ikenberry’s review of Bounding Power in Foreign Affairs

Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media, Part I, chapters 1-7

Buckminster Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

The Federalist Papers (free e-text)

McCain on a national service

Michael’s book “The American Way of Strategy”

collapse links

uncle ebeneezer: We know how you feel, Mike! 

bjkeefe: Hear, hear! 

uncle ebeneezer: What does it really mean? 

uncle ebeneezer: Is Tom purposely trying to steer interest away from his profession? 

themightypuck: Bob the Baptist comes out. 

uncle ebeneezer: Will formulates a scenario where the terrorists, literally, win! 

sapeye: Hmmm, is Bob guilty of serious stereotyping? 

Stapler Malone: No, Bob. It’s not. Nothing ever is.  

d7greene: Lawrence Lessig knows a juice-boxer when he sees one. 

Toryentalist: Matt is great, Matt is great—listen and repeat. 

thouartgob: Joel’s elegant refutation of Bob’s point. 

uncle ebeneezer: George Johnson, hopeless romantic! 

themightypuck: Robert Wright, Asteroid Cowboy. 

bjkeefe: Spelling is fun-damental! 

nikkibong: The joy of taking stuff out of context. 

bjkeefe: Who stole Matthew’s tie? 

uncle ebeneezer: The Art of Subtlety. 

bjkeefe: Heather slaps the entire BhTV community. 

bjkeefe: Can anyone find a case where this is not ultimately Mickey's advice to Dems? 

Ken Davis: The racial blind taste test. 

Stapler Malone: Go forward, not backward; upward not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.... 

Simon Willard: Bob steps outside himself here. 

JonIrenicus: Puzzle spelled out. 

uncle ebeneezer: George's response here was absolutely priceless. 

graz: Bob takes Tom Jones down a peg.