About toast

I really did think—naively, I guess—that this was over and done with, a triumph indicating at least an inkling of collective dignity, when Rupert Murdoch caved to outside pressure and pulled the thing from the presses.  Oh but no. The … Read More

The New Statesman reports that Saudi society is beginning to rebel against the country’s infamous religious police, or mutawwa'in, which have long served as enforcers for the seriously-named Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice:  …public outcry … Read More

Angry Blog: Christopher Hitchens: “Of the suicide bombing population, 100% are faith-based.” (at 52 min) "Wrong. Prior to 2003, the leading suicide bombing organization was the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lankda, a secular, Marxist-influenced separatist group."  Robert Pape, the leading … Read More

In May, Mickey Mouse’s Islamofascist cousin—the one that’s never invited to the weddings—was beaten to death by an Israeli terrorist. But never fear, never fear, for the Disney franchise is stocked with willing martyrs…and so it was that last week … Read More

Among the 500 entries for the Blake Prize for Religious Art in Australia are a painting depicting Osama bin Laden as Jesus Christ and a statue of the Virgin Mary covered in a blue burqa familiar to Afghani women that … Read More

This past summer, I discovered Roberto Bolano (somewhat embarrassingly, since Latin America had long since proclaimed him the most important writer of his generation, but US literary critics were only just catching on to the already overdue English translations). I … Read More

Sometimes I feel like criticizing Bill O'Reilly is so easy I must be falling into a trap, like he designs what he says not to actually say anything but to elicit the sort of impassioned immediate rebuttals from the left … Read More

As funny as this and this may be, it gets tiresome really quickly. It’s not that Rebublican hypocrisy re: homosexuality shouldn’t be publicized, but the immediate and widespread glee buries the actual seriousness and does Liberals a disservice in the long … Read More

Daniel Rothschild as an informative piece on the 2nd anniversary of Katrina, the first of three to delineate three myths about the rebuilding efforts in Katrina. Today’s myth: “The main impediment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast is a lack of … Read More

In preparation for next year’s Olympics, the Chinese government has made a concerted effort to crack down on “chinglish." Now it is confronting the more serious problem of reducing the incredible amount of pollution in Beijing. Considering that these developments … Read More