Current events

Our continuing conflicted feelings about Iraq inform our thinking about Syria:

Many of us in the news biz -- most, probably -- can't stop talking about Jeff Bezos' purchase of the Washington Post. Our thinking generally is, 1) What the hell was he thinking and, 2) Sure hope he can pull it off.

What if he is smarter than the rest of us and knows exactly what he's doing?

So now I guess there must be 51 ways to leave your lover:

Kim Jong-un’s ex-girlfriend was among a dozen well-known North Korean performers who were executed by firing squad nine days ago, according to South Korean reports.

This is interesting -- "Why Martin Luther King was like Picasso":

When people talk about “modern art,” they don’t mean (despite what the words suggest) the art being made today; that’s contemporary art. The phrase “modern art” refers to a particular set of styles that flourished during a specific time period, roughly from the early 1900s to the 1960s. It’s a historical term, like impressionism.

Why it's not a good idea to get obsessed about correcting your faults:

To really differentiate yourself in this winner-take-all world, you should be focusing on improving your strengths, not your weaknesses.

[. . .]

Oh, dear:

Here we go again:

Since it appears we'll be back on a war footing any day now (whether in a limited way or as an introduction to Armageddon it's hard to say), let's take a look at what a true military hero looks like. Meet Ty Michael Carter, only the fifth living Medal of Honor recipient since Vietnam:

Today we learn a new phrase -- the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Government -- and it says everything we need to know about politics today:

Today I'm failing in my efforts not to be so parochial.  This story of Big Government bungling shouldn't bother me more than any other story of such bungling just because I'm a veteran, but it does, OK?