I am frequently in contact with people who are passionate about “Church Unity”. Here is my basic take on this, broken down by specific area. Defining my Terms: By “Unity”, I mean a sharing more than a belief in Christ as Savior, but of the … [Continue reading]
Throwing a Wet Blanket on Campaign Promises
July 24, 2008 By
Bottom Line Up Front: Government programs can help improve life “on the margins”, but the potential harm they can cause is immense. This belief leads me to support limited government that protects liberty, markets, and provides those necessary goods … [Continue reading]
Measurement Errors and Sample Bias in the FATA
July 24, 2008 By
It is very difficult to get good information about insurgencies. This is because they: 1. IO. They run their own information operations through their own dissemination channels, traditional channels (e.g. bazaar, mosque), and local, national, … [Continue reading]
Taking Responsibility for Falling to Temptations
July 24, 2008 By
The American heritage is one of a strong work ethic and a deep sense of personal responsibility. These individual traits, together with civic engagement, are the cultural foundations of American prosperity. Originally, these traits sprang forth … [Continue reading]
Looking at a Surge in Afghanistan
July 23, 2008 By
It is nice to see the insurgency in Pakistan getting more news coverage. Today I want to pull out some points made in a recent AP story, Suspicion, terrain are foes for US in Afghan surge). The general point of the story is that “surging” troop … [Continue reading]
In Praise of Civility – and a warning about love
July 23, 2008 By
Today’s gospel lesson from the Orthodox lectionary is on the parable of the leaven, and how a little bit really improves everything. In general, the leaven is love: you can change the world around you if you genuinely love. This is a fundamental … [Continue reading]
Signing Peace Accords with Insurgents
July 22, 2008 By
Pakistani COIN has a definite rhythm to it: increase military pressure in an area then, when things are near a breaking point, sign a peace agreement with insurgent leaders (or their proxies), according to which the insurgents promise to stop … [Continue reading]
Music and Science – missing the obvious point
July 22, 2008 By
My apologies if you were hoping to read more exciting thoughts on bureaucracy, elections, and tyranny, but I am going to take a few minutes to share some random thoughts on something more fundamental : music. There is much that could be said, but I … [Continue reading]
More Reasons to Support Pakistan in the FATA
July 21, 2008 By
The conventional wisdom seems to be that Pakistan is the cause of instability in Afghanistan, and that if the government of Pakistan cannot solve the problem we should go in and solve it for them. Earlier I argued that there is not such entity as … [Continue reading]
Who is Pakistan and where can I meet him?
July 17, 2008 By
Our brains just don’t work well in certain situations. Unfortunately, the world is full of “those situations”. There is a wonderful literature out there on how our brains let us down when we do certain kinds of analysis (The Psychology of … [Continue reading]
