There are some genuinely positive signs coming out of Iraq, in the critical area of Al Anbar. Who says so — the typical pack of mindless right-wing warbloggers? Not exactly . . . in this case the good news is coming from those notorious right-wing organs, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

(more…)

One of the thrills of having a blog is that I get to tell you about blogs I have discovered. My newest recommendation is a blog called Stubborn Facts.

It’s a group blog, and with apologies to the other bloggers, the blogger who really got my attention is a guy named Simon Dodd. His blog-within-Stubborn-Facts can be accessed here. He is a savvy legal writer who takes a conservative point of view.

Simon’s take on the partial-birth abortion decision is here. It’s entertainingly written in a law review-style format, with footnotes — the first of which reveals that the author’s e-mail address is a gmail address beginning with “acolyteofscalia.”

This is clearly my kind of guy.

Here is a sample quote from one of Simon’s posts, where he urges Alberto Gonzales to resign:

Al, this is reality calling. Like the Miers nomination, your boss is pathologically incapable of firing you, and like the Miers nomination, every hour between now and your resignation worsens the damage. This was a nothing story that you allowed to become a scandal. It no longer matters whether there’s any fire behind this smoke. Resign. Now.

Check out his blog today.

UPDATE: Bumped to top.

Recently I read Michael Crichton’s “Next.”

I always enjoy Crichton’s novels, but they follow a predictable formula.

(more…)