Continuing with my long-delayed Brendan’s Defining Days of the Decade series, we’re into the home stretch now, the Top 3. Unfortunately, in contrast to many joyous days on the list, this one is memorable for all the wrong reasons. But its status as a defining day — of my decade, and probably of yours too — is undeniable. First, to… Read more »
That, at least, is my initial take on this Daily News account of tonight’s events in Times Square: Heroic cops stopped a car bomb from blowing up in the heart of Times Square Saturday night, officials told the Daily News. Two female cops patrolling the area noticed a man fumbling with something in the back of a Nissan SUV parked… Read more »
Back in April 2006, when controversy erupted over a South Park episode featuring an image of Mohammed (kinda sorta), the old Irish Trojan’s Blog was all over it (and got a bunch of Instalanches and Malkin-lanches, as I recall). Now, almost exactly four years later, history is repeating itself, but alas, I haven’t had the time to follow it closely,… Read more »
Who knows what the reality is — Fog of War and all — but if initial reports are accurate, this seems like, er, a big f***ing deal: SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean naval vessel with more than 100 aboard was sinking on Friday in waters near North Korea and Seoul was investigating whether it was hit in a torpedo… Read more »
A test explosion for a BBC documentary suggests that the “underpants bomber” would have failed to bring down Flight 253 on Christmas Day 2009, even if he’d managed to detonate his trousers. Likely death toll: 2, namely the bomber and the unlucky soul sitting next to him. A controlled blast on a Boeing 747, using the same explosives that Umar… Read more »
[UPDATE/CORRECTION: The comment in question was made by Steve King of Iowa, not Peter King of New York. Apologies to Peter King for the mix-up. Meanwhile, this is not the first time Steve King has said something dumb. … FWIW, Peter King has also been known to make controversial comments, but he did not make this one.] Can you imagine… Read more »
So when I made the decision to do this, I decided I would sometimes take a break from the news of the day and instead do some pop culture related stuff. Because I love pop culture and, let’s be honest, Brendan only has a passing familiarity with it. Plus, I have a minor in Film and it’s not doing any… Read more »
Can’t make it up: PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say a misunderstanding about a Jewish prayer ritual led to the diversion of a US Airways flight to Philadelphia. City police Lt. Frank Vanore says a 17-year-old boy on the plane was using tefillin, a set of small black boxes attached to leather straps and containing biblical passages. One box is strapped… Read more »
I haven’t blogged much about the Christmas Day Underpants Bomber incident, nor the “security” debate that it has triggered, but suffice it to say, David Brooks and Glenn Greenwald are right. First, Brooks: [T]he system is bound to fail sometimes. Reality is unpredictable, and no amount of computer technology is going to change that. Bureaucracies are always blind because they… Read more »
In her column today about President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan, Peggy Noonan makes an important observation — neither pro-war nor anti-war, IMHO, but simply true: Here we should think about and emblazon on the national memory the biggest lesson of the uses of American power circa 2001-09. The minute American troops are committed anywhere in the world, there are, immediately,… Read more »