I bet you didn’t know PZ Myers is a literary critic: Try comparing LeGuin’s Earthsea trilogy to Dan Brown’s tripe, or to those horrid westerns by Louis L’Amour, or the Left Behind books, or anything by Tom Clancy. Which ones have the most depth, treat their readers as serious people who will think and learn,… Continue reading

When it’s fun to be a Red Sox fan…. Red Sox win, read Red Sox Chick.Yankees lose, read Yankees Chick. What’s not to like?

What does it tell you that even Der Spiegel thinks the war is not lost? The Iraq war came within a hair of returning to Ramadi in early July. The attackers had already gathered four kilometers (about 2.5 miles) south of the city, on the banks of the Nasr canal. Between 40 and 50 men… Continue reading

The dinosaurs in Iran are uneasy: In Tehran, hundreds gathered near the home of Mansour Osanloo, the imprisoned leader of the capital’s transit workers, with a simple message: We are not afraid! The authorities had organized a military operation to cordon off the streets leading to the house – but couldn’t prevent union members from… Continue reading

As if The New Republic’s credibility was not already in tatters after the Glass scandal, now there’s this: After some commentators and soldiers raised questions about the plausibility of these tales, both the Army and the New Republic investigated. The Army issued a statement saying flatly that the stories were false. The New Republic claims… Continue reading