Many people have toppled old nations. Many people have raised new ones. But few have done both without leaving a great trail of blood behind them. No eulogy is sufficient, but we say goodbye to Nelson Mandela knowing that he was one of the few people about whom we can safely say that he left the world a much better place than he found it, and ( Read more... )

It wasn't exactly a peaceful 2012, and 2013 doesn't look a whole lot better. Oh, that Afghanistan thing is still going on, but in other parts of the world there's a whole lot of other civil conflict that looks like it could spill over across borders and into the international playing field at any moment ( Read more... )

So how can I distract my mind from the horrific problems of my comfortable, pampered, upper-middle-class existence? By reading about the misfortunes of others, or course! And seeing how everything else seems to be blowing up around us this week, it's pretty easy to find something else to get all depressed over.

( And the news, it is depressing )

I should be doing a million things right now, but I can't seem to work on any of them. So, in lieu of all that, here's the roundup of everything that's gone wrong in the world while Sarkozy is busy pounding his chest and talking about intervention in Syria.

( The Center May Not Hold, but the Wings are Falling Apart )

So the coup in Mali is having some birthing problems. The whole point of the coup (ostensibly) is that the civilian government wasn't doing enough to fight against the Taureg rebels in the north of the country. The soldiers who overthrew the government swore that they would do everything the government was refusing to do and would supply the ( Read more... )

Not really making the headlines today, but it looks like there's another coup this year, this time in Mali. This is actually something that I think a lot of people saw coming, but that not a lot of people can do something about. As I understand it (and I'm by no means an expert), this is partially our fault, so maybe we should pay attention.

( Aimless speculation )

From the BBC:
Kenya's military spokesman has said large groups of donkeys in Somalia will be considered "al-Shabab activity" following reports the militants are using the animals to transport weapons.
I'm normally against cruelty to animals, but the idea of some uniformed Kenyan officer standing on a platform in front of a "Global War On Donkeys" ( Read more... )

There are crazy people all over the internet. You run into them. You deal with it. But every once in a while you run into someone so strange, so utterly fucked-up, that your brain just throws out a red card and shuts down. And today I ran into one: Sam Childers, Christian Preacher, Missionary, and either one of the most irresponsible men on the ( Read more... )

It's long been assumed that Americans had a strong lead on really weird reality television. I mean, think about it, we had shows where people basically got married because the producers decided to do so ( Read more... )

News Summary Time:

I've been avoiding the Middle East like the plague ever since it became impossible to get anything concrete out of it, but there's a bunch of other things (some outdated since it took me so long to write this) that have been running around the headlines. So here they are:

( But First, Here's Johnny With the News )