this is an adventure

“President Obama’s advisers are focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers,” according to reports, while leaving the rest of the country unmanned. This might work, but it is more likely to simply make the troops there easier targets while leaving the countryside unpatrolled. Politicians as generals rarely work.

The current “debate is whether Americans’ health care will look like Ted Kennedy’s or Joe Taxpayer’s. The issue, therefore, is not about reform or no reform. It is about good reform versus bad reform. How can every American’s health care look like Ted Kennedy’s? The answer is: ‘He who pays the piper, calls the tune.’”

Maliki’s future in question: “It was the deadliest coordinated attack in Iraq since the summer of 2007 and happened just blocks from where car bombers killed at least 122 people at the Foreign and Finance Ministries in August, in the continuation of a focused attempt by insurgents to strike at the government’s most critical functions.”

Mark Steyn responds to Alex Renton’s call for fewer children as the only way to solve the world’s problems. “Alex would appear to be more comfortable with Soviet-style restrictions on freedom of movement: Agree to abort your kid and the state will get you a special exit visa for two weeks in Florida.”