Something doesn’t add up in this (otherwise very good & detailed) Washington Post piece about Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the al-Qaeda double agent who killed seven CIA & Blackwater operatives at FOB Chapman in Khost Province.

I barely even know what Paul Krugman is arguing here. In both of his posts attacking anyone calling into question the lack of disclosure on the part of Jonathan Gruber, he acknowledges that Gruber should have disclosed his relationship. That’s really the end of the game here. Nobody is really saying that Gruber didn’t come to his conclusions honestly (though I’ll return to this in a moment) or isn’t saying now what he wouldn’t have said if he was not under contract. The problem is that the White House repeatedly used Gruber as an “objective source” while he was under contract, and neither the White House nor Gruber bothered to disclose that fact for months.

Haiti. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Lt. General P.K. “Ken” Keen and USAID Director Rajiv Shah. And then some.

Drip-Along Daffy starring Daffy Duck. This Warner Bros/Merrie Melodies cartoon was released on November 17, 1951.

It is a rare occasion when I agree wholeheartedly with a Townhall author, but I must confess, this piece by Bill Murchison really made me think. Specifically, it made me think, “the reason I rarely agree with Townhall authors is that they are idiots.”

Being self-defeating because it feels good isn’t going to get anything accomplished. Though it’ll sure feel good, and I guess that’s what politics is about for some people.

The factionalism that tore Iraq apart after the American invasion continues to simmer, even as (to quote Juan Cole) “the remaining 110,000 U.S. troops in Iraq seldom do patrols and seldom see combat any more.” Which shouldn’t come as any surprise.

Krugman writes that Wall Street is “clueless”, unaware of their evil. Brooks writes that Haitians need a dose of the Protestant work ethic to avoid future man-made [natural] disasters.

Finally, all it takes is the possibility of losing a Senate seat in Massachusetts plus tanking poll numbers for House Democrats for Congressional leaders to admit they really only need a simple majority in the Senate to pass health care reform.

It can be all too easy to separate ourselves – mentally, emotionally, physically – from those we perceive as our enemies. We classify them as “other,” as monsters or psychopaths or subhuman, in part because doing so helps us process some of the terrible actions in the world. Aberrance at that level requires no explanation, we think, only condemnation. But this distance can prevent an understanding of the context of evil, and impede the processes by which we might comprehend and combat it in its various forms. Jean Sasson therefore does us a tremendous service in her new book, Growing Up bin Laden, by showing us the contours of lives far beyond our experience, uncovering the realities of individuals and circumstances we rarely get to see.