by Cheryl Rofer Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, Thomas P. M. Barnett, Putnam, February 2009. This is the second part of my review of this book. The first part is here. What Tom Barnett is doing is at least as interesting as his book. The book describes some of it, but not all. Connec...

by Cheryl Rofer My winter jasmine is blooming, and all sorts of other things are coming up or, if they were green over the winter, perking up. A couple of little cactuses that collapsed into small piles of spines over the winter are back to showing green between the spines, the iris are growing the ...

by Cheryl Rofer There’s a lot of really inept commentary and analysis on the Obama administration’s foreign policy lately. One statement from Hillary Clinton, one appointment, one action, and zip! The neocons are back! Hillary has given away human rights! The President is giving it all away in a...

by Cheryl Rofer Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, Thomas P. M. Barnett, Putnam, February 2009. Thomas Barnett burst on the foreign affairs scene with his book, The Pentagon’s New Map. In his new book, he sketches his vision for the new president. Barnett argues that globalization mak...

by Todd Greentree Having just concluded my first month in Afghanistan, passing time is sure to disprove much premature wisdom. The one truth I am confident will remain in place here is that a foreign organization always comes to reflect the nature of its host. The proof is everywhere. A half-hour’...

by Cheryl Rofer As I put the tea water on to boil and turned on the tv this morning, I was assaulted by the claim that seems to be everywhere. Maybe you've seen it in the New York Times, or the Los Angeles Times, or heard the same CBS report that I did, or even read it on Kevin Drum. It's a ...

by Cheryl Rofer One of the problems with the MSM’s news coverage is that stories are too often reported a bit at a time and not pulled together. So you may have the feeling (I know that I sometimes do) that you’ve heard something earlier but not recall the entire story. Or sometimes you may wond...

by Cheryl Rofer We have a new comet, one that is going backwards through the solar system! It's rising before the sun, and reports are that it's easily visible through binoculars at about magnitude 7. Photographs show the beginnings of a tail, and an anti-tail too, the whole thing a nice green. Sky ...

by Cheryl Rofer Activity on Facebook seems to be increasing. I've had friend requests from several fellow bloggers in the last week. I've also had a couple of others whose names I don't recognize. If you're a WhirledView reader and want to be my friend, please add a note to that effect to your frien...

by Cheryl Rofer Newsweek started it, according to Kevin Drum. And Jamie has added his tuppence. The San Diego Union-Tribune has contributed its view (via Bouphonia, which is more worth reading). As Kevin puts it, “Newsweek asked its cultural critics to pick the ‘one work in their field that they...