Pajamas Media

Blog Week in Review: Can We Trust the BBC

Robin Aitken, former 25-year veteran journalist with the BBC, and author of %%AMAZON=0826494277 Can We Trust the BBC%% is this week's guest.

Sanity Squad: High Stakes Hold’em

The Iranian government has seized fifteen British sailors and marines who were patrolling the Shatt al-Arab. But somehow Iran seems remarkably unafraid that there will be any retaliation for an act that not all that long ago would have been considered an act of war. What's Iran's motivation? And what should be the West's response?

Baghdad Dispatch: Midnight Company

"I often find myself in arguments with people about the behavior of American soldiers when they search homes. Many of the people I talk to base their argument and negative impression on the footage of some raids we see on TV or on experiences of presumed relatives or friends. When I try to counter the idea that 'they knock down doors unnecessarily, steal jewelry and treat people bad' by saying that there must be a good reason why the troops sometimes act rough and that 'for every reaction there must have been an action', I often get the response of "what do you know about that? The Americans never searched your home." Well, last night they did." PJM Baghdad editor Omar Fadhil tells his experience.

Politics @ The Half-Shell: The Corn & Miniter Show – Episode 3

Eli Lake of the NY Sun sits in for Rich Miniter (in Turkey and Iraq for PJM – exclusives soon) on the third Corn & Miniter Show. He and David Corn discuss the rise of Fred Thompson, the possible appeal of Bill Richardson, the curious appeal of Ron Paul and other matters presidential raised by the Pajamas Media Straw Poll.

Sometimes a Croissant is Just a Croissant

PJM Washington editor Richard Miniter is on assignment in Turkey. At breakfast he notices that all the croissants he sees around are not in the traditional crescent shape, but straight. What can be the political significance of such a variation. It’s time for the deerstalker cap and the Sherlock Holmes theme. Read the result of his investigation into “The Mystery of the Turkish Croissant.”

Eternal Youth: Punk Jihad Riots at Gare du Nord

Rioting breaks out again in Paris and quickly draws France's Presidential campaign into its maw. A special report for PJM by Paris editor, Nidra Poller

Iran Bets the Brits Will Fold

“Iran is betting that that a guilt-ridden and exhausted British public-scolded for decades over its past in Persia, furious at the Iraq war of “Blair-Bush,” having gutted the British military for social programs that bring demands for more rather than gratitude-won’t or can’t do anything.”

Read it all @ (Victor Davis Hanson @ Works and Days)

The Last of the Global Commons

"Mastery of the sea, outer space and the air: these concepts are easy enough to understand -- what other 'Commons' could there be?" by Richard Fernandez, PJM editor, Sydney

Salts of the Earth

Whereas I used to have two salts - table and kosher - in my pantry, I now have six, and counting. by Nancy Rommelmann

Interrogating General Ali Reza Asghari

By Richard Miniter, PJM Washington Editor Does Iran have a network of sleeper cells inside the United States that could strike us if we bomb their nuclear facilities?