On the securitymetrics list, Joel Rosenblatt recently posted a link to an article by David Gerwitz  and asked "Do you, as IT professionals, have to get involved in the battles between… Read More

Has Russia changed? Does it have a new strategy for dealing with those who oppose it? Some think so. After a British court found cause to believe that Putin was complicit in the death of Ale… Read More

In chess, everything is laid out in front of you. Nothing is hidden. The outcome depends solely on your skill. No cards are hidden. You can’t be dealt a bad hand. No dice can give you… Read More

The reaction to Russia's incursion into Georgia has revealed chasms dividing peoples in the Caucasus and dividing East and West. The latter is reminiscent of the Cold War. It reveals a lack… Read More

It has been like meeting old friends. In recent weeks, I have looked anew at the Dartmouth Conference, a series of meetings that began at the height of the Cold War as an effort to get Sovie… Read More

Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of CyberCommand, told the Senate Armed Services Committee recently that we need to “think about how can we increase our capacity on the offensive side.&rd&hell…Read More

In January 2011, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told reporters that he doubted that the Chinese could make a fighter that was truly stealthy. Shortly thereafter, while Gates was in China… Read More

Since the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine has had two chances to find a road to find a road to freedom, stability, and prosperity. It failed after it became independent in 1991; it failed ag… Read More

I wrote this last month for myself--to get my thoughts organized. It is long for a blog post, but here it is.The Tea Party movement has been characterized as many things, by its friends as w… Read More

The Guardian recently published a series of articles on the ClimateGate scandal, which stemmed from emails hijacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.htt… Read More

She burst onto the political scene as the incandescent center of the Republican campaign, outshining both Obama and her running mate. Her star has faded somewhat, now that the McCain ticket… Read More

Amid all the good things about Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention was this sentence:I will--listen now--I will cut taxes--cut taxes--for 95 percent of all working fa… Read More

William F. Buckley died this week. His absence leaves a gap that even those who do not share his conservatism should feel.Let me make it clear that I was never a disciple. I never read his b… Read More

2007 has been a trying year. Too many people close to me, my family, and my friends have died. Alas, given our ages--at 55, I am in the middle of my friends--this won't be the last such year… Read More

How could some of the brightest minds in business create the sub-prime mortgage mess? Most went to business school and had decades of experience in their industry. All are highly paid, with… Read More

The Bush administration sees the choice in Pakistan as one of choosing between an errant friend and rabid enemies. General Musharaff's declaration of martial law is seen as the mistaken choi… Read More

Russia's proposal to limit the number of election observers allowed in for the legislative elections is one more sign that Russia's flirtation with democracy is coming to an end. Dictatorshi… Read More

A New York Times article on the DDOS attacks on Estonia earlier this month includes this paragraph. The attacks, of course , appear to have been launched by Russians in reaction to the remov… Read More

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on an audit it conducted of security on one of the FBI's networks earlier this year. It found a number of problems, which is not… Read More

The ambassador to Iraq will meet with Iranian officials sometime in the next several weeks. It's about time. This was a recommendation made by the Iraq Study Group that should have been adop… Read More

We must welcome the announcement that the United States will sit down at the same table with the Syrians and the Iranians at a conference called by Iraq. However, the administration is tryin… Read More

This is not the usual fare for this blog, but this clip is so good, it is well worth posting. Give it a look and listen.In the movie Stormy Weather (1943) Read More

At this writing, the day after Saddam Hussein was hanged, the irrelevance of his person to the current situation in Iraq remains clear. As a symbol, however, he is likely to live on, a hero… Read More

The news that the president of Indonesia called for other countries to become involved in creating a peace settlement in Iraq should be welcome. This is the first time that a Muslim country… Read More

When the Republicans took over the House of Representatives 12 years ago, they unseated a Democratic leadership that had been in power for 40 years. Resentment among those who now found them… Read More

Michael Kinsley wrote a marvelous essay for the Book Review section of Sunday's New York Times (registration required). Two paragraphs, somewhat repetitive, captured my own view of the probl… Read More