Neither Here Nor There

Foreign Policy & War

• This Tuesday, President Obama ordered two more brigades for the struggle in Afghanistan.  He will be increasing the combat force by 17,000.  I think this is pretty good evidence of what is already pretty much known, that President Obama’s election will either result in the continuance of the Afghanistan situation or perhaps even its escalation
• Obama’s defense secretary Robert Gates is requesting another $83 billion for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another sign that Obama’s administration is committed to continuing the Bush’s administrations aggressive foreign policy

Economics

• Who would have guessed? Government stimulus spending is not improving the world markets

Religion

• Seven Baha’i leaders have been imprisoned in Iran on charges that imply that they were spies for Israel. Amnesty International says they are “prisoners of conscience, detained solely because of their conscientiously held beliefs or their peaceful activities on behalf of the Baha’i community. If convicted, they would face lengthy prison terms, or even the death penalty.”

Books and History

• Peter Leithart has an interesting post called Anti-anti-Constantinianism, which deals with some things pertaining to Anabaptism and Yoder
• If you are a history buff, you’ll probably find Canon Press’ Q&A: Ben House on the Irrelevance of History interesting