Everybody Loves Rachel

(Sounds like a sit-com)  Rachel Maddow is definitely the flavor du jour in certain circles.  Okay, my circles, the lefty/progressive ones.  And I like her too, I just don't really watch or listen to her show--it's funny, it seems like the more I inject my opionion in this limited forum here, the less inclined I am to listen to or watch shows that contain huge gobs of opinion and punditry.  A big part of that is because listening to such shows aren't random access, I pretty much have to listen to them as they play (though admittedly I can skip over things I don't like) rather than reading things online, which is much more focused with the Feed Demon.  Plus, the only way I could hear her show is via podcast and I'd either have to us my mp3 player or listen on the computer, which I don't like to do when I'm working on the computer.  (That's just a personal preference--listening to music or talk on the computer while I'm working on it just seems too close and instead I'll listen to the radio a few steps away.  I know, weird.)

But I do think that Rachel's sharp and I like the way her mind works.  And I just ran across one of the blogs I like talking about her and how sharp she is, particularly on Afghanistan policy.  Rachel Bleeping Maddow!

Abu Muqawama is one of the best sources out there on counterinsurgency and insurgency theory and practice (along with the Small Wars Journal). They are still prone, however, to the “Extremely Serious People” syndrome. This is the illness where being wrong about Iraq in 2003 is better than having been right about Iraq in 2003, because it reflects one’s deep seriousness about foreign policy. Symptoms include going on national television with a somewhat sincere apology, continued regular appearances on cable news shows, and (in its worst form), believing that the next six months will be crucial (aka the Friedman unit).

(Trust me, they do go on to talk about Rachel eventually!)