2018 was one of the richest years in recent film history, and Oscar voters had their work cut out for them selecting the nominees. Their choices are eclectic - I'm still pissed Bradley Cooper wasn't nominated for Best Director for A Star is Born - but they reflect the evolving ...read more

By Michael J. Parker  In his recent address during a summit on terrorism, President Obama refused to equate or even connect Islam with terrorism, or to paint the atrocities by ISIL and Al-Qaida as Islamic. Obama prefers to refer to the atrocities in the Middle East as a sort of ...read more

On Monday the White House announced the deployment of 275 American soldiers to Iraq to protect the American embassy in Baghdad, a city currently in the crosshairs of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). That group, which was repudiated by al Qaeda in ...read more

Abla Fahita is the latest terror suspect in Egypt, The Washington Post reported yesterday. She's also likely the first one crafted from felt and yarn. In her story for The Washington Post, Erin Cunningham wrote: “Fahita — a Muppet-style character who regularly appears on ...read more

By Paul R. Pillar It hasn’t taken long since Wednesday’s bloodletting in Cairo for the regime there to make clear that it will rely heavily, as a rationale for its actions, on the idea that it is holding a line against international terrorism. “Egypt is facing terrorist acts ...read more

David Brooks, the man the New York Times drafted in to flatter the upper middle classes has a habit of putting his foot in it. Behind the elegantly crafted sentences that include words like 'invocations',  'accoutrements' and 'cloying' (all in one breath), is a pretty nasty guy ...read more

Happy Wednesday Banter readers! Here's what you should be talking about today: 1.God Save Us All: Tony Blair Wants to Help Bring Democracy to Egypt Apparently, Tony Blair has forgotten what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wants the West to get more involved with the ...read more

I had to read this twice to make sure this was real. Here's a snippet from the 'narrative' of the crisis in Egypt in Jurassic Park GIFs, created by BuzzFeed staff writer Benny Johnson: This made many in the international community nervous. Via:  dinosaursfourever.tumblr.com A ...read more

"It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients." - New York Times columnist David Brooks on Egyptians supposed mental deficiencies. Yes, David Brooks has done it again - written a monstrously offensive ...read more

A day after deposing President Mohammed Morsi, the Egyptian military has moved against the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood and is seeking to arrest hundreds of members.  Here's what you need to know: From the BBC: Mr Morsi is in detention, as well as senior figures in the ...read more

The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From AP: CAIRO -- Faced with an unprecedented strike by the courts and massive opposition protests, Egypt's Islamist president is not backing down in the showdown over decrees granting him near-absolute powers. Activists warn that his actions ...read more

The Daily Banter Headline Grab (from Reuters): Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt on the eighth day of intensive Israeli fire on the Gaza Strip and militant rocket attacks out of the enclave, Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said. ...read more

By Ben Cohen "The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages. Only then will Israel be calm for forty years," - Eli Yishai, Israel's Interior Minister The continued Israeli assault on the Gaza strip that now counts 96 Palestinians dead, 50 of them ...read more

By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett: We begin by noting our sadness over the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the others who were killed at the consulate in Benghazi. Hillary knew and worked with Chris Stevens during her service in the State Department; he ...read more

The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From the Reuters: DUBAI (Reuters) - Western embassies across the Muslim world remained on high alert on Sunday and the United States urged vigilance after days of anti-American violence provoked by a video mocking the Prophet Mohammad. The ...read more

The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From the ABC OTUS News: In our interview today, Mitt Romney did not back down from his belief that the Obama Administration's first response to the Cairo protest demonstrated "sympathy" for the attackers, but he also made it clear that he was ...read more

By Bob Cesca: This week, Vanity Fair published a beautifully written article about the president by Michael Lewis who happened to use the American involvement with the NATO military action in Libya as a through-line. It's possibly the best insider piece on the president since ...read more

By Chez Pazienza: If you're one of those people who's always dreamed of going back in time, I've got some terrific travel advice for you today: plan your next vacation to the Middle East; it's still the second century over there in some areas, or at least 1979. Stop me if ...read more

From the BBC: The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Mursi has called for national unity following his victory in Egypt's presidential elections. Mr Mursi, an Islamist and Egypt's first democratically elected leader, said he would be president for all Egyptians. He won 51.73% of ...read more

From the BBC: Egypt's supreme court has caused widespread alarm by calling for the dissolution of the lower house of parliament and for fresh elections. Two days before Egyptians choose a new president, it has declared last year's parliamentary vote unconstitutional. Muslim ...read more

Matt Osborne has done a brilliant analysis of the Libyan crisis that is definitely worth reading in full. His conclusion: Two myths should be put to rest. First, the idea that Libya’s war originated as anything but a native conflict is nothing but paranoid speculation. ...read more