:: Rossnordeen.com ::

This is the end: I've made my decision. Doing a blog has been fun, but I've decided that the opportunity costs are just too high. There are better uses of my time than this. Thanks to all who have linked to me. The blog archives will remain up, but the main page will be switched to non-blog in the near future. I'll send out e-mails today to those who have linked to me to alert them to the change.

:: 10:17 AM ::
...

Posting will be light this week. I'm considering shutting down this blog because it is just draining too much of my time.

:: 12:08 PM ::
...

Another great column by Steve Chapman, "North Korea presents unpleasant choices", contains this rarely articulated insight:

Nukes, after all, are the best way to assure a government's survival. The only reason we can plan on invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein is that he hasn't gotten those weapons yet. Any government that has serious disagreements with the U.S -- and particularly any on our "axis of evil" -- knows that if we can decide who rules Iraq, we may later decide who rules other nations. There is only one protection: going nuclear.

This is a major flaw in our foreign policy: other countries are given clear, if unintentional, signals that having a nuke is the best way to protect yourself from U.S. intervention. Apropos of the current North Korea discussion, I highly recommend Doug Bandow's excellent Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World (1996).

:: 12:08 PM ::
...