I’m a bit more than half way through Peter Scoblic’s excellent new book, “_U.S. Vs. Them: How A Half Century of Conservatism Has Undermined America’s Security._ “:http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780670018826-2 You should read it. Seriously. All of you.

Peter has a way with words. For instance, he describes (accurately, I imagine) the 1983 “NATO Able Archer”:https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/a-cold-war-conundrum/source.htm#HEADING1-13 exercise as “bowel loosening.”

Spencer Ackerman, who, like me, had Peter as an editor, highlights “another metaphor.”:http://thinkprogress.org/attackerman/tag/not-everything-about-tnr-blows/

Happy Tuesday.