So it turns out that the Jehovah's Witnesses were the last people to use my phone. It seems my roommate hadn't paid the bill since March, and consequently our phone was cut off. Then the internet was gone and my whole world turned upside down. Just at the point where I had a whole week's worth of political writing just waiting to be posted, I lost my ability to effectively research my work.

In the queue are thoughts about Abu Ghraib and Sy Hersh's devastating piece in the New Yorker, reflections on the recent piece about Al-Qaeda in this month's Foreign Policy, and more…