Paul Krugman looks at the problems facing Ireland, and Robert J. Samuelson analyzes the comparisons being made between our current economic crisis and the Great Depression. Both columns make interesting reading. Whenever I read these articles written by people who are considered economic experts I come away with the sinking feeling that even the very best and brightest really have no idea how things are going to turn out.

Which leads me to this article about the rising tide of Islamic extremism in Pakistan. The money quote...

"The inescapable reality is that another domino has toppled and the Taliban are a step closer to Islamabad," the Pakistan-based News International newspaper warned last week after the Buner takeover. The paper compared Pakistan to Vietnam: a weak and corrupt state being "nibbled away" by determined insurgents: "The Taliban have the upper hand, and they know it."

More and more the Islamic extremists remind me of the hardened and determined Bolsheviks in Russia in 1919, the Chinese Communists in 1949, and the Viet Cong in the 1960s and 70s. They have an ideology that they believe in completely, and the military skills and mental toughness to use whatever brutal means are necessary to achieve their goals.