So there was this punk band, Minor Threat?

Spencer Ackerman was at the Center for a New American Security last night to hear Tom Ricks speak. Ricks, just back from a trip to Baghdad, remains a pessimist:

"The surge is working, tactically," Ricks said. "The surge is failing, strategically." In early 2008, Baghdad was "better than it was, but it was still hell."

But enough of that "war" stuff. What Abu Muqawama found most amusing was the fact that it fell to Spencer -- who reads this blog regularly -- to explain both Emo and LOL to John Nagl, who is apparently trying hard to make sense of our caption contest:

"So there was this punk band, Minor Threat? And they were awesome? And then their singer links up with the guys from his brother's band? They become this other band Embrace, which is, like, less hard but also awesome...?" Blank stare from Nagl. Ricks pipes up: "Think about the music playing in every VW commercial you've heard over the past two years."

Yeah, John Nagl is never speaking to any author of this blog ever again.