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SHARE Friday, April 11, 2008 What our war makes possible, the next
Five years and 4000 lives gone, a constantly shifting definition of the mission at hand, and President Bush thanks our troops for what they "have made possible" in Iraq. The truly disturbing aspect is what that possibility is in George Bush's understanding of it: this terrible war, only to make possible the next one.
(12 comments) SHARE Friday, May 16, 2008 Small steps on small arms
In South Africa the government got out of the way and ultimately ended up following the lead of its people in opposing the trade of small arms to Robert Mugabe's repressive regime. That's the hopeful half of the story. There just might be a chance of doing that here just as well, getting the government out of our way on the path towards peace.
(3 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 5, 2013 The punishment they seek
Some thoughts on capital punishment and the Boston Marathon bombing.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 7, 2008 "They pull me back in"
There's this love/hate thing going on between Cheney and McCain/Palin. Nobody is really comfortable with the spooky uncle with the brass knuckles and the bag full of bloody rags in his closet. But still, when things get ugly -you gotta love him.
SHARE Monday, December 31, 2007 Dimming the light: what Bhutto said to us
Even before Benazir Bhutto lost her life this past week it seemed to be that the troubles of that far off country were speaking as much about our own country's politics and principles, as those of Pakistan.
SHARE Tuesday, September 30, 2008 The pitfalls of common sense
Sarah Palin agreeing with Obama? Careful handling by the McCain campaign is sure to protect her from other such lapses. -into common sense. And when all else fails, we'll always have John McCain to explain what she really understands.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Justice of the double edged sword
On the courts: advising a little less anguished despair over voting rights, and little less easy early celebration over marriage equality
SHARE Friday, May 24, 2013 Balance Sheet Blues
As we move on the notion of immigration reform the question arises, mightn't we be better served with reforming citizenship itself? Even our own?
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, March 31, 2008 Barack Obama, American Fundamentalist
I think I've discovered something about Barack Obama and I'm ready to share this discovery with the rest of you. It's not a secret exactly. It's really obvious when you actually listen to the things he says. I know you're not supposed to do that without proper inoculation first, but I have and I've come away from the experience with this observation: Barack Obama is a fundamentalist, an American fundamentalist.
SHARE Thursday, October 16, 2008 The choice in choosing
This past Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania she chose to remind us of what she symbolizes for the McCain campaign: She called out Obama for his "radical views" on abortion, which she claims he wants to hide. She complains of the judges he'd appoint and how they will stifle debate on abortion issues.
But is it debate we're lacking?
Or is it candor?
SHARE Friday, October 26, 2007 Solomon's Sword
...I feel my country is that helpless child, our soldiers serving overseas and their loved ones here at home hoping, they are that child too.
And of all the characters in that ancient story, what we seem to have on our hands (with the current administration) is the woman who would have watched as the child was cut in two.
(5 comments) SHARE Friday, February 29, 2008 it's 3 a.m. -do you know where your candidate is?
Senator Hillary Clinton knows better. She's simply not opting for better. Her latest campaign ad leaves one feeling she has read what she calls "Karl Rove's playbook" and she's willing to give it a try.
SHARE Wednesday, September 3, 2008 Sad, more than angry
President George W. Bush wasn't the only one, last night at the Republican National Convention, to bring up the trials John McCain suffered as a P.O.W. during the Vietnam War.But I think it was our president who outdid all others, not in celebrating McCain -but in the cynical, divisive and destructive exploitation of his story.
SHARE Thursday, April 17, 2008 Bad night, and good luck
There are differences, for sure -substantive and import ones maybe-between Obama and Clinton. Last night didn't get us any closer to seeing them. I couldn't help noticing Gibson and Stephanopoulos as part of the problem. To borrow and bend a line from Shakespeare, I think the problem is in ourselves and in our (media)stars.
SHARE Saturday, September 27, 2008 Progress To Debate? To Save the Economy? What?
The only progress that's been made has been political. As the economy was souring, the candidate who had admitted the economy "wasn't his thing" was starting to fall in the polls. With one deft political slight of hand, announcing policy he doesn't even know whether he supports, John McCain now casts himself as running against the Congress, against Democrats and even against George Bush. A fairly preposterous idea, I grant you
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, December 10, 2007 Of Retroactive Warning Signs and Preemptive Strikes
In actuality Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran pose no threat to America or her interests with any form of arms capacity. What does stand as a challenge, and what is suddenly showing in rather stark light, is the frail logic of our policies, with regard to arms, with regard to the exercise of power, in the Mideast and around the world.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, March 20, 2008 Five years in Iraq: only to remain
As Vice President Cheney flies home, and our troops do not, and the previously stated benchmarks of progress seem all but forgotten, as another day's statistically acceptable amount of blood is washed from the street, it seems the "surge" -first introduced as a means to an end-has become the end in itself. Our purpose in Iraq has become -only to remain.
(9 comments) SHARE Tuesday, April 29, 2008 How about a "good argument"?
Some thoughts on the possibility of a "good argument" -instead of the ugly debate.
SHARE Monday, January 14, 2008 The History Of The Absurd
It is odd that Giuliani, of all people, would be so oblivious to the "blow back" of Reagan/Bush era policies. He's walked through some of the wreckage while it was still warm. But Rudy, the Republican candidate prefers to partake of the mythic history, where the bad guys trembled in fear as the good cowboy rode in, where dictators and dissidents became chess pieces for the board, where it was freedom fighters who found a frien
SHARE Thursday, January 3, 2008 A question, lightly held
This is not a movie review of "The Golden Compass". I'm not sure what this is, but I know it is not that. This meant only to leave you with a question or two. It is that sort of offering. It is meant as that sort of gift.
SHARE Friday, March 28, 2008 The next casualty
We entered Iraq more than five years ago on a fictive premise. When facts didn't quite fit our script, we willingly made them a casualty. There was that element of suspended disbelief. With Iran, now it seems the same authors are ready to move on to the next villain. Some of the theater critics will opine that it's all of the same drama, the 'next chapter' -or 'Act II'!
I just feel we're watching reruns
SHARE Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Wrong Number?
Here's my problem with those rallying to oppose telecom immunity in the FISA reauthorization bill-I'm not sure this stand is in the right place or for the right reason.
Maybe we shouldn't be trying to address an egregious constitutional crime perpetrated by the country's chief executive by merely providing for civil recourse -against accessories to the crime.
The term that comes to mind is "lies and misdemeanors."
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Shame
The substance of Senator Clinton's charge is less important than the style right now. Saying something as loud and and brazen as "Shame on you!" to the other candidate for her party's nomination has gotten her some media attention. And once again she has pinned her hopes on the premise that a well shouted argument might prove persuasive -for some only hearing the half of it.
SHARE Wednesday, January 30, 2008 One more insult to the injury
The most disturbing aspect of the sorry spectacle of President Bush's last State Of The Union Address -his airbrushed rendering of his Mideast misadventure. Where it concerned the situation in Iraq, the president's address wasn't any realistic accounting of the state of affairs. It was a delusional display of false premises and distorted fantasy.
SHARE Saturday, September 6, 2008 The short memory of "straight talk"
Just about a month ago Sarak Palin was on record praising Obama's energy plan. Then "The Straight Talk Express" came to town and it became her responsibility to ridicule that policy.
SHARE Monday, January 21, 2008 The personal history of a dream
I realized a while back that the first time I saw the famous "I have a dream" speech must have been in the aftermath of Martin Luther King's assassination. This is simply a rememrance of that day.
SHARE Wednesday, November 14, 2007 The Immigration Problem (or is this about citizenship?)
The immigration debate It's like "suddenly I feel like I'm a twelve year old Red Sox fan again. I'm watching Earl Weaver's Baltimore Orioles play Billy Martin's New York Yankees and I'm wishing there was a way both sides could lose."
SHARE Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Applause for the obvious and empty
As the president professed his antipathy for genocide in Darfur during his address to Congress and the nation, as he stood there reveling in the applause, he had already signed and -at the same time- undermined law intended to enable meaningful action to oppose the killing.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 28, 2008 McCain's Bargain
It might be troubling to consider what John McCain's opposition to the GI benefits bill says of his attitude towards our soldiers. In my view what is most unsettling is what it says of his attitude towards the country they come from.
SHARE Monday, May 26, 2008 There are too many
In one small community that historically displays shrines to the fallen in Afghanistan and Iraq, a unique problem has arisen. There are too many and they have simply run out of town.
SHARE Saturday, July 26, 2008 From Hell
Has it really taken us that long to detain Karadzic? Did the international community really have to wait on the etiquette of a proper Serbian arrest of this criminal before seeing him brought to justice?
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 27, 2007 Howlers
Our politics are getting scary lately.
(7 comments) SHARE Sunday, January 20, 2008 Barack, I knew Ronald Reagan... and you're no Ronald Reagan
It's amazing what a little editing can do.
A candidate can be discussing how a political campaign can come to be representative of ideas and ideals and offer a profound shift, different candidates ...different ideals. He can be discussing how the political culture and climate is calling for a certain kind of response -and the next minute, with a little prudent editing ...POOF! "Obama is a closet Reaganite! Isn't that bad?"
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 27, 2007 The Odor of Old Promises
It might be that this country has finally lost its capacity for outrage, has long since surrendered the idea of reproach or redress when lied to. We have become the Orwellian farm animals who find it too troubling to remember the promises once posted on the stable wall.