b. traven With oil leading the way, the drop in world commodity prices has had a a politically destabilizing effect, particularly strongly on South America’s most politically progressive regimes, including Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, and Ecuador. Although oil is the most prominent of these commodities, falling mineral and agricultural products prices, like soybeans native to…
Peter Van Buren Intro by b. traven: In the army we used to say someone was “Whistling in Dixie” when they were oblivious to the truth. When Obama in one of his high flying rhetorical promises in his run for the presidency promised “transparency” in government it appears he was “whistling in Dixie.” Under his…
Robyn B. Blanpied, PhD, Major, USAF (ret.) In this article Robyn raises some interesting questions about management strategy in our “global war on terror” (GWOT). With her background of eighteen years in the Air Force and retiring as a Major with a wide range of assignments, she certainly has the creds for her contrary questioning…
b. traven In 1959, retired Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning biography of naval commander, John Paul Jones. Jones was probably the most provocative, shrewd, and aggressive Revolutionary War commander, helping secure the independence of our country from Great Britain. Although born in rural Scotland, Jones was apprenticed at age 13…
Dan White Christina Borjesson’s 2013 doc about TWA Flight 800, a really good movie, has journalists talking about black hole issues in journalism and how the Flight 800 story was one. No matter what any of these journalists did, none of their journalistic efforts yielded any light on that story—it was like all light got…
The Contrary Perspective 