b. traven With its interim Iranian nuclear deal, the Obama Administration has finally shown a measure of Chutzpah. But can they stand the heat? Those who’ve read my previous posts and comments may have noticed that I am no fan of Obama or his two Secretaries of State. Nevertheless, I must admit that the decision…
W.J. Astore and b. traven The Contrary Perspective (TCP) has reached its six month birthday and welcomes its 88 followers. We’re happy to see that our readership in that short period is now over 10,000. (We should maybe discount that a bit due to our own eager “hits” to see how things are going.) Regular…
W.J. Astore Jeremy Scahill is a reporter for whom the word “intrepid” may have been invented. He’s been remarkably bold in covering the creation of private mercenary forces in the United States (as documented in his bestseller, Blackwater) as well as America’s “turn to the dark side” after 9/11/2001, which led to “wars of choice” in…
W.J. Astore I teach a course on the Holocaust, so I’ve had ample opportunity to confront the use of euphemisms by the Nazis to cloak their murderous intent. The most infamous euphemism was “the final solution to the Jewish question,” which of course refers to the mass murder–the extermination–of all Jews everywhere. But there were…
b. traven Breaking News. This one is hard to believe: A Brazilian traveler, David Miranda, transiting London’s Heathrow Airport from a European flight to catch his flight to Rio de Janeiro is accused of “terrorism” because he has encrypted data related to Edward Snowden on his computer. In my opinion this is the opening gun…
W.J. Astore Back in the ancient time of 2007, you may recall that color-coded threat warnings were constantly appearing on our TV screens. Those “Homeland Security threat advisory ratings” fluctuated between yellow (elevated) and orange (high). With the lone exception of the State of Hawaii in 2003, the threat ratings never dropped to blue…
Fascinating post on race in America. America as post-racial? Nope. Still judging people by the color of skin not by content of character Tropics of Meta There’s a joke that everyone in New York who’s reading a book in public is just doing it to be seen reading that book. This is not true in…
b. traven Daddy, who won all the wars the USA has fought since World War II? Well, son, there is some debate about that. Our government likes to tell us that we won them because we are “exceptional” but there are serious questions about who really won. One thing is clear, though: When we wage war on…
W.J. Astore With the odds increasing that Congress will shut down the government this coming Tuesday, I couldn’t help but think of the classic Sci-Fi film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (the original version, of course). Remember Klaatu? He comes to earth in peace, only to be hassled, harassed, and ultimately shot by the…
W.J. Astore I grew up learning biology the old-fashioned way, i.e. by learning all about evolution and Charles Darwin. I was also raised Catholic, where my priests explained to me that there was no conflict between evolutionary theories and Christianity. The story of creation in Genesis, they explained to me, was meant to be read…
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