Michael Brenner Why bother with facts? That question threads its way through political discourse, through educational philosophy and through observations on the media. Rarely is it confronted squarely. For the lines between actual reality and virtual reality have been so blurred that the distinction itself no longer is generally recognized. The axiom that since I…
Imperial Proconsul Bremer, desert boots and all, in a distinctly American moment Michael Brenner There are more reasons for Americans to feel aggrieved today than at any time since the Vietnam War ended nearly 40 years ago. At no time before or since has there been so little effort to remedy those conditions. That contradiction…
b. traven For those Democratic voters who still, after five years of bitter experience, retain the forlorn hope that a real liberal or progressive heart beats in Obama’s chest, the recent revelation in The Washington Post that it was Obama who, in 2011, empowered the National Security Agency to go after Americans’ private communications should finally end…
b. traven Even Dubya couldn’t get it right. Remember when George W. Bush was fooling us every few weeks with his color-coded “Red” and “Orange” security alerts? They didn’t scare the terrorists, but they did frighten most Americans into accepting another of his assaults against our constitutional rights. Now we see Obama trying the same…
The National Security Agency (NSA) has always been highly classified, a fact captured by the joke that NSA really stands for Nonesuch Agency. Lately, with all the revelations by Edward Snowden about “inadvertent” and “unintentional” spying on Americans, the NSA seems to be defining a new acronym for itself. Call it the Nothing to See…
The Contrary Perspective 