For reasons no one needs to be reminded of, the Organization of American States prohibits forced disappearance, which it defines as “the act of depriving a person or persons of … their freedom, in whatever way, perpetrated by agents of the state … followed by an absence of information or a refusal to … give [...]
Much as it pains me to admit it, for a clear-headed take on international events these days you can usually count on the Trotskyists. My favorite leftist web site is carrying a piece on Afghanistan that lays out the cui bono question about as clearly as I’ve seen it done anywhere (relying heavily on Ahmed [...]
I don’t think I’ve said here how proud I am to know Linda Burnham, who gave this remarkable speech last month.
I’m as surprised as you are that we dragged our sorry selves out of bed at 1:30 a.m. Sunday to watch the Leonid meteor shower. It turned out to be worth the pain. It looked kind of like this, except the picture is a three-minute exposure. We really only saw about one shooting star every [...]
OK, this is some deeply funny and angry material. Warning: strong language. If you don’t care to have your eyebrows singed, don’t click here.
Lest anyone think the Brits are just lying down and taking this Tony Blair crap: Here is a letter from over there that gives a different impression. Passed along by Bob Wing of ColorLines magazine.
“I have no earthly idea what you are talking about, George,” he said finally. Funny stuff.
One reliable gauge of the level of hysteria in ruling circles is how much abuse Noam Chomsky is getting from mainstream media types. There’s been an uptick lately, needless to say. Which only makes it more interesting to listen to the guy. Whether or not you can bring yourself to believe in “facts” the way [...]
“The post office sent me a card telling me how to recognize ‘dangerous mail,’” says Stephy. “I threw it away, because I’m not playing that game.” Stephy has posted a lot of valuable stuff about the Ashcroft too-much-darn-freedom crusade. You should check it out.
Next item on the war agenda.
The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study “follows approximately 5,000 children born to unmarried parents in 20 cities across the country to learn more about the circumstances and experiences of these families.” It has some interesting numbers.
“Primary school students are the unrecognized cutting edge of social thought, because ‘fair’ and ‘not fair’ have yet to be layered over with social rationalizations.” A moving letter from an English teacher to a former student who was imprisoned two weeks ago for refusing to join the Israeli army.
I was pretty sure the cracks would start appearing fairly soon in the media war-hype machine. This, for example, in the Christian Science Monitor last weekend. It’s little, but it’s a crack: “[The] US media is spending so much time flag-waving, or covering the story of the minute until you’re tired of hearing about it, [...]
I hear the FBI is now saying the anthrax letters are probably domestic in origin. That’s a relief. In view of the great job they did on the Eric Rudolph investigation, they should have this one wrapped up in no time.
Op-eds replete lately with ex-peaceniks doing variations on, “Now that I’m no longer draft age, I’ve discovered how much I like war.” Hell no, we won’t go — we’ll send somebody else. Because we’re going to be busy watching that Peter Paul and Mary reunion show on PBS. Reminds me of a 20-year-old who said [...]
Paul at his sharpest: “What Betsy Ross once pieced together is bright but facile, and served the barber pole best.” Ouch.
About every other week Laura and I go to the branch library, which has evening hours on Wednesdays. Lately we have been taking Lillian along, which means we get less reading done at the library. We make up for it by taking out more books. Laura is pretty much finished having me suggest books for [...]
Why do I always assume this guy is going to be obscure? Some clarity from Humberto Eco in La Repubblica last week: “What is confusing is that often we don’t understand the difference between identifying with our own roots… and distinguishing good from evil.”
The things the House and Senate are about to do should be of immediate concern to anyone who uses the Internet. Which, I believe, means you.
Dave Marsh in Counterpunch: “The first time ‘God Bless America’ became a hit, around 1940, Woody Guthrie grew annoyed at the sanctimonious jingoism and wrote an answer…: ‘This land is your land.’” Woody is sort of our household saint, I guess. It’s good to see him being invoked now. He has so much more to [...]