Kelley Vlahos has a great piece today on the Henry Gates affair and the larger problems of which it's a symptom. One such problem is the ever increasing number of pretexts on which the authorities can interrogate, search, assault, and arrest citizens. The authority...
‘Which country is more open and transparent?’
Via John McGlynn comes this exchange at the State Department press briefing on Monday: MR. KELLY: Good afternoon. Let me start off by just kind of updating you where we are today in terms of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which you all know started...
We’ve Always Been at War With… Line, Please
Poor John Cornyn. It's tough to keep track of all the people we may have to murder indiscriminately. A key US Senator who has extensively supported India, including the passage of the nuclear deal, stunned his Indian and Indian-American supporters this weekend when he...
Conference of Presidents Parrots Avigdor Lieberman
On Wednesday, Ha’aretz reported on the Netanyahu government’s latest spin in its clash with the U.S. and the international community over planned settlement construction in East Jerusalem: change the subject to the Nazis. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has...
Levy vs. Frum on the US as an ‘Honest Broker’
The Economist is hosting a debate on the proposition: "This house believes that Obama's America is now an honest broker between Israel and the Arabs." The online debate includes comments and voting by the readers. Daniel Levy of J-Street and the New America Foundation...
All the Wrong Reasons
There's a lot to ponder in this open letter to Barack Obama from Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, et al., but I'll stick to this part: We have to cherish and protect the multitude of educational, professional, and other networks and friendships that underpin our friendship...
Space: The Final Caliphate
You lazy, gravity-worshiping hippies may be content to sit around stoned while the Mooninites convert to Islam and threaten the democratic peoples of interstellar space, but Charles Krauthammer will never retreat! After countless millennia of gazing and dreaming, we...
Walter Cronkite: ‘We Are Mired in Stalemate,’ 1968
When I watched Walter Cronkite's heroic commentary in early 1968, I thought the country might finally have turned around on the Vietnam War. But Cronkite was ahead of the curve on Vietnam, and the US remained there for another seven years, costing the lives of tens of...
Foraging Killbots Will Be Strictly Vegetarian, Company Assures
Following a flurry of reports that a Pentagon contractor's foraging robotic platform would be feasting on the corpses of slain soldiers, the company in question Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. has issued a press release hoping to clear up the matter. "We completely...
Iraq Troop Deaths Under Obama Reach The Century Mark
The number of U.S. troops who have died while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom since President Obama’s inauguration has now reached 100. This figure includes both combat and non-combat deaths that occurred since January 20. A few of the deaths were of...
