Month: April 2006

When even the pro-war London Telegraph starts having second thoughts about the wisdom of staying in Iraq, you know the War Party’s goose is cooked: “Three years after the original invasion, supporters of the war should assess the situation with pitiless clarity. Three years is more than enough time to have trained a new generation … Continue reading “The People Speak”

As U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her team continue to face increasingly harsh criticism from Muslim communities, Amnesty International has issued a new report on one of the practices they condemn the most: rendition. The new report, "Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and Disappearance," describes a U.S. covert operation in which … Continue reading “Report Details CIA’s Covert Rendition Fleet”

It didn’t take long after the invasion of Iraq began in March 2003 for one of the radioactive words of the Vietnam era to make its first appearance, even if in stunted, referential form. Media pundits, former military men, and others began fretting, even as American soldiers advanced, about the “Q word.” They were, of … Continue reading “Cutting and Running in Baghdad”

The ongoing demonstrations in France suggest that a welfare state is very much like an addictive drug. Even though it no longer delivers the euphoric feeling that first lured users, even though almost all concerned, including the most dependent, know that continued use will eventually destroy or severely damage the body (politic and economic), the … Continue reading “France: Reinforcing Addiction”

Go See V for Vendetta Kudos to Justin Raimondo for his article on V for Vendetta. I wanted to add my voice to the (hopefully large) number of people who HIGHLY RECOMMEND reading the actual graphic novel. Mr. Alan Moore is, as will be evident, a genius, and his book is ten times better than … Continue reading “Backtalk, April 7, 2006”

CARACAS – Several Dutch islands in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, have been caught in the middle of the war of words between the Venezuelan and U.S. governments, while the United States is getting ready to carry out naval exercises in the area. Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp recently remarked that Venezuelan President … Continue reading “Dutch Islands Caught Up in US-Venezuela Friction”

Charismatic televangelist John Hagee thinks that the Rev. Pat Robertson’s suggestion that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was payback from God for withdrawing from Gaza was “insensitive and unnecessary.” But he nevertheless appears to share Robertson’s concern that Israel may be giving up too much land to the Palestinians. To prevent the George W. … Continue reading “Evangelicals Rally Their Flocks Behind Israel”

The absolute reversal of the 1949 Communist Revolution is both a path to a glorious future and a treacherous road toward disintegration. The triumph of the worker/peasant rebellion over China’s oppressive class structure soon became a fulfillment of George Orwell’s grim prophecy in his book 1984; fortunately, reason prevailed after the death of Mao "Big … Continue reading “Getting a Piece of the Pie”

You know something is up when a film like V for Vendetta is a box office hit. Adapted from a series of graphic novelettes (i.e., comic books) written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, the plot is set in a dystopian future Britain where "the Party" rules, dissidents are rounded up, the Koran … Continue reading “Go See V for Vendetta“

In the Vietnam era, the subject of war crimes was the last to arrive and the first to depart. When, in 1971 in Detroit, Vietnam Veterans Against the War convened its Winter Soldier Investigation into U.S. war crimes in Southeast Asia, it was roundly ignored by the media. Over 100 veterans gave firsthand testimony to … Continue reading “Returning to the Scene
of the Crime”