On Halloween, an army of the undead will be unleashed upon Mission Bay off the coast of San Diego. U.S. soldiers, Marines, special forces, police and emergency responders will face the challenge of a lifetime as the flesh-eating scourge threatens to devour their ranks — literally. Of course it’s not real. This is a five-day …
Continue reading “Obsessed With the Undead”
When pundits name-check “the welfare-warfare state,” we usually mean, and are usually understood to mean, something along the lines of “bread and circuses at home, military adventurism abroad.” That’s as good a definition as any, I suppose, and certainly an accurate description of today’s global political environment, but it fails to really capture the nature …
Continue reading “War, Children: It’s Just a Welfare Check Away”
Here in America we have only just begun to feel the social and political effects of the worldwide economic crisis: rising unemployment, a wave of bankruptcies and foreclosures, and a general contraction in economic activity. State and local governments are imposing austerity measures, and the federal government faces a “fiscal cliff” that may be much …
Continue reading “Déjà Vu: Fascism on the Rise”
The attacks tapered off today, but at least 24 Iraqis were killed and 53 more were wounded in continuing Eid al-Adha violence.
Insurgents were saving their worst for the second day of the Eid al-Adha holiday. At least 46 people were killed and 123 more were wounded across central and northern Iraq. Several of the victims may have been Iranian pilgrims traveling to a Shi’ite shrine in Baghdad. Eid al-Adha commemorates a Biblical event honored by Muslims, Christians and Jews.
The Eid al-Adha holiday has, so far, been relatively quiet. Violence had been expected surrounding the observances, which began last night. Still, at least seven Iraqis were killed and 18 more were wounded in the latest attacks.
In describing Balkans politicians, the Western media have abused the term "extremist" so much, it has just about lost all meaning. What has been extreme lately, however, is the weather: after a Narnian winter with record snowfall, the peninsula was hit by a Saharan summer with record highs and a prolonged drought. Rising taxes have …
Continue reading “Hamlet in Belgrade”
When I was very young, I thrilled to the strains of "Exodus" – the music that accompanied the popular movie depicting the Israeli fight for independence. I played it over and over, every night, falling asleep to its crashing chords of defiance and deliverance. But it wasn’t just the music. As I grew older I …
Continue reading “Israel: The End of the Dream”
They looked like a gang of geriatric giants. Clad in smart casual attire — dress shirts, sweaters, and jeans — and incongruous blue hospital booties, they strode around “the world,” stopping to stroke their chins and ponder this or that potential crisis. Among them was General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of …
Continue reading “A Failed Formula for Worldwide War”
Monday’s presidential debate on foreign policy, as one might have expected, supplied more than its share of howlers. Mittens, for example, referred to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez as one of the “world’s worst actors.” In response to an early Obama administration statement to the effect that “the United States has dictated,” Romney said: “The United States …
Continue reading “The Foreign Policy Debate: Coke or Pepsi?” 
