Month: December 2013

Originally posted at TomDispatch. The headline – “Bride and Boom!” – was spectacular, if you think killing people in distant lands is a blast and a half. Of course, you have to imagine that smirk line in giant black letters with a monstrous exclamation point covering most of the bottom third of the front page … Continue reading “Washington’s Wedding Album From Hell”

GAZA CITY, Dec. 20 2013 (IPS) – Wearing tattered shoes and hopping between dirty puddles, 14-year-old Sabeh manages to find his way to the market at the Al Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza’s most heavily populated and poor areas. He asks a man selling socks if he can buy a pair for one shekel … Continue reading “And Now This Filthy Flood”

At least 42 people were killed and 41 more were wounded in prayer day attacks. The only major attack took place in northern Iraq, and it did not seem to be targeting pilgrims.

“Neo-isolationism is the direct product of foolish globalism. … Compared to people who thought they could run the universe, or at least the globe, I am neo-isolationist and proud of it.” Those are not the words of an old America Firster, but the declaration of that icon of the liberal establishment Walter Lippmann in 1967, … Continue reading “Why Neo-Isolationism Is Soaring”

As the Arbaeen observance draws nearer, Shi’ite pilgrims remain easy targets for insurgents. At least 73 people were killed today, and another 121 were wounded. Most of the casualties occurred between Baghdad and Karbala.

“Almost Orwellian” – that’s the description a federal judge gave earlier this week to the massive spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on virtually all 380 million cellphones in the United States. In the first meaningful and jurisdictionally grounded judicial review of the NSA cellphone spying program, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, a … Continue reading “Almost Orwellian”

There is a major flaw in the United States Constitution. The Founders understood that partisan politics would inevitably result in bickering along party lines that would lead to charges that political opponents were betraying the country so they deliberately made it very difficult to charge others with "treason." Which is not to say that they … Continue reading “Some Might Call It Treason”

At least 30 people were killed and 53 more were wounded in today’s attacks. Once again Shi’ite pilgrims were targeted, and among those were Pakistani and Saudi victims.

One of the most dangerous international disputes that the United States could get dragged into has little importance to U.S. security – the disputes nations have over small islands (some really rocks rising out of the sea) in East Asia. Although any war over these islands would rank right up there with the absurd Falkland … Continue reading “Stay Out of Petty Island Disputes in East Asia”

Dear Readers, Aside from the holiday, I’ve got some personal business to take care of so there will be no Friday column, unfortunately. But I’ll be back on Monday, so please watch this space. My regular readers may recall one of my more controversial columns, wherein I made the case against boycotting Israel: my argument … Continue reading “Boycott Israel”