There were plenty of important statements from Pope Francis during his recent three-day trip to Palestine and Israel – including a plea for “justice,” a traditional call for peace, and a reference to the “State of Palestine” – but at the end of the day it was all about the photo-ops. The pope’s visit was …
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the Platonic Ideal of a government entity, at least in these United States. TSA is oppressive, it subjects people to indignities, and its paranoid goal of keeping us safe from terrorists is being done – by most accounts – very poorly indeed. Okay, perhaps it’s not unique. Still, in …
Continue reading “Our Pathological Fear of Cutting Federal Budgets and Agencies”
With heart-pounding suspense, John le Carre-like intrigue and Jeffersonian fidelity to the principles of human freedom, Glenn Greenwald has just published No Place to Hide. The book, which reads like a thriller, is Greenwald’s story of his nonstop two weeks of work in May and June of 2013 in Hong Kong with former CIA agent …
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Washington’s role in the coup d’etat in Kiev on Feb. 22 has brought the U.S. a Pyrrhic victory, with the West claiming control of Ukraine albeit with a shaky grip that still requires the crushing of anti-coup rebels in the east. But the high-fiving may be short-lived once the full consequences of the putsch become …
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Although Anbar was unusually quiet today, attacks picked up in Mosul and Baghdad. In one gruesome attack in the east, two children were kidnapped before being murdered. At least 94 people were killed and 116 were wounded.
President Barack Obama’s "pivot" to Asia is directed at strengthening U.S. Cold War era alliances to tacitly contain a rising China. However, that means that even minor disputes between American allies and China could drag the United States into a shooting war with a nuclear weapons state. Unfortunately, those minor quarrels are occurring now. Among …
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The conventional wisdom is nearly always wrong, and rarely so wrong as when it comes to the EU elections, the results of which are being trumpeted as the triumph of the "far right." The more alarmist among these uniformly pro-EU commentators are even claiming neo-fascism in Europe is on the march. Well, they’re at least …
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Human Rights Watch is alleging that the Iraqi government is using barrel bombs in Anbar and specifically targeting the hospital in Falluja. The hospital has been hit by artillery fire so many times that H.R.W. believes the Iraqi military must be targeting the hospital. The government denies the accusation. At least 78 were killed and 83 more were wounded in attacks today.
At least 43 people were killed and 76 more were wounded in today’s attacks. Mosul suffered from several attacks.
President Obama held a press conference last week to express his outrage over reports that the Veterans Administration was routinely delaying treatment to veterans, with some veterans even dying while on alleged secret waiting lists. The president said that, “if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will …
Continue reading “The VA Scandal Is Just the Tip of the Military Abuse Iceberg” 
