One of the strangest terms that is used in modern conversation and writing is the term "service." There are some straightforward uses. For example, you go to a restaurant and a waitress comes up and asks if she can serve you. In that context, the term means...
Sometimes, something happens that is so awful that we find ourselves rationalizing it, talking as if it had to happen, to make ourselves feel better about the horrible event. For many people, I believe, President Truman's dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug....
I spent part of July 4 reading an antiwar book from the mid-1960s. Hey, call me a party animal. And what I learned gave me a perspective on today's antiwar movement. Unfortunately, the mid-1960s' movement makes today's look weak by comparison. So here are some of the...
Bit by bit, the meaning of July 4th has been lost. It now involves far too much celebration of the U.S. military and far too much deference to governments. I am a big fan, in many ways, of the U.S. military. As a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey,...
For about the last 15 years, I've been an on-again, off-again member of Amnesty International (AI) – mainly on. When I've let my membership lapse, it's been due to my financial circumstances. But a letter I received from AI last month has persuaded me not to...
Various commentators on the network political shows on Sunday, May 28 reminded us to take some time to remember, on Memorial Day, those who had died in our current and past wars. Some even suggested that we do so at a particular time: editor Dan Henninger of the Wall...
One of the main ways modern political dialogue has gone wrong is in various people's use of the word "lying" to describe what those they disagree with are doing. If you've followed any political dialogue at all over the last 10 years, you'll know what I'm talking...
The recent run-up in gasoline prices has led to a number of proposals by Washington politicians. It has also caused many people to be angry toward oil companies. What we are seeing looks like a replay of discussions and policy proposals that started in 1973 and...
On March 23, columnist Cal Thomas published a column titled "Blair and Bush Get It." What, in Thomas' opinion, do they get? The idea that the U.S. and British governments should keep troops in Iraq until, in his words, "the task is done." Interestingly,...
I teach at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., meaning that I instruct young military officers who are generally smart, hardworking, and curious. Another important piece of background is that two weeks into a typical teaching quarter, I've come to love...
