Dozens of people have been arrested under the Stolen Valor Act, which punishes, by up to a year in jail, the wearing of any unearned military medal. It is still a crime even if no effort was made to profit from the adornment or dissembling about earning it. This law is now being challenged in …
Continue reading “Liberty Versus ‘Patriotism’”
"It is well that war is so terrible; we should grow too fond of it!" – Gen. Robert E. Lee In the Star Trek episode "A Taste of Armageddon," Capt. James T. Kirk and crew beam down to planet Eminiar VII against the wishes of its government to find what appears to be a peaceful, …
Continue reading “Neat, Painless, Perpetual War”
Sometimes it pays to read a news story to the last paragraph where a reporter can slip in that little gem for the news jockeys, or maybe just for the hell of it. You know, the irresistible bit that doesn’t fit comfortably into the larger news frame, but that can be packed away in the …
Continue reading “Seven Days in January”
Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, approved last week the upgrading to university status of a college in a settlement located deep inside the West Bank, a move certain to further undermine Palestinian confidence in the peace process. The decision, authorizing the first Israeli university in Palestinian territory, is expected to entitle the college to significant …
Continue reading “Israel Creates First ‘Army-Owned’ University”
A short historical quiz: Which state: Arose after a holocaust in which a third of its people were destroyed? Drew from that holocaust the conclusion that only superior military forces could ensure its survival? Accorded the army a central role in its life, making it "an army that had a state, rather than a state …
Continue reading “Prussia in Palestine”
Tom Engelhardt on American “peace”
William Astore hopes for a quieter patriotism
Tom Engelhardt’s commencement address for the rest of us
