Short Takes — November 9, 2006 Today I’m inaugurating what I hope will be a daily morning news update. The longer essays will be published in the afternoon, hopefully on a daily basis, as well. If you’ve enjoyed what you read here, please let others know. Sometime soon — hopefully before Thanksgiving — I’m going […]
Review of the News, November 10 (Expanded; Revised, 11/11) Glory, Hallelujah – The Evangelicals Are Turning on the GOPOne reason for the GOP’s much-deserved and badly overdue electoral beat-down on Tuesday is this: Evangelical Christians got religion, or at least acted on it when they went into the voting booths. Growing frustration over the mounting […]
Review of the News, November 13 (Updated) Keep a good thought….Said the Goose to the Gander: “How do you like the sauce?”Late last week, Time magazine reported that a criminal probe targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet, “and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles […]
The “New Police Professionalism,” or Support Your Local Gang-Banger Most American men older than, say, fourteen years of age have had the following experience:During a pick-up basketball game at the YMCA or the local health club, you find yourself paired off defending a guy who’s taking things just a little too seriously. Bumps escalate into […]
Opening the Gates of the Gulag (Pt. I) Displaying candor and alacrity that might be admirable in other circumstances, the Bush regime has made clear the purpose and impact of the Military Commissions Act,(.pdf) or MCA (better described as the “Reversal of Freedom Act of 2006″).Two days ago (Monday, November 13), the “Justice” Department filed […]
(UPDATED) Opening the Gates of the Gulag (Pt. II): Manifest Destiny’s Dark Side This is a man: Chief Big Snake of the Poncas.The frost of late October clung to the ground, and the small general store was wreathed in early morning murkiness when the detachment of soldiers arrived. Lieutenant Stanton Mason had been sent with […]
It’s a Droog’s World, After All (Note: This essay represents a brief detour from the ongoing series “Opening the Gates of the Gulag,” which I intend to conclude tomorrow.)I was sure I had met these millicents some mesto before. The one who had hold of me, going: “There, there, there,” just by the front door […]
Opening the Gates of the Gulag (Pt. III): One Little Victory “I am a man”: Chief Standing Bear of the Poncas seeks vindication of his rights in an Omaha courtroom; behind and to his right is his niece and translator, Susette “Bright Eyes” LaFlesche.Among those who served in the U.S. Army during the decades-long war […]
Review of the News, November 20 Here Come the Draft-NappersChales Rangel is a boon companion to Fidel Castro and a self-described good friend of Sean Hannity. He could thus be considered a living synthesis of modern collectivism, and his proposal to re-instate conscription as part of a comprehensive “national service” program is the distillate of […]
Review of the News, November 21 Quote Of The DayOur present selection addresses a persistent source of perplexity: Why do so few subjects of the regime notice our ever-deepening condition of servitude?“From the time of the Magna Carta and even earlier, the makers of English law have been concerned to protect the physical freedom of […]
