Snapshots of a Sadean State One of Sean Hannity’s “great Americans” in action.On two occasions I can recall, a book has disgusted me so thoroughly that rather than setting it aside lightly, I threw it away with great force. The first volume to go airborne in that fashion was the Satyricon of Petronius Aribter; the […]

Torture and the “Goodness of America” Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends… [I]n periods when millions are slaughtered, when […]

“This Time For Sure!” “Character is fate, the Greeks believed. A hundred years of German philosophy went into the making of this decision in which the seed of self-destruction lay embedded, waiting for its hour. The voice was Schlieffen’s but the hand was the hand of Fichte who saw the German people chosen by Providence […]

The Earth is the State’s, and the Fullness Thereof Armed revenue farmers harvest a crop at a DUI checkpoint.When George W. Bush signed the death warrant for the habeas corpus guarantee last October, he was consummating a process that has been underway for decades in our law enforcement and “justice” system. Bush’s destruction of habeas […]

The Christian Right and the “Fatal Embrace” No, these aren’t out-takes from a “Tommy Boy” sequel; they’re snapshots of tomorrow’s Christian conservative GOP leaders. (Tip of the sombrero to The Gaelic Starover.)It’s ironic that Vladimir Lenin, notorious for the length and tedium of his pronouncements, coined what may be the world’s briefest and most potent […]

How the War will “Follow Us Home” Every other rationale for continuing the occupation of Iraq having failed, supporters of the war have taken refuge in what they believe to be an invincible thought-stopper: Iraq differs from Vietnam, because this time the enemy will “follow us home.” “After the war in Vietnam, we came home […]

Toward Global Energy Fascism In 2041 … Switzerland joined the United Nations*, now a military alliance. What had once been merely a debating society during the twentieth century had turned by the rapprochement of the super powers into … an active military and economic alliance. An alliance whose purpose … was to ensure that the […]

Submit, Or We’ll Kill You It must never be forgotten that every directive issued by the State and enforced by its agents is coupled with the threat of lethal violence against those who fail to comply. This principle applies to trivial infractions of petty ordinances, such as those dealing with pedestrian conduct and smoking. Consider […]