This morning I woke up with a fresh understanding of the dual-loyalty issues I have been chewing away at in this blog. It is actually staggering when you think about it, that a leading professor of political philosophy–Michael Walzer–can speak…
A couple weeks ago I watched an Asian-American panel on C-Span talking about responses in their community to the Virginia Tech shootings. The main feeling was, shame; they worried that non-Asian Americans would blame the Asian community for the murders….
Keith Olbermann last night issued another of his signature condemnations of the political establishment, where he addresses Bush witheringly as “Sir.” Last night he said the Democrats are not following the mandate of the people from last November, to get…
Today brings more evidence that Republican congressmen have turned on the war and are talking about a September deadline out of fear of the political consequences of persevering in a failed policy. I’m an optimist; I think this trend will…
On Meet the Press yesterday, Tim Russert sharply questioned George Tenet over his passivity during the runup to the Iraq War. Disaster was looming, the executive was justifying war with lies; and yet the intelligence chief did not tell the…
125 killed today in Baghdad (4 times the Virginia Tech numbers; how much therapy will the Iraqis get?) The term “civil war” was adopted last fall by journalists and politicians, to describe the violence. Replacing “insurgency.” But both those terms…
I wrote about U.N. Ambassador-to-be Zalmay Khalilzad’s ideological peregrinations before. From radical to neocon. Well, turns out there was a stop in Realism. Ten years ago, Khalilzad deplored the Israel lobby’s role in our foreign policy. In a 1997 paper…
Don Imus is a racist. Much as I love him, I can see it in him. And yes, we’re all racists; but Imus stepped in it bad, and it will be fascinating and good to see him reform. I wish…
Last night in an Iraq panel at Barnard arranged by the Working Families Party, Rep. Jerrold Nadler said that WMD was merely an “excuse” for the Bush Administration to invade Iraq. The real reason was “simple” and “psychological.” I could…