Preface There is seemingly more babel per second on the public airwaves these days than ever before. The cacophony of white noise exceeds even the evocative power of the biblical story of Babel to penetrate and comprehend it. Given the discharge of daily excreta from Washington, what can anyone fruitfully say or listen to at... Continue Reading →
Gotcha Emails: Give Her a Break
How many reasons do you need to give Hillary Clinton a break on the hacked email dumps that regularly befall her? The second dump happened last week; it showed questionable connections between State Department staff and The Clinton Foundation when Hillary Clinton was SOSOTUS. The first release at the start of the Democratic National Convention cost... Continue Reading →
Damning the Poor
It’s not enough to be poor, you have to be damned and punished by the saved.
Dumping on Trump
Author's note: This essay, first published in September of 2012, is particularly relevant now that Donald Trump is running full bore for the Presidency of the United States. While I've retained its original title for filing purposes—it is after all easier to reblog than rewrite—it is renamed Double Dump on Trump here to highlight his no apologies/no retractions habit of doubling down on... Continue Reading →
Iraq War: Out With a Whisper
Earlier this month, Edward Wasserman, Knight Foundation Professor of Journalism at Washington and Lee University and writer for the McClatchy Newspapers, published the most important piece of analysis I have read in the New Year. The article appeared in the Maine Sunday Telegram under the evocative heading, Media AWOl in Exposing Iraq War's Many Follies.... Continue Reading →
Torture Redux
Cullen Murphy's article, Torturer's Apprentice, (The Atlantic, January/February 2012, pp. 72-77) is an exquisitely researched mind popper, and a must read. It turns out that official records of the Inquisition's chief torturers in the 14th century are sufficiently detailed and abundant as to allow a comparison of types and theories of torture between inquisitors then... Continue Reading →
The Man Nobody Knew – A Must See Documentary Film
I recently had the opportunity to see Carl Colby's documentary film THE MAN NOBODY KNEW: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby. The trailer, available through the filmmaker''s website, portrays the storyline faithfully. William Colby's service to the United States is laid out in sympathetic detail in his biography in Wikipedia. Another useful... Continue Reading →
Gift Yourself a Mug for 2012
My daughter received an invigorating Christmas gift from her brother-in-law that any one of us might want in our possession to kick start the 2012 election season. As much as I hate to shill the products of people I don't know and have never met, I gladly do so on this occasion because their products... Continue Reading →