Whither the Democrats?
I’ve done a lot of blogging about the Republicans and said hardly anything about the Democrats, so it’s about time to redress that imbalance a bit. The civil war between “establishment” and Tea Party Republicans has gotten a lot of ...
Read MoreA Brief Disquisition on Ideology and Interest
Unemployment insurance is expiring, and the Republicans in Congress seem quite happy to let that disaster happen. One reason frequently cited for the Republican stance is their belief that unemployment insurance reduces incentives to work; in the conservative worldview, the ...
Read MoreThe Middle East Conundrum and the ASA Boycott of Israel
John Kerry has been valiantly working to bring about negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians aimed at a final settlement of their dispute over the land of Palestine. I’m not a mind reader; I don’t know if Kerry truly believes he ...
Read MoreFalse Balance, Again
Once again the New York Times’s “Invitation to a Dialogue” feature has gotten me riled up. Yesterday’s “Invitation” author has come up with the idea that both political parties need to shed their extreme wings, which will somehow enable the ...
Read MoreMandela the Communist
There is little doubt that Nelson Mandela was for a time a member of the South African Communist Party, a fact cited by some on the right as evidence that the man was no saint. I don’t believe in saints, ...
Read MorePerspectives on Media Bias
American right-wingers (i.e., self-proclaimed “conservatives”) constantly complain about the alleged liberal bias of the mainstream media (the “lamestream media” in Sarah Palin’s clever formulation). I am very critical of the media myself: I think there certainly is media bias, but ...
Read MoreThe Deal with Iran
The Obama administration’s accord with Iran is an important accomplishment. Iran will freeze its enrichment of uranium and convert its stockpile of 20% enriched uranium into a form that is not susceptible to further enrichment. The significance of the pact ...
Read MoreDrone Strikes and Morality
A Yemeni civil engineer recently recounted to US Congressmen how he witnessed a drone strike that took the lives of his brother-in-law and nephew. His brother-in law was a cleric who had spoken out against Al Qaeda and was unfortunate ...
Read MoreWhere Are We Now (Politically, that is)
I intended, when I first started this blog, to open with a broad overview of where US politics has been going in recent decades and where it might be headed. I didn’t get to do that because other more immediate ...
Read MoreFriedman on Shavit on Israel
I’ve never been a fan of Thomas Friedman’s. His breathless writings on globalization are way out of balance in their undercounting of the costs of unfettered capitalism. His support for George W. Bush’s war with Iraq rested on the incredibly ...
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