Missile Test

The New York Times reported today that American forces, having once pronounced the city of Tel Afar free of insurgent activity, is now engaged in an effort to liberate the city a second time. As Yogi Berra is once purported to have said, “It’s like déjà all over again.” In more ways than one, Yogi. Continue reading “Flashback”

The far-right wing of the Republican Party is hopping mad, as well they should be. Just when it seemed the Republicans were on the verge of a smashing victory, one that could have changed the very nature of the Legislative Branch, they were betrayed by seven conscience-ridden members of their own party, in concert with seven moderate Democratic senators. Continue reading “A Halo for the Moderates. Maybe.”

Two days ago, ABC News reported that nine members of East Waynesville Baptist Church had been thrown out of their congregation for supporting John Kerry’s bid for president. The same report also cited an instance during the campaign where John Kerry received an endorsement from a pastor in Miami. Continue reading “Freedom Under Fire”

Tough. They are here to stay, for three simple reasons.

One, demand will not go down. In the future, high demand for gasoline will hopefully level off and eventually recede in the United States (due to a peaking of our economy, stagnation in our population growth, and maybe some tougher fuel-efficiency standards), but as we Americans so often forget, we are not the only country in the world. India and China are poised to develop such an insatiable appetite for gasoline that it will make our own petroleum gluttony pale in comparison. India and China have a combined population of over two billion, compared to the roughly 280 million who reside in the United States. If their economies continue to grow at the torrid paces that they have been for the last few years, not only will they develop economies that are greater than the United States’, they will also develop the middle class that is necessary to turn a country from a mass producer into a mass consumer. In fact, the middle class is already becoming prominent in both countries, but a middle class in Asia is different from our conception of a middle class here, in that in Asia, they still have far less purchasing power. That will change. The prospect of a billion cars rolling around southern and eastern Asia within the next thirty years should frighten anybody who is concerned about our country’s lack of an energy policy. Continue reading “Tired of High Gas Prices?”

The answer is, ethics has seemingly returned to normal. That is, the normally toothless ethics police in the house have had their powers restored to them. But whether or not the House Ethics Committee is capable of holding representatives accountable for ethical lapses was never really the issue. Asking politicians to police themselves is such a ridiculously stupid idea that, honestly, just the thought of such a situation leaves me speechless. Continue reading “Ethics Returns?”

It has been eleven years since the genocide that took place in Rwanda. Since then the western world has marked milestones and anniversaries, all with the acknowledgment that more could have been done. Our nation and others in the west have reassured ourselves over and over again, in order to assuage the guilt at our inaction, that we will not let another Rwanda happen. Continue reading “Less Than Human”

The last few days have seen an interesting, lopsided debate rankle American politics. This debate is one that pits the majority of the public against the majority of the country’s leadership. Continue reading “Stay Focused”

These days, Afghanistan is held aloft by the Bush administration as the shining star of democracy’s inexorable spread. Truth be told, since the American-led war that ousted the Taliban three years ago, the signs of life coming out of Kabul and the wider country at large are encouraging, but Afghanistan is a test case for the difficulties inherent in the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Continue reading “The Shining Star”

The election in Iraq is a success to this point. The large numbers of Iraqis that turned up at the polls shows that I was mistaken when I wrote earlier that the Iraqis may not be ready for, or even want, democracy. They turned lives that had been lived under a brutal dictator, without a nascent movement for democracy, into a clamor for democratic self-rule within a matter of months of the beginning of the American occupation. Many people were surprised at the fervor shown by so many Iraqis not just on election day, but in the months leading up to it. The political mood in Iraq can easily be characterized as one of vigorous debate. Continue reading “Ends and Means”