I recently overheard someone explaining that intelligence acquired by means of torture was crucial in determining the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, which determination led to bin Laden’s death by US armed forces. This lie must be exposed as...
It is time to start shouting. Representatives and appointees of the Obama administration—particularly David Axelrod and Attorney General Erich H. Holder—are considering abridging one of the most important Supreme Court interpretations of the Fifth Amendment, the right against self-incrimination,...
I really want this thing to work out with President Obama. He’s smart. He’s a constitutaional scholar. His adminstration has taken steps to advance the welfare of US citizens and the welfare of people worldwide. So I don’t get...
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance...
Codex Books, Audiobooks, and Assistive Devices: A Tale of Near Misses The last book I checked out of Alden Library while still a faculty at Ohio University was Clay Shirky’s 2008 Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without...
On Friday, 10 July, Pam and I were in Manhattan, KS, which with bathroom breaks and fuelings is about ninety minutes outside Topeka. Two largish little league baseball teams were also staying where we were lodging, and the breakfast...
An astute observer of human motivation and desires, Sigmund Freud noted He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his...
Ohio is the jam car of progressive American politics, and I wish it would just get out of the way....
I'm doing everything I can not to become a frothing pacifist, but it's hard in the face of the unilateral sanctions against Iran which will be announced today by the present administration. I don't have time or energy to distill...
Photo of Chris Yonker(Image source) On 7 September 2007, The Post, a student newspaper funded by Ohio University, published an editorial by Chris Yonker titled "Broad Stripes and Bright Stars" which features, among other things, a photograph of Yonker striking...
At the moment, I’m in the middle of proctoring the final examination for my afternoon American Literature survey (1918-present). Teaching a month into what is every other universities’ summer “breaks” (more accurately read “frenzied research period”) is one of the...
M. Stratton and Beth Quitslund,Liz Miller (background) Such a simple and cheesy gesture sums up the initial 2006 Election results for moderates, centrists, Democrats, and liberal educators (among others). But rather than shout out, “Democratic mandate” (whatever such a thing...
If you use an RSS reader, you can subscribe to a feed of all future entries matching 'politics'. [What is this?]