Archive for August, 2010
Atomic Anniversary
Sixty-five years ago, on August 6, the United States dropped the first offensive nuclear weapon in history. This bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” killed around 140,000 people in Hiroshima, Japan. The U.S. military dropped the second and last nuclear weapon ever used in war, “Fat Man,” three days later on nearby Nagasaki, killing approximately 39,000 people. Whether these bombings were justified is a matter of dispute.
How To Succeed in Banking Without Really Trying
The Bush-Obama financial-rescue plan is premised on saving the big banks that caused the trouble. The theory is that we need to help Wall Street to help Main Street.
The Very Definition of Arrogance
A California federal judge just provided the very definition of arrogance, in ruling that Proposition 8, the California law codifying marriage as between a man and a woman, lacked even a “rational basis” and was therefore unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. So much for the beliefs that created Western civilization. [...]
Discussion of Vergil’s Aeneid Continues
Aeneid IV is deservedly the most famous part of the poem. Structurally, it is placed in a strategic position, because now, at last, the narrative is ready to move forward, and the story is propelled by erotic passion. Dido is a beautiful and passionate woman, whose love for her late husband is so deep that she has sworn never to love another man or to remarry.
Treason in a Good Cause
Am I the only one who is a bit put off by all this conservative support for the Pfc who allegedly leaked classified material to Wikileak? Have anti-war conservatives gone so far down the road that they no longer value honesty and duty or condemn oath-breaking and treason? Oh well, it’s all in a good [...]
The New Racism
Friends of Omar Thornton, the black male who killed eight co-workers and then himself, say he was driven to the point of despair by the racists he worked with. The trucking company for whom he worked has pointed out that he never filed a complaint. Thornton went on his killing spree when he was shown [...]
GOP Blank Check for War?
It is startling to learn 47 House Republicans just signed on to H.R. 1553 declaring unequivocal “support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran . . . including the use of military force.”
Paul Ryan and the Perils of Realism
We’ve gone as a nation, in less than two years, from Hope and Change to “hope we can change the stuff we hoped for.” Still, a question—one of pointed interest to Republicans—looms: change to what?
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