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Niebuhr on the Ethical Use of Power

We were not only innocent a half century ago with the innocency of irresponsibility; but we had a religious version of our national destiny which interpreted the meaning of our…

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Getting Closer to the Truth about the Blackwater Incident

On September 16, a Blackwater USA security unit returning to base after having dropped off the person it was guarding opened fire at Nisour Square, near Baghdad’s Green Zone. When…

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From Akhmatova’s ‘Requiem’

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Sophocles’s Momento Mori

Let every man in mankind’s frailty Consider his last day; and let none Presume on his good fortune until he find Life, at his death, a memory without pain. —Sophocles…

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About Karl’s Emails. . .

The Associated Press’s invaluable Pete Yost reports that a federal court has now issued a formal order requiring the White House to preserve a controversial group of emails. a federal…

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Is the Roll-Out Sputtering?

Tracking the roll-out for the Iran war through the last week, we have seen some high profile developments. We learned that the pressure is on military intelligence officers and other…

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Freud on the Question of Humankind’s Fate

Die Schicksalsfrage der Menschenart scheint mir zu sein, ob und in welchem Maße es ihrer Kulturentwicklung gelingen wird, der Störung des Zusammenlebens durch den menschlichen Aggressions- und Selbstvernichtungstrieb Herr zu…

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Veterans Day 2007

In America, virtually all holidays tend quickly to disintegrate into special sale opportunities for the shopping malls. And Veterans Day in particular seems to be on a drift away from…

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What Does Putin Want?

The two presidents—George W. Bush and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin—make a remarkable study, side-by-side, and so do the nations they embody. There is much similarity between them. Andrei Sakharov, back in…

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Fire Brian Roehrkasse

Here’s some cogent advice for Michael Mukasey. If he wants to demonstrate that he’s determined to do something to rebuild the reputation of the Department of Justice, he should start…

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Whitman’s ‘Dirge for Two Veterans’

The last sunbeam Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath, On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking, Down a new-made double grave. Lo, the moon ascending, Up from…

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Eisenhower on the Opportunity Cost of Defense Spending

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold…

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Hughes’s ‘The Colored Soldier’

My brother died in France—but I came back. We were just two colored boys, brown and black, Who joined up to fight for the U.S.A. When the Nation called us…

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Take a Pilgrimage

Alfonso X, el Sabio, Cantigas de Santa María (1256-84), Camerata Mediterranea and l’Orchestre Andalou de Fès, Erato CD #3984-25498-2 or Warner Classics as Apex CD 2564 61924-2 The harvest has…

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Alfonso el Sabio on the Cosmology

Si hubiera estado presente en la Creación, habría dado algunas indicaciones útiles. Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering…

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Norman Mailer, Remembered

Norman Mailer, lion of the American literary scene, dead today of kidney failure. Mailer was a frequent contributor to Harper’s. He marked a generation with writings that demonstrate wit and…

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Public Presentation

Iraq, Torture and the Crisis in American Leadership As the nomination of Michael Mukasey demonstrated, the issue of torture remains on Washington’s front burner. The Bush Administration continues to assert…

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Siegelman Updates

The Curious Case of the Missing Transcript As we have often noted, absolutely nothing about the Siegelman case is “normal.” Now we learn from the Associated Press notes that Governor…

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Hofmannsthal’s ‘Manche freilich. . .’

Manche freilich müssen drunten sterben wo die schweren Ruder der Schiffe streifen, andere wohnen bei dem Steuer droben, kennen Vogelflug und die Länder der Sterne. Manche liegen mit immer schweren…

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Sappho’s Exhortation to Learning

A handsome man guards his image a while; a good man will one day take on beauty. —Sappho (?????), The Exhortation to Learning (ca. 590 BCE)(W. Barnstone, transl.)…

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The Fox News Prolefeed

What news network leads the pack, many times over, in its transmission of gratuitous sexual material and violence? Fox News, of course. Robert Greenwald takes a look at Fox News…

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DOJ Watch

Bush’s Recount Counsel Blasts Politicization of U.S. Attorneys These days it’s not unusual for prominent lawyers around the country to blast the Bush Administration over its deeply entrenched politicization of…

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Does Bush Have a Pakistan Policy?

As the last year of his presidency starts, Bush’s foreign policy is in total collapse. It begs the question in fact: does this president have a foreign policy? His second…

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Burke on Why Men of Good Will Must Unite

Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design. They are enabled to fathom it with common counsel, and to oppose it with…

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Marine Lawyer Gagged by Pentagon

Today a House Judiciary Subcommittee is holding hearings on torture—excuse me, highly coersive interrogation techniques—and how it affects potential trials before the Military Commissions. Marine Lieutenant Colonel V. Stuart Couch…

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Change or Continuity for Turkmenistan?

Mecca, New York and now Brussels – Turkmenistan’s new president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is on an unprecedented (for Turkmenistan) world tour to get to know the movers and shakers in the…

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Hughes’s ‘Let America Be America Again’

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.…

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Durkheim on Suicide

The anarchist, the esthete, the mystic, the revolutionary socialist, even if they do not despair of the future, agree with the pessimist in the same sentiment of hatred and disgust…

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