Mon, 29 December 2014
Holiday reunions always bring family discussions. This year, a large part of those discussions focused on the police. I was used to family opinions. Everybody has one. This was different. This time, everyone had a personal story. On the way home, the traffic itself provided an insight in good, bad, and cascading effect. |
Tue, 23 December 2014
Rudy Giuliani has found a theme in public statements by President Obama. It is that everybody should hate the police. It occurs to me that a simple sense ethics will compel Mr. Giuliani to hold others to similar standards. It has to. His well known level of integrity demands it. |
Mon, 15 December 2014
There is a harsh truth at the heart of the interrogation debate. We are presented with a moral ambiguity, a sort of ethical Sophie's Choice. What about those rare cases in which a ticking clock presents us with a choice between torture and the death of innocents. The harsh, terrible truth is that the choice does not exist. It never has. Instead, we are endangered by a much more dangerous ticking clock. |
Thu, 11 December 2014
Our culture has always reacted strongly against torture. Look at how we have portrayed our enemies. But, for some of us, something changed the day we were attacked. What had been wrong became right. Conservative reactions against the Senate report on torture contain an obvious self-contradiction: On one hand, we did nothing wrong. On the other, it will hurt our image and provoke foreign opposition if the wrongdoing that we didn't do is exposed. But I am struck by a less obvious, and more dangerous, consistency.
Direct download: Torture_and_Value.mp3
Category:Policy, Political News, War -- posted at: 12:10am EDT |
Mon, 8 December 2014
Chuck Todd's recent book offers a searing analysis of the Obama administration. The unwavering opposition of Republicans is already well documented. But Todd suggests that President Obama is also to blame for roadblocks to policies that would help the poor and middle class. Todd worked hard, talking with hundreds of Washington insiders. He has been able convincingly to demonstrate insularity and isolation from the real world. But not in the way anyone could have anticipated.
Direct download: Chuck_Todds_Analysis_of_President_O.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:42pm EDT |
Thu, 4 December 2014
Sometimes important lessons from world developments; conflict with Russia, deadly battles with the self-styled Islamic State, the medical threat from Ebola; become clear only in later months or years. But Republicans have taught us one unifying lesson from all of these issues. That lesson hasn't taken long at all. |
Tue, 2 December 2014
Not quite buried in news accounts of protest, violence, and frequent missteps of authorities, was an incident that should have enraged pretty much everyone on every side of every aspect of Ferguson events. The New York Times published the home street and town where Officer Darren Wilson lives, along with the name of his new wife. It reminds me of another incident from years ago. It is especially interesting to me how reactions have shifted.
|