Alone among the developed nations of the West, the US still glorifies war and the "warrior." This serves as an object lesson to the rest of the world about what happens when a nation obtains the means to wage war at will anywhere around the globe without also earning the wisdom to abhor the idea of war. I have come to believe that the love and glorification of war is something that a nation outgrows, and the US has a very long way to go before it is mature enough to turn its back on war. Indeed, I doubt that there can ever again be conditions dire enough to pull the US kicking and screaming out of its warlike childhood.

Join me below the fold, won't you?

Originally published hereand crossposted here.

Now that there's a bit of a lull in the pre-election diary volume,  I'd like to kick the discussion up from the "here and now" issues to an issue that will continue to resonate regardless of who is elected in November: the pathological coupling between religious fundamentalism, flag worship, and what can be called, for lack of a better term, "warrior worship." Join me below the fold,  won't you?

As a change of pace from the obsessively inward navel-gazing that we American politics junkies are too often guilty of, I thought we could break up the monotony and take a look at a potentially enormous development taking place across the pond. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Monthly Review published  my piece "Forget Guantanamo" in April, and I just noticed that they've posted it online,  so I thought I'd pull it over here to spur some discussion. Also cross-posted at The Crusty Polemicist. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Cross-posted at The Crusty Polemicist.

I was getting dressed at the locker room of my gym the other morning. The TV in the corner, tuned to one of the news channels, was droning and humming monotonously. I wasn’t really listening to whatever the talking head was saying. Suddenly the picture changed to a scene of many parachutists pouring out the side door of a cargo plane, sailing down towards the ground with a sense of purpose. The talking head came back on camera and said:

"The Chinese response has been extraordinary. As a point of reference, after Katrina it took the US government twice as long to get less than half as many people on the ground."

Those words put the hook in me, and I sat down in front of the TV and got to thinking about the question: Why was the US response to Katrina so shameful? And why was the Chinese response to the earthquake so much better?

Join me below the fold, won't you?

Now that the Supremes have cleared the decks to begin the nasty business of administrative murder again, I went back and re-read an essay on capital punishment I'd put together a couple of years ago. I think it's held up well. Originally published here.
Also available here.  Join me below the fold, won't you?

Given all the recent "pastor problems" that some of the candidates are having, I thought it might be fun to look at a controversial book about "America's most beloved  pastor" :

Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire, by Cecil Bothwell, Asheville: Brave Ulysses Books, 2007

A power-hungry moral coward. A vicious racist and Jew-baiter. A man with an almost uncanny ability to always be on the wrong side of history. A craven climber and groveller at the feet of power. An "unabashed nationalist and advocate for American empire." If Cecil Bothwell is right – and he marshals a lot of evidence in support of his thesis – then "America’s most beloved pastor" is all these things, and more. Bothwell gives us the opportunity to see the other side of Billy Graham, the man who was seventh on a recent Gallup poll’s list of the most admired people of the 20th century. Graham is a man with a history, a man who must be called to account. Bothwell lays out his bill of particulars with subtlety and skill. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Given the recent discussions (here and elsewhere) about how the media and the government shape and, in many cases, outright manufacture the reality we see,  I thought it'd be worth posting this essay here. Originally published in Peace Review 2007, I've also crossposted  it to The Crusty Polemicist.  Join me below the fold, won't you?

Apropos of all the Monique Davis brouhaha, I thought I'd post a review I just completed of "Piety and Politics," by Rev. Barry Lynn. Join me below the fold, won't you?

Crossposted at The Crusty Polemicist

As promised in the first essay in this series, "The New Leviathan", I want to look at aspect's of Bush's "sermonic discourse," and how it resonated so deeply with so many Americans. Join me below the fold,  won't you?

Given all the detail-oriented diaries fighting over which candidate is more electable, which is smarter, which has brighter teeth, and which candidate gets invited to more of the right parties, I thought it might be worth our while to step back and look at an important issue that will still be with us regardless of who wins in November. I referred to it elsewhere as "America’s heart of darkness," the idea that Bush (and his ideological bastard child, Bushism) is a symptom, not a cause. When Bush goes away, the secret craving among the people for his harsh and unconditional brand of leadership will not go away. Bushism satisfies certain needs in this new, scary, contingent world of ours. Join me below the fold, won’t you?

Crossposted at The Crusty Polemicist

Some day, centuries from now, our  descendants will crouch
around the fire and tell stories of "what happened back then" as they struggle, the way humans always have, to make sense of their world. When  they tell  their stories about "what happened back then," the words our descendants use to make sense of the old, old catastrophe might  look something  like this ...