Peter Van Buren

May 9, 2016

Thomas Jefferson said that an informed citizenry is critical to a democracy, and with that as a cornerstone the Founders wrote freedom of the press into the First Amendment to the Constitution. The most basic of ideas at play is that the government should in no way be allowed to control what information the press […]

Laurie Calhoun

May 9, 2016

I have seen Steven Spielberg’s 2002 film Minority Reportmentioned in the writings of a few different people, so when the opportunity presented itself to me recently, I decided to find out why it is still being talked about 14 years after its release. Not being much for science fiction, it’s not surprising that I did […]

Jessica Pavoni

May 6, 2016

Rep Duncan Hunter (R-CA) recently proposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that – somewhat surprisingly – passed the House Armed Services Committee. If approved, the amendment would require women to register for the Selective Service. This issue was bound to come up eventually, as women have recently been allowed to compete for […]

Peter Van Buren

May 6, 2016

It is terrifying even in the quiet moments; it is most terrifying in the quietest moments. National Bird, a new documentary by filmmaker Sonia Kennebeck, co-produced with Errol Morris and Wim Wenders, is a deep, multilayered, look into America’s drone wars, a tactic which became a strategy which became a post-9/11 policy. To many in […]

Eric Schuler

May 6, 2016

As President Obama prepares to hand over the White House to a successor that will almost certainly be even worse on most issues, it is important that this doesn’t cloud our judgment of his presidency. Compared to the likely replacements, he could seem like a preferable alternative to many people, particularly those on the left […]

Peter Van Buren

May 5, 2016

Espionage works like this: identify a target who has the info you need. Determine what he wants to cooperate (usually money.) Be sure to appeal to his vanity and/or patriotism. Create a situation where he can never go back to his old life, and give him a path forward where it favors his ongoing cooperation […]

Daniel McAdams

May 5, 2016

What is it that keeps the Washington Post’s hyperventilating neocon scribbler Jennifer Rubin up at night? The fact that Ron Paul’s lifelong efforts to promote a peaceful foreign policy continue to light fires in the imaginations of his fellow Americans. Any chance her fellow neocons’ near-total control of Washington’s foreign policy might be slipping sends […]

Daniel McAdams

May 4, 2016

In 1980 President Carter issued an order requiring males between 18 and 25 to register with Selective Service should a military draft become necessary. It was a response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At the time women were not eligible for the draft because they were not eligible for combat roles. Much has […]

Daniel McAdams

May 3, 2016

Just ten years after America was shocked at the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and just a year and a half after the Senate torture report, a recent poll suggests that three-fourths of the population would support torture of terrorism suspects. Have we so quickly forgotten the fallout from the CIA’s […]

Laurie Calhoun

May 3, 2016

For more than fifteen years – a sizable chunk of my adult life – I have been criticizing the just war paradigm which has undergirded calls for war by the leaders of states for centuries. My first essay on the topic was published in 2000: “The Injustice of Just Wars,” but that was only the […]