[This is the second segment of my multi-part series on pacifism. The first, which dealt with Gandhi, can be found here. This second part discusses the Quaker approach. It also will be divided into two smaller sections, of which this … Continue reading →
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight: US District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has ordered the release of more Abu Ghraib photos to help the ACLU prove that prisoners have been abused, and it’s OK because the terrorists don’t … Continue reading →
After reading Martha Gellhorn’s remarkably prescient 1961 Atlantic Monthly article about the Palestinians, I wanted to read more of her work. I recently and serendipitously happened upon a copy of her Travels with Myself and Another (the “other” being short-term … Continue reading →
While researching this post on the phrase “speaking truth to power,” I discovered that it originated among Quakers, and I promised that I’d write something soon about Quaker pacifism. I had planned that this post would be that “something.” But … Continue reading →
Norman Geras is a man who has thought long and hard about the Holocaust. Recently, he tackled the controversial question of whether the Holocaust was, “in some significant moral sense, singular or unique in the long catalogue of calamities that … Continue reading →
A couple of days ago the news sounded good–or at least what passes for good in the seemingly interminable attempt to talk North Korea out of developing nuclear weapons: North Korea agreed Monday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow … Continue reading →
There are all types of bloggers. I’m a practitioner of the long essay form, for example. And Bill Whittle is a practitioner of the LONG esssay form. When you write LONG, as Bill does, you have to be very very … Continue reading →
[For Part I, go here.] It doesn’t take a therapist to note that many people, when struck by the tragic loss of a loved one, are angry as well as sad. That anger can be unleashed in a variety of … Continue reading →
Who is this woman? The serene young artist, glowing with life: The worn-out older woman, lines of age etched deeper by profound grief: She’s Kathe Kollwitz, one of the greatest graphic artists of all time, in two of her extraordinary … Continue reading →
In this thread about the decision to drop the atomic bomb, anonymous asks: Why didn’t they drop a nuke on an unpopulated area and say, ‘See that goddamn horror? We’ll drop another one on your heads in two days if … Continue reading →
Roger Simon recently linked to this essay by Dr. Robert Harman, which attempts to analyze terrorists and our reaction to them, and in particular the symbiotic psychological connection between terrorists and their Western apologists. Dr Harman is an orgonomist. Huh, … Continue reading →
Both Austin Bay and Clive Davis recently cited this famous essay by literary critic Paul Fussell in their posts on the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb. I had read Fussell’s 1988 essay, provocatively titled “God Bless … Continue reading →