Peace and Security
Deploying Satire at My Own Risk
I think I hit a nerve. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a thoughtful, well-reasoned column suggesting ways to cut down on gun violence in our ever more violent society. It proposed, among other things: Repealing the Second Amendment and with it the right to buy assault...
Sabotaging the Conversation about Guns
Does NRA stand for “No Rational Argument”? In response to the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the gun group's CEO called for an armed cop in every school and a national database to track the mentally ill. Wayne LaPierre's widely broadcast proposal...
Argo and the Roots of U.S.-Iran Tensions
The box-office hit Argo brings back long-faded memories of the Iran hostage crisis for many Americans. News in November 1979 that U.S. diplomats had been taken hostage in Tehran shocked the United States. Students stormed the U.S. embassy, blindfolding 52 Americans...
Mass-Murder Nation
We're all still mourning with the families and loved ones of those so frightfully killed in Newtown, Connecticut. But as grief is joined by reflection on how this could happen — again — I believe we do a disservice those close to the victims as well as ourselves...
Of Cowardice and Connecticut
Tough laws stall To no avail, Risky guns Are still for sale. After the biggest massacre at an elementary school since 1927, President Barack Obama at first assured those of us in Connecticut that America needed to reconsider its gun laws. It was just that now isn't...
Turning our Tears into Action
A movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. A Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. A shopping mall in Oregon. A political event outside a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. The streets of big cities like Chicago. And now an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. When will the madness...
The New Agenda on Guns We Need after Newtown
I'm glad I retired five months ago. Think of it: I was spared writing about the presidential election, an event so vacuous it made reality TV seem interesting. If there was any serious discussion of an important national issue — global warming, our obesity epidemic,...
Good Company
Ripe for Reduction
Here we are on brink of a major historical moment. We’re beginning to wind down the longest period of war in our history. And we’re about to turn around a 13-year-long surge in Pentagon spending.
Our National Failure to Commit
America is suffering from a failure to commit. Just ask Bob Dole.
