3 Poems by Robert Okaji
Originally posted on The Blue Hour:
Wind That it shudders through and presages an untimely end, that it transforms the night’s body and leaves us breathless and wanting, petals strewn…
Wendell Berry: The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer
From Wendell Berry: Poet and Prophet, an interview by Bill Moyers. http://
America’s Longest Wars
Originally posted on The Contrary Perspective:
Just a few of the battles fought against Native Americans W.J. Astore A popular headline in the media is to describe the Afghan War…
Phyllis Chesler: My Jewish Feminist Problem
Why my sisters can’t think straight about Israel. These days, Israel is far too dangerous a word to pronounce in a Western intellectual or social setting. Say it—and you risk … Continue reading
Origins of the police
Originally posted on Works in theory:
The Five Points district of lower Manhattan, painted by George Catlin in 1827. New York’s first free Black settlement, Five Points was also a…
Rebecca Solnit: Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart
The Climate for 2015 It was the most thrilling bureaucratic document I’ve ever seen for just one reason: it was dated the 21st day of the month of Thermidor in … Continue reading
Ken Silverstein: How America tortured and murdered an innocent man
In 2002, Matthew Zirbel, a junior CIA officer, was in charge of the Salt Pit, a “black site” in Afghanistan referred to in the recent Senate torture report as “Cobalt,” … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: Blood
“A true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands,” my father would say. And he’d prove it, cupping the buzzer instantly while the host with the swatter … Continue reading
Video: “War Music” by Kate Tempest
Poet Kate Tempest performs “War Music” with improvised accompaniment by Tongue Fu.
Dawn Potter: The Marketing of American Individualism
On the morning after our most recent election debacle, I received a note from a bewildered Canadian friend: Not my place to comment, at least publicly, on another country’s political … Continue reading
Daniel Burston: Corruption in the Mental Health Professions — Psychology, Psychiatry and the “New Normal”
The Social Psychology of Corruption Ask yourself the following question; “What is the most corrupt place in the world?” Forget Sodom … Continue reading
Marc Jampole: Sanitizing Evil
Like the Nazis & other evil-doers, American torture apologists use language to sanitize evil How do we know that those who are defending the American torture program under the presidency … Continue reading
Naomi Shihab Nye: On Inspiration
“I can never imagine how someone would fall in love with poetry and stop reading poems. But I think that people often talk themselves out of responding…” This video is … Continue reading
Glenn Greenwald: Jeb Bush v. Hillary Clinton — the perfectly illustrative election
Jeb Bush recently suggested he was running for President in 2016. If he wins the GOP nomination, it is highly likely that his opponent for the presidency would be Hillary … Continue reading →