...the official narrative of “bad apples,” the story of negligent actors in the government and military, and the account that holds reality TV responsible all tend to be a way of blaming the “them” within “us,” accusing Lynndie England and Charles Graner, Bush and Rumsfeld, or Hollywood, not “us.” The conviction that the crimes were “American” suffered from a logical stutter because of the difficulty of locating where or who we are in “American”: a...
...ipe to be making such demands. Economically, Scotland is proving its resilience amid a global malaise that is acutely affecting its neighbors. Already the third wealthiest region per head (behind Greater London and South East England), the recession affected Scots less severely and in a shorter span than it did the broader United Kingdom. Though it is currently a net recipient of British revenue, confidence has also been expressed in an independe...
Photo from Wikimedia Commons First 45 Minutes The many questions of the UEFA Euro 2012 in Ukraine are: Why did the Dutch exit early? Would Wayne Rooney lead England to glory? Why are former fascist countries (Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Spain who all are in the semi-finals) so darn good at soccer? And the most important story to follow: Who will win it all? International soccer has a history of uniting countries under one banner, whether it i...
...of which we haven’t seen in over half a century. So far, Mitt is halfway there with 566 delegates, more than Santorum (273), Newt Gingrich (135), and Ron Paul (50) combined. Romney has performed well in moderate states in New England, the Midwest, and the West. Both Democrats and Republicans see him as a moderate; many, in fact, believe he holds no true values, and will do whatever it takes to get into office and stay there. This has come to hurt...
...ngerous and foolhardy. The United States and Russia recently signed the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) to advance nuclear arms reduction. There are currently nine nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, China, England, France, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea), and that’s nine too many, as far as I’m concerned. Rather than listening to Waltz, countries ought to follow South Africa’s lead....
From Wikimedia Commons So Mitt Romney goes to London and insults the British, just as they’re preparing for the biggest event in England since the release of the last Harry Potter movie. The gaffe, in which Romney questioned London’s preparedness for the event, honestly made me scratch my head. What was he thinking? Politically, there was no upside. He didn’t make himself look better, nor did he seem more presidential. Ideologically there was n...
...doubt that these students could be enticed to go to work at high-tech ventures based in the city. In 2010, New York-based startups received $1.88 billion in venture capital, third behind Silicon Valley’s $8.51 billion and New England’s $2.54 billion. For 2011, New York is projected to surpass Boston in venture capital funding for startups, demonstrating that ample seed funding exists. At the very least, the emergence of ‘Silicon Alley’ as a recog...
...d for the nation. And, thanks to Labour’s remarkable 179-seat majority in the House of Commons, which ended their 18 years in opposition, Blair was soon able to implement three substantial reforms, namely granting the Bank of England (Britain’s version of the Fed) independence from government control, establishing devolved governments in Scotland and Wales, and ridding Britain’s archaic Upper House—the House of Lords—of all but 92 “hereditary Pee...
...s one of the reasons why people don’t read about military history and battles. They know it’s important, but they also know that it’s horrible, and so they really don’t want to read about some Pal’s battalion from Birmingham, England getting wiped out on Serre Road at Somme on July 1, 1916. It’s just too painful. Just let me just know it was awful. Enough said.” He also notes that battle-centered accounts of military history rarely contain such g...
...t, author of More Guns, Less Crime, has argued that “shall-issue” laws—which require that any citizen be issued a handgun license upon request —correlate to lower rates of violent crime. But in its review of the book, the New England Journal of Medicine noted that Lott failed to adopt proper statistical controls when comparing crime rates in such disparate areas as Idaho and New York City. In urban areas, more guns lead to more crime, while in ru...
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