Br. Steve | April 30, 2011
In the current issue of Foreign Policy Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, has an opinion piece extolling the virtues of the U.S./Israeli partnership. While he uses a lot of historical examples and quotes to make his point that this alliance is good for the U.S., his argument can be boiled down [...]
Br. Steve | April 27, 2011
A homeless woman in Connecticut has been arrested and charged with larceny for using her baby-sitter’s address to register he son for school. Tanya McDowell, 33 years-old, is charged with stealing $15,686 worth of educational services from the Norwalk school district. McDowell’s story is similar to that of Kelley Williams-Bolar, an Ohio women who was [...]
Br. Steve | April 15, 2011
From The Rainforest Action Network (Click on graphic to view it full-size):
Br. Steve | April 15, 2011
Danger Room’s Spencer Ackerman is reporting that U.S. military officials are quietly indicating their willingness to keep some forces in Iraq after the end of this year. Apparently Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is hoping that if he repeats himself often enough then the Iraqi government will initiate the required negotiations to change the current [...]
Br. Steve | April 13, 2011
One of the enduring criticisms of how the Obama administration has handled ongoing events in the Middle East is its inconsistency, proclaiming support for freedom and democracy on one hand, while supporting the status quo ante on the other. Nowhere has this dichotomy been on display more than in Bahrain. There is mounting evidence of [...]
Br. Steve | April 12, 2011
In a recent article on TomDispatch.com Andrew Bacevich points out how, when evaluating the actions of presidents, we often focus on the why of their actions and not the how. This focus on motives often obscures the fact that, in the exercise of foreign policy, we often return to the same failed methods over and [...]
Br. Steve | April 7, 2011
I’ve always found the manner in which politicians name their proposed laws and policies to be curious. More often than not, laws are named in such a way as to either create an interesting acronym or to sound soothingly pleasant without telling you anything useful about what they contain. Congressman Paul Ryan’s proposed 2012 budget, [...]
Br. Steve | April 4, 2011
Does the Bible support unregulated capitalism? Does Jesus require that we honor property rights and the pursuit of profit above all else if we are to be good disciples and Christians. According to influential sectors of the Christian right, the answer is yes to both questions. While this trend was most recently seen in the [...]
Br. Steve | April 1, 2011
While U.S. military spending is increasingly being scrutinized and debated as the U.S. government grapples with continuing budget deficits, one area is consistently overlooked, the U.S.’s overseas network of military installations and bases. At present the U.S. currently has 662 military bases around the world, not including the 411 in Afghanistan, 88 in Iraq, and [...]
