Lucky, but for How Much Longer?

After a failed attempt on then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's life in October 1984, the Irish Republican Army issued this statement: "Today we were unlucky, but remember, we only have to be lucky once; you will have to be lucky always." Those...

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Crime and Non-Punishment

In commuting Scooter Libby's sentence so that the vice president's former chief of staff won't spend a minute in jail, the president is sending a message, one that, while going out to multiple recipients, consists of a sentiment succinctly summed up in two words:...

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Recapturing the Spirit of Independence

This week Americans will gather around the grill, attend parades and watch fireworks displays, all in the celebration of the signing of our Declaration of Independence. At the same time, we will have thousands of bureaucrats, troops and agents stationed in countries...

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Bush Presidency Enters Terminal Phase

There may be moments during their summit at his family's compound in Kennebunkport, Maine when U.S. President George W. Bush looks with envy on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, whose popularity at home guarantees him vast influence even as he prepares to leave...

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Occupation? What Occupation?

There never was a darker Middle East summit meeting. The darkest there can be. The four leaders at Sharm-el-Sheikh did not sit together at an intimate round table. Each one sat alone behind a huge table of his own. That ensured a striking separation between them. The...

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The End of the GOP

"Endism" has been a favorite neoconservative theme over the years: every once in a while the neocons announce the death of some commonly assumed idea that the rest of us take for granted– during the 1950s, for example, they wrote the obituary of...

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The Meaning of July 4th,
Part Two

Last year at this time, I wrote that we are, bit by bit, losing the meaning of July 4th. This holiday used to celebrate a Declaration of Independence from a tyrannical British government that had tried to subjugate Americans. But here's a little test to see how much...

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