As reported by Think Progress, President Bush is now arguing that war is a healthy catharsis: President Bush proudly declared that American foreign policy no longer seeks to “manage calm,” and derided policies that let anger and resentment lie “beneath the surface.” Bush said that the violence in the Middle…
Paul Rieckhoff raises this issue in Huffpo. Good insights, along with a wide range of comments.
I didn’t know that they had amusement parks like this, until I recently saw this advertisement . . .
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After allowing you to settle in at your own residence in your own personalized Hollywood-caliber “neighborhood,” your heart will start …
One of the most fundamental principles of any war is that, to win, you must divide your enemies and unite your friends. This principle is know by various names, including "divide and conquer" and "strength in numbers." How well has the Bush Administration applied this principle? Throughout the Middle East,…
What is it to be loyal? According to Merriam Webster, to be "loyal" is to be
1 : unswerving in allegiance: as a: faithful in allegiance to one's lawful sovereign or government b: faithful to a private person to whom fidelity is due c: faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution, or product.I don't have a problem with this definition. I do object, however, that "loyalty" has been given a free pass in modern American culture, as though loyalty is always a good thing. In particular, the mass media has bought into this linguistic sleight-of-hand: according to the mainstream media, it is always a good thing to be "loyal." Loyalty is undoubtedly a virtue when we are dealing with pet dogs. We like our dogs to be loyal. We like our dogs to do what we tell them to do. The loyalty of a human being is not necessarily a good thing, however. Loyalty is a matter of committing oneself to a person, to a group of people or to a cause. But people and causes can be either praiseworthy or despicable (or something in between). If a social cause to which I am loyal is that all babies should have basic medical care, loyalty to such a cause would be a good thing. If my idea is that we should all give homage to Hitler, loyalty to this cause would be a horrible idea. Therefore, how can it be said that loyalty is per se a good thing unless one first examines the merit of the person(s) or clause(s) to which a person is being loyal? [More . . . ]