In turning its back on big business, the Tea Party Caucus may have taken an important step in freeing itself from the influence of big money. In a New York Times article […]
Is the House Tea Party Caucus paving the way to campaign finance reform?
Russ Wellen
Russ Wellen is not exactly a rogue, as in cop or elephant. And, since he didn’t graduate from college, he’s more of an autodidact than a scholar. Come to think of it, though, that would make him a Rogue Scholar. (Usually, punning isn’t among his vices.)
Russ writes about:
1. Nuclear deproliferation.
2. Foreign relations with the Middle East.
3. Understanding what makes Americans tick.
He spends much of the rest of the time trying to figure out what makes his 12-year-old son tick.
"It's hard to tell people not to smoke when you have a cigarette dangling from your mouth."
-- Mohamed El Baradei, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Did Kenyan army use shock doctrine in Nairobi mall attack?
Once again, the meaning of “in every crisis there’s an opportunity” may have been twisted. It’s bad enough that the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, site of the vicious Al Shabab attack […]
Reducing the Nairobi attacks to a hashtag
The ease with which al Shabaab and other extremist groups handle social media is disconcerting. For the New York Times, Nicholas Kulish reported yesterday that a representative of al Shabaab tweeted Kenyan […]
After the weekend in Nairobi and Peshawar, hard to believe world is a safer place
Over the weekend, as you no doubt know, the Somalian Islamist militant group al Shabaab attacked a mall in Nairobi, Kenya. They killed, at last count, between 58 and 69. At the […]
Steven Pinker’s “Better Angels” ignores demons that lie dormant
Steven Pinker maintains the world is less violent than ever. Robert Jay Lifton? Not so much. In this month’s Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (behind a paywall), esteemed atrocity authority Robert Jay […]
Amir Hekmati: moral courage to burn
Imprisoned in Iran as a CIA spy, Amir Hekmati refuses to be ransomed. Some background from CNN: [Amir] Hekmati joined the Marines in 2001 out of high school. He finished his service […]
Sadly, Assad may be Syria’s best option
“Least horrible” may be a better way of putting it. Remember how innocently the Syrian rebellion began? In March 2011, as part of the Arab Spring which started in Tunisia, Syrians engaged […]
Has nuclear disarmament outlived its shelf life?
Between the end of the Cold War and a president perceived as an architect of disarmament, nuclear weapons have lost their status as an “existential threat.” From the Partial Test-Ban and nuclear […]
Putin on the short list for a Nobel?
Russian President Putin steps into the peace breach on Syria. On Sept. 8, Secretary of State John Kerry made the offhanded suggestion that if Syrian President Bashar al Assad were to “turn […]
Assad and Obama whiff at chances to defuse crisis
Both insist on viewing the chemical-weapons attack in black or white: mounted by either the Assad administration or the opposition. The hypothesis that the Syrian chemical weapons attacks may not have been […]
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 