Just a quick observation:

Ironically, for the same reason that Cleveland now hates LeBron - the way that he left them (not the fact of his leaving) in his utterly heartless kiss off, "The Decision"- James also could torch the Cavs in the recent highly anticipated game between the Heat and… Read full post »

Photos are from The Daily Mail, England as part of their story, "Burning with anger: London streets in flames again as 25,000 go on rampage in new student fees riot," November 24, 2010.

The second photo above is from the protests outside the Foreign… Read full post »

The start of the Breeder's Cup Classic was painful to watch. Zenyatta always comes out slowly, like a freight train that is just getting moving, but this time she was so slow that it looked like something was wrong with her. Oh no, not another terrible injury in horseracing!

Her… Read full post »

Please read my previous posting if you haven't already, as an accompaniment to this post.

I use the Stanford Prison Experiment in my classes to illustrate the "false attribution fallacy": the notion that the actions of individuals in any social setting involving a group or groups of people… Read full post »

"[T]hat principle of habeas corpus, that a state can't just hold you for any reason without charging you and without giving you any kind of due process -- that’s the essence of who we are. I mean, you remember during the Nuremberg trials, part of what made us different was even… Read full post »

Dear Jon:

Have you lost your mind?

While the contemporary American right-wing’s unfettered-by-facts screeds are as extreme as their policies, the left (and others such as Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba)[1] calling out Bush as a war criminal are as valid as saying that the sun came up this morning.
&… Read full post »

[Note Taylor's observation in this essay that when the defense released video evidence proving that the charges against Gregory were false, the police rewrote their report and the judge refused to allow the defense to introduce the original police report into evidence because it would have shown that… Read full post »

 War veteran Mike Prysner's amazing speech. 

By Debra Sweet, National Director of the World Can't Wait

3 days after documents of 8 years of war crimes against the people of Afghanistan were leaked, what does the U.S. government do?  Admit or apologize for the crimes? … Read full post »

Update: The Daily Beast is reporting that the Pentagon is trying to locate Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange -

"Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to publish a huge c… Read full post »

I wrote an essay on Counterpunch in 2008 in which I compared the US government's threats upon Iran to the "Batterer's Defense:" if the US government attacks Iran, it will be Iran's fault. 

This is how the essay began:

"When batterers explain why they beat up their partners, t… Read full post »

From this morning’s Democracy Now! broadcast, three guests, the first two who were on board the Challenger 1 boat in the Free Gaza Flotilla and who witnessed the Israeli commando attack on the Maramara:

Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and chairperso… Read full post »

Israel attacked in international waters today a flotilla of six boats carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. The flotilla was attempting to help bring some relief to Gazans in the face of Israel’s illegal and immoral ongoing blockade of Gaza. On board the flotilla were the 1976 Nobel Peace P… Read full post »

Last night the Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics again, coming back from a 0-3 hole to win two games in a row, making the score 2-3 now in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Magic are still facing elimination, and must win the next two games, but the tide has turned.… Read full post »

This is a revision/expansion of my earlier posting:

Some thoughts on the Eastern and Western Conference NBA Finals in which the LA Lakers-Phoenix Suns are tied at 2-2 in the Western Conference and the Boston Celtics are up on the Orlando Magic 3-1 in the East:

It's all about the game… Read full post »

This is an expanded version of an essay of mine that recently appeared at Counterpunch. It's a wide-ranging meditation on the culture of narcissism that begins with LeBron James, touches upon Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian, Tiger Woods, the BP oil catastrophe, and ends with the meaning of Abu Ghr… Read full post »

Two reports on the UC Berkeley Law School Graduation Ceremony follow. For those who have been wanting to see a change in the whole atmosphere where torturers like John Yoo are given fora everywhere to justify his crimes to one in which war criminals are shunned and prosecuted, this shift in… Read full post »

“Whatever it is you enjoy most — going out for a nice steak, clubbing with friends, sitting at home stacking your money — this is the place to do it,” the [New York] magazine gushes. “That’s right, we think signing with the Knicks, the team that has lost more games… Read full post »

As anyone who has been paying attention to the Cavs-Celtics series, the mystery is what the hell's happened to LeBron, especially in Game 5, the critical game in any 7-game series. How could he go MIA in the most important game of the season? And to do it against the goddamn… Read full post »

Dramatic and graphic testimony to the utter bankruptcy of capital's ruthless pursuit of, and worship of, the god of profits, heedless to safety concerns, the fragility and preciousness of the planet, and scientific counsel. This Deepwater Horizon explosion may turn out to be the worst anthrop… Read full post »

This news gives Kafka's Trial a run for its money. 

As David Fraft, LTC in USAF JAG Corps Reserve, former lead defense counsel in the Office of Military Commissions, writes in today’s Huffington Post, the DoD has just issued its new manual on the MCA of 2009.

As Fraft… Read full post »

More evidence of stirrings from the left - and so welcome that students are in more motion against the injustices of our times:

Students to Engage in Nationwide Resistance Against Obama's Wars

by A. Konkbard

04/29/10

For immediate release.

This Tuesday, May 4, 2010 students on/… Read full post »