“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” I ask my readers to pause for a moment and ponder this statement. It was penned by James Madison in […]
If you are reading this post you have probably heard of Senator Rand Paul’s 13 hour filibuster over John Brennan’s confirmation as Director of the CIA. The filibuster ended today, giving both Washington politicians and their internet observers a chance to declare their thoughts on the Senator’s actions. Many tweets, posts, op-eds, and press statements […]
Earlier this week a story dropped into my inbox that was ideally suited for meeting the Stage’s stated mission to investigate “intersection of governance, ecology, demographics, culture, history, and security”: APNewsBreak: Nearly 1 in 4 Fails Military Exam Christine Armario and Dorie Turner. Associated Press. 21 December 2010. Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join […]
Last month Zenpundit brought to my attention an interesting debate between military historian Lt. Col. Robert Bateman and classicist Victor Davis Hanson. The topic up for debate was Carnage and Culture, the magnum opus of Mr. Hanson’s career. For those unfamiliar with the work, the thesis of Carnage and Culture is stated eloquently on its […]
The following is my contribution to the Afghanistan 2050 Roundtable hosted by the proprietors of ChicagoBoyz. The opening post of the roundtable – which explains its purpose and methods – can be found here. My piece is cross-posted at ChicagoBoyz with the rest of the submissions. The great challenge with interpreting the future is that […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. TOP BILLING: Haiti, Disaster Sociology, Elite Panic, and LootingGary Peterson. Resilience Science. 2010 January 30. This is one of the more compelling defenses of decentralization to be found under 2,000 words. Looking at disaster situations, Mr. Peterson does not find the disorder and chaos of […]
The big news to hit today’s foreign policy press was the release of several thousand DoD documents to The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Speigel by Wikileaks. As the title of the Times piece suggests, the top story to emerge from the leaks is the numerous field reports detailing how the Pakistani Inter-Service […]
America is aflutter with talk of General Stanley McChrystal. The story is now old news and hardly needs to be repeated; the possible consequences and causes of General McChrystal’s intemperate remarks have been discussed by every person capable of articulating an opinion on the matter. Tonight I had planned on adding my voice to this […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. As I have spent much of the last two weeks away from the blogosphere, this one is a bit smaller than usual. THE REPUBLIC Commentator’s DiseaseFred Reed. Fred on Everything. 11 June 2010. Mr. Reed identifies what is perhaps the greatest flaw of our pundit […]
A collection of articles, essays, and blog post of merit. THE REPUBLIC American Murder Mystery Hannah Rosen Atlantic Magazine. July 2008. Over the last decade crime rates in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago have all shrunk. A great American success story? Not quite. While the crime rates of the big cities fell, […]
