One might expect a blog focused on Christian nonviolence to post something about Pentecost, one of the most important church holidays. Alas, I’ve been neck deep in working to help get a Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) pushed through a state legislature and with the IRS paperwork for our nascent nonprofit startup…no major blog post [...]
Archive for May, 2009
Peace and Justice Movement Pulled a Rumsfeld–It’s Time to Recover
Posted: May 30, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, anti-war movement, Iraq, MoveOn, NDAA, peace movement, Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld earned considerable scorn from across the ideological spectrum for his attitude toward post-war planning. One episode in particular illustrated his Defense Department’s attitude toward post-invasion planning: In a piece from October 2004 entitled “Pre-war planning was non-existent,” Knight Ridder reported on a meeting held at a US Air Force base just days before [...]
“Obviously, we meant only 10-year, trillion-dollar wars waged by Republicans were bad for America.”
Posted: May 28, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, General George Casey, Iraq, Obama
Large sections of both the Democratic Party and the peace and justice community continue to show considerable reluctance to protest the policies of the Obama administration, regardless of the blatant similarities between his policies (and the policies’ drawbacks) and those of President Bush. During the Bush administration, Democrats (myself included) made a fair amount of [...]
ScienceNews: “Gamers crave control and competence, not carnage”
Posted: May 22, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: video games, violence
Study turns belief commonly held by video game industry, gamers, on its head By Laura Sanders Blood, guts and gore aren’t what thrill avid gamers when they slaughter zombies in The House of the Dead III video game, a new study suggests. Instead, feelings of control and competence are what the players crave. The new [...]
A Non-Military Strategy for Afghanistan
Posted: May 22, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Albert Einstein Institution, Carnegie Institute, Gene Sharp, nonviolence, Taliban
Our methods for dealing with the spread of the Taliban in Afghanistan continue to come back to bite us: Arms and ordnance collected from dead insurgents hint at one possible reason: Of 30 rifle magazines recently taken from insurgents’ corpses, at least 17 contained cartridges, or rounds, identical to ammunition the United States had provided [...]
Our “Regard for Human Life” Just Killed Eight More Afghan Civilians
Posted: May 20, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Christianity, civilian deaths, nonviolence
We just killed eight more civilians. “The ISAF troops, however, were not aware that the insurgents were once again using civilians as human shields. If this information had been known by ISAF troops, no ordnance would have been used. “Tragically, it is believed that eight civilians were killed as a result of the air strike. [...]
From Men’s Health: In other words, thousands of American fighters armed with the latest killing technology are taking prescription drugs that the Federal Aviation Administration considers too dangerous for commercial pilots.
“Militarized Christianity is a Lie”
Posted: May 19, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Jesus, nonviolence, Pentagon
Good news (I guess) from the Pentagon! WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration. …“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of [...]
“Why do Afghans have a life expectancy of only 44 years?”
Posted: May 19, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan
Abdul Malik Mujahid wrote an excellent article on the continuing tragedy of the Afghanistan war. The war in Afghanistan did not start in 2001 with the US invasion. It began 30 years ago in December 1979, when the former Soviet Union invaded the country. The human toll of the conflict is staggering: more than a [...]
Glenn Greenwald wrote an excellent piece dissecting the asinine assertions by talking heads and politicians that “no one wants an investigation” into the systematic torture regime implemented during the Bush years. His final paragraph raises the most important frame-busting point: As usual, what must never be mentioned are the torture victims themselves, including the 100 [...]
