Category: war

• Hiram Arnold

  May 28

  For this Memorial Day, instead of visiting the grave of my Uncle Frank, who was killed in Vietnam three days before his twentieth birthday, or of my grandfather, whose body… more ›

• In Search of Babushka

  May 18

  Babushka’s Journey: The Dark Road to Stalin’s Wartime Camps is an eloquent travel memoir that also manages to do the heavy lifting required by great historical writing. Though German-born and… more ›

• MH17

  Jul 17

  I’ve been dreading this day for a year now: the first anniversary of when flight MH17 was shot down by thugs in eastern Ukraine with a Buk on loan from… more ›

• Germany, Year Zero

  Aug 25

  In Rossellini’s Germany, Year Zero Berlin’s bombed-out buildings manifest the destruction the war had already wreaked inside the characters’ lives. The city, once a specific site of history, becomes in Rossellini’s harsh… more ›

• Gaza

  Jul 25

  No, we do not have to accept the status quo. We do not have to accept the fact that our nation unqualifiedly supports Israel. We can hold our representatives accountable.… more ›

• Presocratic Philosophy: Heraclitus

  Nov 18

  We’ve already talked about the natural philosopher Thales (c. 624-546 BCE), who reasoned that water was the source of all. Coming out of that monistic tradition, we have two natural… more ›

• Nothing Really Matters

  Jun 25

  Madonna’s “Nothing Really Matters” was on heavy rotation on British Airways on-flight music programming during the summer of 1998 while he enjoyed his summer break from teaching in Japan. He… more ›

• The Address

  Jun 14

  The letter was simply addressed: l’Étranger, Rue Perdu, Nevers. It contained an account of the war and of life before war. It slipped out of pocket, down sewers and over the… more ›

• NPR: Neo-Patriotic Rhetoric [Allegedly]

  Mar 18

  The one word that for the past week has been most overused, overstressed, and blindly repeated: alleged. In reference this past week to the US soldier who murdered children and… more ›

• Barabbas, Son of the Father (In Our Age)

  Dec 31

  It was unanimous: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have the Jews calling out the name Barabbas, calling out for Barabbas’s release, calling for the crucifixion of Jesus, the other Son… more ›