Roundup

Source: Politico

Apr 7, 2015

No, Jews Aren’t Defecting to the GOP

by Josh Zeitz

Republicans have tried to woo them many times before. It’s never worked.

Source: The New Yorker

Apr 7, 2015

Rand Paul and the Problem of Political Experience

by Jeff Shesol

The troubling thing about Rand Paul and the other Republican hopefuls is their indifference—indeed, their proud resistance—to the kind of experience that broadens one’s perspective and changes one’s mind.

Source: The Eagle

Apr 6, 2015

Cutting through the Lincoln myth

by Walter Kamphoefner

One measure of Abraham Lincoln's towering stature, sevenscore and ten years after his death, is the way people of various ideological stripes attempt to harness Lincoln's words in support of their own positions.

Source: The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus

Apr 6, 2015

The strangest alliance ever — The Black Panther Party and North Korea

by Benjamin R. Young

“From its inception, the BPP saw the conditions of blacks within an international context, for it was the same racist imperialism that people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were fighting against that was victimizing blacks in the United States.”

Source: Informed Comment

Apr 6, 2015

Do GOP Frontrunners have an Iran policy besides Sanctions and Bombs?

by Juan Cole

The Republican presidential field is not ready for prime time regarding the Iran deal.

Source: Politico

Apr 4, 2015

Why Politicians Need Science

by Michael Shermer

Remember: Before the triumph of science, we burned witches at the stake and thought that kings ruled by divine right.

Source: Salon

Apr 4, 2015

“One nation under God”? Not when it comes to distributing Gideon Bibles to public schools

by Kevin M. Kruse

Gideon Bibles in hotel rooms? No problem. But public schools were another story, as the Gideon salesmen discovered

Source: The Root

Apr 4, 2015

MLK’s Radicalism Speaks to Contemporary Protests

by Peniel E. Joseph

On this anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, we look to his speeches of 1967 and 1968, when he attacked America’s militarism, materialism and racism.

Source: AlterNet

Apr 3, 2015

Homeopathy: How 200-Year-Old Junk Science Created Junk Medicine and Lasted Until This Day

by Larry Schwartz

A recent study in Australia would seem to put the final nail in homeopathy’s coffin.

Source: Foreign Policy

Apr 3, 2015

Egypt’s Vietnam

by Jesse Ferris

Lessons from the last time Cairo waded into war in Yemen.

Source: NYT

Apr 3, 2015

How the Slave Trade Built America

by Maurie D. McInnis

The slave trade is not merely a footnote or a side story in the history of American slavery, but was central to its modernization and continuation.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Apr 3, 2015

Our national pastime past its time, deserves renewal

by Jonathan Zimmerman

What the game really needs is a new connection with the nation itself.

Source: Informed Comment

Apr 3, 2015

The von Moltke Fallacy and avoiding another World War, with Iran

by Juan Cole

After a century, surely von Moltke and preemptive war thinking, which polished off 16 million people and wounded 20 million, should have a worse reputation than they do.

Source: The New Yorker

Apr 2, 2015

The one-dot theory of history

by Louis Menan

Predicting the present is nearly as hard as predicting the future.

Source: Informed Comment

Apr 2, 2015

Syria: ISIL Conquest of Yarmouk Palestinian Camp refutes Israeli Propaganda

by Juan Cole

On Wednesday, the extremist Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) group, known for its brutal beheadings and mass murder, took over the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp inside Damascus city limits.