Brother,
The upsurge in violence in Iraq this week has been troubling and sent me back to my notes and a couple of authors that I relied on because of their documentation of data and quotes. It’s too cumbersome to give you chapter and verse citations; suffice it to say that if your pore over two [...]
Author Archive for Old Viking
The Old Viking tries to instruct his brother on the US efforts to recreate Iraq
Published by March 29th, 2008 in Iraq, Politics and War. 0 Comments
Deciding the Next Decider: The 2008 Presidential Race in Rhyme
Calvin Trillin
Buy Now » $10.98
Hardcover
128 pages
It was in the late 1940s when, as a pre-teen, I first heard the word “bigotry.” Washington State had restrictive liquor laws. No Sunday sales. You could not carry a drink in a bar. If you wanted to change tables you had to call for a barmaid (hey, it was 60 years ago) to take [...]
During her Friday visit to Moscow and after meeting with Vladimir Putin, a critical Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated, “In any country, if you don’t have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.” Rice went on to criticize Putin for usurping so much power from Russia’s judiciary, legislature [...]
Stupidity? Dishonesty? Duplicity? An email that has it all.
Published by July 19th, 2007 in Church & State. 1 CommentMy conservative friends manage to keep me abreast of all the scurrilous right-wing emails that are fraught with lies, deception and stupidity. A new one is making the rounds complaining about the new president dollars that the mint has just issued.
The allegation is that “In God We Trust” has been left off this new coin: [...]
The Atlantic Monthly article on European and American shifts in secularism/religion is a good history and a good analysis. In the long haul I think that scepticism will probably carry the day but a lot of new “crusades” will be undertaken – but the banners will be only symbolic because they serve a political and [...]
The Old Viking looks at the facts and they aren’t pretty so far as Bush and the Republicans are concerned:
Published by September 27th, 2006 in Middle East, Miscellaneous, Politics and al Qaeda. 1 CommentThere is constant debate over Bush’s alleged failure to pursue an anti-terrorism policy in the first eight months of his first term. The (9/11 Commission report notes that the Bush administration had three (count them-three) meetings prior to 9/11. The first was in May, four months into Bush’s term and the third was the week [...]
