Randall Munroe, XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. Via Randall Munroe, XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
Archives for September 2021
Did a Cosmic Airburst inspire the Myth of Sodom and inadvertently Spark millennia of Homophobia?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a new paper in Nature archeologists Ted E. Bunch and Malcolm A. LeCompte et al. present their findings that a cosmic airburst destroyed an ancient city in 1650 BC (about 3600 years ago) at the site of today’s Tell el-Hammam in western Jordan near the mouth of the Jordan […]
U.S. Militarism’s Toxic Impact on Climate Policy
( Code Pink ) – President Biden addressed the UN General on September 21 with a warning that the climate crisis is fast approaching a “point of no return,” and a promise that the United States would rally the world to action. “We will lead not just with the example of our power but, God […]
If US Followed its own Safeguards, the Taliban and IS-K wouldn’t have captured so many US Weapons
By Nolan Fahrenkopf | – The weapons and military equipment left behind by the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, including through the collapse of the Afghan army, are now largely in the hands of the Taliban – and likely other militant groups as well. Though many politicians’ and observers’ reactions have been sensationalized, it does highlight […]
The military stood up to Donald Trump. Who will now stand up to the military?
( Foreign Policy in Focus ) – When he was trying to win the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon famously told his chief of staff that he wanted Communist leaders—in the Soviet Union, in North Vietnam—to think that the U.S. president was a mad man, that he was capable of doing pretty much anything up to […]
At UN, Biden Pivots from 20-year War to Global Alliance against the Climate Emergency
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – President Joe Biden addressed the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, laying out his vision of the global challenges facing the United States and the world. Biden, as expected, used his speech to announce a pivot by the United States away from its 20-year “war on […]
A Chill Wind: Texas Unleashes Bounty Hunters on Women
( Otherwords.org) – For now, the Supreme Court has allowed Texas to sic bounty hunters on women seeking constitutionally protected abortions. By Martha Burk | September 8, 2021 Back in the 19th century, Texas was awash in vigilante groups. In those dark years, various self-appointed “law enforcers” modeled after the Texas Rangers embarked on a […]
The Profits of War: How Corporate America Cashed in on the Post-9/11 Pentagon Spending Surge
( Tomdispatch.com) – The costs and consequences of America’s twenty-first-century wars have by now been well-documented — a staggering $8 trillion in expenditures and more than 380,000 civilian deaths, as calculated by Brown University’s Costs of War project. The question of who has benefited most from such an orgy of military spending has, unfortunately, received […]
Afghanistan’s war rug industry: Profits and Everyday Trauma
By Jamal J. Elias | – The end of the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan has resulted in the withdrawal of most foreign aid workers and contractors. It may well also spell the demise of the country’s war rug industry. As a specialist in the visual and material culture of the Islamic world, I first […]
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