PreemptiveHindsight

Why The “War On Terror” Isn’t — And Shouldn’t Have Been Called — A “War”

(An early 2004 letter in response to PoliSciProf’s terror-war assessment, which called upon “terror war” analysis from Strategic Forecasting, a hawkish intelligence consulting firm on K St. in D.C…

‘The Whiteness Checkpoint’in The Boston Globe

(Jan. 19 update: This protest has now appeared in regional papers including the Valley News and Keene (N.H.) Sentinel. Thanks, VN, for permission to use Laura DeCapua’s photo! Strong e-mail and letter-to-editors reaction gives hope that people may be…

Battle Day in Concord: Shades of Insurgencies Past

This op-ed originally appeared in the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel and other New England newspapers.

We stood by the hundreds on the river’s east bank, boosting our kids so they could see the redcoats march down to the old…

Fighting (And Losing) The Last War…In Bunny Slippers, No Less

It occurred to me — — as I untied my hiking boots in the airport so they could pass through an x-ray machine in order to add yet another layer of spurious safety to the mass illusion known as “Homeland Security” — — that I…

America Needs to Talk About The “O” Word: Oil

Alright, America. It’s time to talk about the “o” word.

 No, not that one. I mean the one we really avoid talking about. The one we’ll do shocking things to get. Our most wanton, shameful secret.

 Oil.

 We need to talk, because all our excuses for…

Christo’s ‘Gates’: A Perfect Moment For Content-Free Public Art

Perhaps it was a bad idea for a history buff to approach “The Gates,” Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Feb. 12–28 installation in New York’s Central Park, by way of Columbus Circle. 
 The roundabout at the park’s southwest…