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Former Government Officials on Hillary Clinton's Emails
On Friday I argued that the Hillary Clinton email “scandal” was a more-smoke-than-fire phony scandal, this era’s Whitewater. On Saturday…
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Obama's Leadership Tone: Chessmaster, Pawn, or Something Else Altogether?
Through the past ten days in this space, I’ve had several items on the style and logic of President Obama’s…
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Articles on Fear, Concern, and our Current Predicament
I found these two articles worth reading, about the current political mood. 1) “Inside the GOP: Report…
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Does a Chickenhawk Nation Invite Terrorism?
After President Obama’s speech on ISIS last night, I argued that he was making a least-bad, sane, shrewd case about…
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Youssef Boudlal/Reuters Before Tonight's Speech About ISIS
When people say "we must act now!" they are usually wrong. When people say "we can't look weak!" it's usually time to discount whatever else they say.
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FAA Sectional Chart Annals of the Security State, Presidential-Vacations Edition
Protecting modern presidents is a legitimate and crucial goal. Here is some of what it ends up meaning in practice.
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Michael Vosburg, Fargo Forum Militarization of the Police, Fargo Edition
We thought North Dakota was too sensible for this.
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Wikipedia When U.S. Law Enforcement Had a Different Look
Americans have often thought of themselves as level-headed and BS-detecting. What would a modern Mark Twain or Will Rogers make of policemen all dressed up for war?
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Reuters Turning Policemen Into Soldiers, the Culmination of a Long Trend
Another poisoned fruit of the post-9/11 sensibility
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Reuters From Inside and Outside the Iron Dome, Once Again
"If you continue looking up to the sky, you will not notice that the house is already burning from within." A reader in Jerusalem on the real threat to his country.
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FAA The FAA's Notice Prohibiting Airline Flights Over Ukraine
The U.S. government did its best to keep civilian airliners away from the region.
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The Gaza Impasse, in 2 Notes
"I found it very troubling that you sought to create a perception of parity between my experience and perspective and the death of Palestinian innocent civilians." More from the American rabbi in Jerusalem.
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Reuters From Inside the Iron Dome
"I am very grateful for the Israeli 'know how' that created it, the effective AIPAC lobbying that ensured its funding, and the Congressional and Presidential support that made it available to the citizens of Israel." So writes an American rabbi from a bomb shelter in Jerusalem.
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Iron Dome—Savior, or Sales Job?
When the fighting is over in Gaza, one of these stories is going to look strange.
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Of Fear and Flying
... and terrorism too.
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Heartbleed test site How to Check If a Site Is Safe From 'Heartbleed'
If your site reads Safe, it makes sense to change your password. Even if it doesn't yet, a change still makes sense.
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Heartbleed.com The 5 Things to Do About the New Heartbleed Bug
Should you take the latest security scare seriously? I do, and here are the steps I am taking.
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Wikimedia Commons Today in Security Theater, Air Force One Edition
Thank you, Secret Service. But ... at airports?
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Reuters A Serving Soldier, on Cory Remsburg
"Why was he deployed 10 times? Who the hell cares! What matters is that he was brave, and he volunteered his service, and his sacrifice was noble." Or so the Congress seemed to be thinking.
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Reuters Why the Cory Remsburg Tribute Will Be Seen as a Sign of Our Times, and a Bad One, Many Years From Now
Taking The Long View of events one day in the past
