Posted in National security, Law on Jun 12th, 2008
In a major decision on civil liberties and the “war on terror,” the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled this morning, 5-4, that foreign nationals held as terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay have the constitutional right to challenge their detention in civilian courts.
Posted in Race and slavery, Gender, Art, National security, International relations, Science, Law, Politics on Jul 5th, 2007
Welcome to my blog!
I’m planning to use this blog to offer occasional reflections on topics of interest to me, notably politics, law and foreign relations, but also including science and other topics. I make no promise to post frequently, or that this blog will be interesting to anyone.
From time to time, I will also offer […]
Posted in Race and slavery, Gender, Art, National security, International relations, Science, Law, Politics on Jul 5th, 2007
The blog entries prior to this date are a sampling of posts imported from my old LiveJournal account. I blogged these entries long before I started this site.
Unfortunately, the export from LiveJournal didn’t include any of the original comments.
Posted in National security, Politics on Sep 5th, 2006
In the title of this post, I refer to public perceptions of 9/11, in the plural. This is quite deliberate, as it turns out that the U.S. public is deeply divided in its understanding of what happened on that day.
It turns out that five years after the fact, just over one-third of Americans (36%) believe […]
Posted in National security, Law on Jun 29th, 2006
For those who might be wondering just what to make of the Supreme Court’s dramatic ruling this morning on the Guantanamo Bay military trials, here’s a very quick take:
The Court has basically ruled, by a 5-3 vote, that the military commissions, as constituted, violate the standards for trying prisoners set forth in the Uniform Code […]
Posted in National security, Law on Dec 4th, 2005
Ever wanted revenge on a teacher who gave you a bad grade? Ever wished the CIA would help you?
The Washington Post this morning has a story about extraordinary rendition, the process by which the CIA kidnaps selected terror suspects and secretly flies them to other countries for treatment which is prohibited by law.
The CIA inspector […]
Posted in Humor, National security on May 4th, 2005
The Department of Homeland Security doesn’t always get it quite right.
They have a web page with advice for ordinary citizens caught up in a terrorist nuclear blast.
Entitled, “Be Informed: Nuclear Blast,” the page supposes that you on the same city block as a nuclear detonation, and advises, “Consider if you can get out of the […]
