Slake’s Limbo, by Felice Holman
Mr Pye, by Mervyn Peake
The Gospel According to the Simpsons, by Mark I. Pinsky
This month takes us on three spiritual quests, ranging from an unsubtle thematic exploration on the rocks and under the tracks, to a sort of allegorical cocktail, to–screw it–non-fiction straight from the bottle. Slake’s Limbo, although it’s […]

Circumstances in Iraq are insanely complicated, but not generally indecipherable. The major players are known—some well, some not so well—many major occurrences are reported, and a fair number of people who are either in Iraq or know the country well regularly provide commentary and analysis. Yet the US press continue to rely largely on the […]

That’s a joke, the “adversarial” tag, but a story in the New York Times today helps explain the reason so many people see the press as anti-government. Investigative reporter David Barstow uncovered a White House-approved Pentagon operation to use high-profile television and print military analysts, mostly retired general officers, to help sell the Iraq invasion […]

As regular readers know, the proprietor of this site is at present a somewhat displaced person. Among the contributing causes to that condition is a lack of affordable access to a medication that helps prevent me from living my life in perpetual homage to the last moments of the Wicked Witch of the West. My […]

A Primer on CO2 and Climate, by Howard C. Hayden
Shadows of the Mind, by Roger Penrose
These are two science-oriented books that that I paired for their controversial viewpoints. Each looks at their respective field from somewhere opposite the consensus, and I’ve found it interesting to contrast their styles and content. In particular, I […]

I had hoped to provide a detailed breakdown of the various forces operating in Iraq as I understand them, complete with colorful graphics of the sort favored by people testifying to Congress, but that will have to wait until BTC News world headquarters is permanently settled somewhere. (Readers who would like to help advance that […]

By now you may know that top Bush administration officials, with the knowledge and approval of the president, choreographed torture regimens for terrorism suspects held by the US. You probably haven’t heard much about the reaction from Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
That’s because they haven’t reacted. Like most of the press, Clinton […]

The news that senior Bush administration officials not only approved the use of torture but actually micromanaged the application of it should be the last straw for dithering Democrats in the House of Representatives.
We have known for years that the president and the vice president approved war crimes, including torture, on the basis of […]

Political junkies in this campaign season will probably recognize that quote as emanating from Ross Perot’s vice-presidential candidate, the late Admiral James Stockdale, during the vice presidential debate of 1992 between him, Dan Quayle and Al Gore.
I bring this up because not long ago I found myself at televangelist Robert Shuler’s Crystal Cathedral in Garden […]

ABC News is reporting that senior Bush administration officials were intimately involved in planning torture regimens for use against terrorism suspects. The officials include vice president Dick Cheney; CIA director George Tenet and his successor, former CIA agent and Congressman Porter Goss; then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice; former secretary of state Colin Powell; former secretary […]