There is an urban legend within the US State Department of a US Senator who, upon his first trip to Jerusalem, was so shocked by the violence between Palestinians and Israelis within the holy city that he demanded a briefing fr...
The private area in warfare is far from a modern concept. Peter W. Singer states that “hiring outsiders to fight your battle is as old as war itself’’. Herbst reiterates Singer’s argument by pointing out that before sta...
Last week’s exchange of political prisoners between the US and Cuba, followed by a handful of far-reaching declarations tabled by the White House were widely acclaimed as a new opening between Havana and Washington. For all t...
This video reminded me of an anecdote I heard once about Alfred Hitchcock receiving a letter from an angry father claiming his daughter now refused to shower after watching Psycho. Hitchcock sent a note back, simply saying ‘...
In November 2010, I was earning $300 a week for The Village Voice, blogging about unemployed actors who moonlit as bed bug exterminators and a city project to make biofuel out of toilet water. One afternoon, then-Schools Chance...
Believing in the USA means being an American. Now I don’t mean that in some kind of romantic metaphor of national citizenship, but more of a belief in what the United States is supposed to represent—whatever that may be for...
A new survey published by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in the first week of March revealed one in three women in Europe have suffered some form of violence, sexual or physical, in her lifetime. The rep...
The Polish vodka Sobieski states on its website that vodka’s “birthplace was in Poland” and not in Russia, as many believe. However what draws attention to the product is the use of whistleblower Edward Snowden in...
With the ongoing debate surrounding gun control permeating the American public sphere since the tragic Newton, Conneticut shooting in December, the National Rifle Association (NRA) recently fired back with a highly propagan...