Category: Government Studies
-
Rock Paper Scissors Shutdown
Gun violence isn’t the only systemic failure of the federal government to be yodeled at with doomed futility in Patchworks. Furloughs and government shutdowns also pepper a story full of recurring small deaths. There comes a point—moments before the plot’s big turn—when two sympathetic colleagues must choose: which of them will take a round of furloughs instead of…
-
The Mess We’re In
Only in our currently defiled situation could an unpaid intern have the gall and patience to assert moral power… This month’s Foreign Service Journal features an incisive review of Patchworks by author and retired Foreign Service Officer Dan Whitman. Generous praise from a great writer. Dan served as French interpreter for the State Department’s International…
-
Uncle Sam, Matchmaker
I pictured myself in a Peace Corps-issue hammock on an island somewhere, or crossing high glaciers in the glaring Himalayan sun. Then the recruiter called and offered Malawi. Pointless to remind her what I’d written where the application asked my preference: ‘Anywhere but Africa.’ Before that call, a recruiter—maybe the same recruiter—offered another would-be…
-
This American Carnage
Just under a year ago we were promised an end to American carnage. Now, today, the wealth of the 99% is being ripped from our homes and handed blithely to those who already have so much. So how does the inaugural phrase “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” relate to signing…
-
Vs. Newspeak
Vulnerable. Entitlement. Diversity. Transgender. Fetus. Evidence-based. Science-based. Susceptible. Privilege. Variety. Trans. Unborn child. Data-driven. Science-centered. Stay flexible. Be prepared.* (*wanted: substitutes for suspect terms—diplomacy, equality, literacy, peace, stability, investigation, special counsel, democratic, dissent. Facts).
-
Little Green Men
I’m about done reading Little Green Men, Christopher Buckley’s satiric romp through an imaginary government bureaucracy established in 1947 to promulgate UFO hysteria in America. MJ-12’s mission: keep the Russians off-balance during the Cold War & boost support for Defense spending against unknown threats by means of increasingly intrusive forms of alien-related phenomena. What begins as mere sightings…
-
A Well Regulated Militia
The gun lobby conveniently forgets a key aspect of the law that grants the right to arms. Congress need not be so forgetful. Neither should we, who elect them. Every November ask: Which side do you stand on protecting the nation from flying bullets? –
-
11:15 06-Dec-04
The next-to-last time I saw Mohamed—11:15, Dec 6, 2004—a blast-resistant window separated me from the Afghan businessman with good English, admiration for the U.S., and a carpet enterprise in Virginia. The last applicant of the morning at our visa counter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Mohamed was alone in the waiting room when the high-low alarm began…
-
Gud Guy w/ a Gun
The NRA and its lackeys are fond of telling us the only thing that can stop a ‘bad guy with a gun’ is a ‘good guy with a gun.’ I have no problem with responsible gun ownership. But I reject the assumption that ‘…with a gun’ is the natural order of things. The above canard…
Ben East Books 