Category Archives: Fire This Time

A Pre-Autopsy of the Senate Gun Package: Not half a loaf; not half a slice; a few crumbs at best. So pass it already.

COMMENT: The restrained Associated Press headline on its story reads “Senate negotiators announce a deal on guns, breaking logjam.” The Raleigh NC News & Observer called it (more accurately, I think) an “OUTLINE of [a] gun violence agreement.” The story’s lead paragraph dubbed it a “FRAMEWORK.” [Emphasis added.] The AP article, by Alan Fram, ASSOCIATED … Continue reading A Pre-Autopsy of the Senate Gun Package: Not half a loaf; not half a slice; a few crumbs at best. So pass it already. →

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Quakerism was born in a terrible civil war. Could it survive another one?

[NOTE: This review does not mention that amid the spreading devastation of the English Civil War, which in 1649 led to the execution of the defeated Charles I, a new radical religious group, derisively called Quakers, was coming into being.  The earliest Friends were at least in sympathy with Cromwell’s anti-monarchical “Commonwealth,” and not a … Continue reading Quakerism was born in a terrible civil war. Could it survive another one? →

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The Front Lines May be In Doubt, But Putin’s War on Dissenters is Going Great

[NOTE: Repression of dissent is a communicable disease. How many variants are loose in our own atmosphere? And are we preparing to resist their spread?] New York Times Thousands Swept Up as Kremlin Clamps Down on War Criticism The arrests are a stark gauge of how the Kremlin has intensified repression of critics. At least … Continue reading The Front Lines May be In Doubt, But Putin’s War on Dissenters is Going Great →

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