Let us be precise about what happened. The New York Times and the Washington Post reported that classified American intelligence assessments show Iran has retained roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile, roughly 75 percent of its mobile missile launchers, operational access to 30 of its 33 missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz, […]
Tag: Oppression (Page 2 of 4)
Brutus Stood in the Light
Last night, a man named Cole Thomas Allen armed himself with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives, booked a room at the Washington Hilton, and charged a security checkpoint outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He told law enforcement what he wanted: to shoot Trump administration officials. A Secret Service agent was shot and […]
It is Easter weekend in America. The churches are full. The story is told again, as it has been told for two thousand years, of a crowd given a choice. Pilate asked them. He stood before the assembled people and offered them what custom demanded: one man freed, one man condemned. He presented two: a […]
There is a temptation, in times of war and outrage, to flatten the world into two categories: those who condemn evil and those who enable it. It is a tempting simplicity. It is also a lie. Let us be precise about Iran. Not careful. Precise. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a theocratic dictatorship. It […]
“The ice is tilted,” we hockey fans say when one team is so dominant it feels as though they are skating downhill while their opponent claws uphill for oxygen. One end of the rink becomes a siege. The puck rarely leaves it. Momentum is obvious. When the White House elevates the U.S. men’s hockey team […]
Under Donald Trump officials and media surrogates have reached for a familiar incantation: domestic terrorism. It has been applied not only to protestors, but to movements, to gatherings, to grief itself. In some cases, it has been applied to people who are now dead. That detail matters. When someone is killed during a protest and […]
Last night, people gathered in Brockport, New York. A small college town. Hundreds of miles from Minnesota. Candles in gloved hands. Silence broken only by breath and resolve. That distance is important. It’s the detail the mockers trip over. “What does Brockport have to do with Minnesota?” “What a waste of time.” “Do you really […]
The government is gaslighting us. Not metaphorically. Not rhetorically. Literally. We are being told not to believe what we saw, not to trust witnesses, not to trust video, not to trust journalists who were assaulted for doing their jobs. We are told the problem is our perception, our tone, our lack of patience. Fine. If […]
A short sermon on a Gospel of selective holiness There is a peculiar modern theological belief that insists Jesus Christ would absolutely approve of tearing children from their parents, warehousing human beings in concrete pens, and cracking a few ribs along the way, all in His holy name. But a buttercream rose on a cake […]
It is too common a scenario. They come at night, because daylight invites witnesses. The officers move through the neighborhood with practiced ease. Potential areas to investigate have been noted in advance. The orders are clear, the papers are already signed. This is not a search. It is a hunt. The illegal runs when he […]