Israel's war crimes

Richard Falk, a United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in the Israeli Occupied Territories, catalogs Israel's violations of internati…

Tanrıça ve boğa

That's the title of the Turkish translation of my book , "The Goddess and the Bull," which has just been published by Istanbul-based Ho…

ScienceInsider

That's a pretty cool logo, no? It's the banner for Science 's new policy blog , to which yours truly is proud to be an occasional contrib…

Where are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on Israel's actions in Gaza?

So far, a strange silence reigns among commentators and opinion pages in the American news media over Israel's actions in Gaza. While the Bush ad…

Jazz profiles: Dave Brubeck (and Paul Desmond)

I've raved a number of times about National Public Radio's superb jazz profiles series, but they have really outdone themselves this time wit…

Season's greetings to all!

I hope all readers of Balter's Blog are with their families and loved ones. Very best wishes to my regular readers and the occasional ones too.

U.S. war criminals: have they suffered enough from history's judgement?

I'm going to cut to the chase and say that this is the basic conclusion of an editorial in today's Los Angeles Times , entitled "Is the…

The philosophy of solidarity

Here is a story that gives one hope. According to a story in the French daily Le Monde , three philosophy professors on the way to a conference in K…

"We can bomb the bejesus out of them..."

National Security Archive Update, December 23, 2008 "We can bomb the bejesus out of them all over North Vietnam." Archive Publishes Treasur…

The torturers are us

The findings of Stanley Milgram, the psychologist whose infamous 1960s studies demonstrated that average people would administer potentially fatal le…

What future for Israel?

Today's International Herald Tribune features a story by Ethan Bronner about Avraham Burg, "How a Zionist in Israel went from leader to sc…

Paris bound

After spending most of this year in Boston teaching, I am now on my way home to Paris. I am looking forward to seeing my family, going for my morning…

If the shoe fits, wear it

Here is the video , courtesy of the BBC. I have to admit that Bush showed good ducking reactions and kept his cool. Of course, it's not his life …

Time to make money the old fashioned way?

Some of you may recall the old television ad for the Smith Barney brokerage term, which featured actor John Houseman declaring, "We make money t…

Michael's Playlist

As a new feature on this blog, I've added my personal music playlist to the left hand column, below the Favorites and Archives. It will change a…

Christmas reading list

Trouble in Afghanistan

There has been a lot in the press lately about the serious situation the U.S. faces in Afghanistan, including pleas by U.S. and NATO generals for mor…

Workers sit down

In a refreshing sign that workers aren't necessarily going to take layoffs laying* down, employees at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago respo…

That city by the bay

I've been on the road this week, visiting friends on the West Coast, so blogging has been nonexistent--not that there is not plenty to talk about…

The return of Samantha Power

Human rights activist and scholar Samantha Power , who was banished from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Clinton "a monster" durin…

I'm giving thanks...

... that things have turned out the way they did this year. This blogger has been busy with paying jobs and family visits the past week, but hope to …

Barbara Starr, Pentagon mouthpiece and mole in the journalism profession

I've just witnessed one of the most atrocious journalistic performances in recent memory. In a breaking news segment about the Bush administrati…

Obama: I look foward to you advising me, Hillary

A walk down memory lane. With thanks to Talking Points Memo.

Vatican forgives John Lennon

Reuters is reporting that the Vatican has forgiven Lennon for saying that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" back in 1966. This is…

Habeas corpus: A test for Barack Obama and Eric Holder

As many of you may have heard, Federal District Court Judge Richard J. Leon has ordered the release of five Algerian detainees held for the past seve…

Stop Bush Pardons

And there's a petition you can sign at this link .

Bill Ayers speaks

A couple of days ago, Terry Gross interviewed Bill Ayers on NPR's "Fresh Air." Ayers had decided to remain silent while the McCain camp…

Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, et al.

Once again this blogger feels compelled to place fingertips on keyboard and issue an electronic yawn over all the buzz about Obama's appointment…

Stevie Nicks

Just because she is so great, because this is an incredibly beautiful song, and because without music life is not worth living.

Prehistoric family values

Today on Science 's online news service, Science NOW, I report on a very cool paper that claims very early genetic evidence for the nuclear fami…

Phil Gramm: The Clinton years

Today's New York Times features a front-page article about Gramm entitled " A Deregulator Looks Back, Unswayed ," by Eric Lipton and …

The unsung heroes of Ohio

I am very late catching up with some back issues of the New Yorker , but today I was reading a pre-election Reporter at Large piece by George Packer …