Machination.org

A declaration that something is not political in itself will highlight the politics of the thing.
The New York Times quotes a Chinese Olympic official, Qu Yingpu, in response to the protests of the Olympic torch tour as saying “This is not the right time, the right platform, for any people to voice their political views.”
His [...]

My friend Sam Husseini shared this news with me, from a CBS News report:
So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.
And what it revealed [...]

It has been hard to write.
Many drafts with not just incomplete thoughts, but incomplete sentences, sit neglected in the queue right now.
In just this past week, I’ve been paying attention to Eliot Spitzer’s resignation from the office of governor in my home state; the security culture here in Washington as more CCTVs go up, as [...]

The only thoughts I can finish these days seem to be belated ones. Here I am slightly expanding on a “tweet” of mine in reaction to the news of arch-conservative William F. Buckley passing away.
Mostly fond and polite remembrances were aired across the media.
But in an often included common clip, which I heard it on [...]

Catholic anti-war demonstrators marched on the White House today, setting off at noon from St. Matthew’s Cathedral. Today’s action was part of their observation of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and a tradition with a theme of repentence.

A flyer being handed out quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying “Christ needs apostles ready to [...]