A column in The Washington Note (Steve Clemons) has attracted a lot of conversation. It’s titled “America: F**k Yeah!” The line, from the movie Team America: World Police, is portrayed as a favorite of those who subscribe to “a kind of pugnacious nationalism that has taken hold of the American personality. . . .[W]hat Walter…

Along with many other Americans this morning, I am pondering what it all means that, after four years of intense labor things have changed very little. Only about three million votes appear to have moved over the last presidential term, in the face of unprecedented amounts spent trying to move voters this way and that,…

“Turn to your neighbor,” Arun Ghandi told us, “and make a fist. Pretend you are holding the world’s most valuable diamond.” I was at a global conference at Kennesaw State University, where Mahatma Ghandi’s grandson was giving the keynote. Mr. Gandhi is a potent speaker in his own right. “Now, neighbor: Try to get the…

In the late 1980’s America seemed suddenly to become conscious of “gangs.” Down in Los Angeles, where I lived at the time, South Central and Compton were ground zero. But LA was not alone. The daily experience of the solid citizens in all major metropolitan areas changed. Young people began to dress in outlandish ways,…

(From The Christian Science Monitor) Are the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in cahoots with President Bush’s reelection campaign? Has Kerry campaign chief Mary Beth Cahill held secret meetings with MoveOn.org to plan that group’s media attack campaign? It doesn’t matter. Why not? Because the crafting of political messages is something that modern election campaigns…

The long knives have been drawn and sides chosen over Kitty Kelley’s new book that purports to uncover generations’ worth of scandal in the Bush political family. It’s now a political football, but there are far darker books on the shelves of your local bookselling conglomerate. Books you really don’t have to read. At least…