Tag: violence
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The Shooting Gallery
Once again in the New York Times Happy Days blog, I’m testing myself. Last time, I was testing my faith. This time, it’s my trigger finger: I’ve always really liked guns. Growing up, I fantasized about them endlessly, though my parents discouraged it every way they could. I came to agree with them in principle…
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Erik Prince and the Spell of Freedom
Fueled by Jeremy Scahill’s recent revelations about Blackwater and its founder Erik Prince in The Nation, I’ve got a new essay at Religion Dispatches exploring the concept of freedom in relationship to the business of free-market warfare. Erik Prince discovered a passion for freedom long before founding Blackwater. Freedom is a mighty thing. Its exercise…
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The Burden of Peace in Gaza
My first-ever bit on Huffington Post just went up—”Who Carries the Burden of Peace?” It’s an attempt to talk about the place of nonviolence talk in the Gaza conflict and, ultimately, to challenge those in positions of power to push harder for peaceful solutions. Loyal readers will recognize parts of my recent essay, Can Nonviolence…
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Reasons in Practice
Sunday morning at the AAR (okay, maybe I am live-blogging) I went not to church (unless you count the moment of prayer at the panel on Zizek by the Christian Theological Research Fellowship) but to a comparative ethics panel about John Kelsay’s recent book, Arguing the Just War in Islam. The panelists discussed the book…
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When Soldiers Become Warriors
For some time, I’ve been hearing talk of “warriors” or “warfighters,” rather than “soldiers,” in my casual observation of the U.S. military. You hear this at all levels, from infantrymen referring to themselves, to the “warfighter standardized equipment” discussed at the highest echelons of the military-industrial mafia. At a recent talk in New York, the…
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Rampage in Minneapolis
A dear friend of mine, Nicole Salazar, was peacefully filming protests at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis when police in riot gear assaulted her, cornered her, and dragged her on the ground before arresting her and charging her with a felony. Here is the horrifying video she recorded during the assault: The next day…