Kafkaland

“My American dream became an American nightmare.” -American immigrant Syed Anwar Hashmi, describing the arrest and imprisonment of his son, essentially for political speech. Syed Fahad Hashmi now sits in solitary confinement nearly all his waking hours.

The Failures of Barack Obama

We had such high hopes. The presidency of Barack Obama started off with a bang, as he repudiated the most reprehensible policies of the previous administration through a series of executive signing orders. But since then it’s been all downhill. In fact, we should have seen it coming. When Obama declared, just before taking office,… Continue reading The Failures of Barack Obama

A Rich Embarrassment

In the final days of negotiation on the healthcare bill, President Obama twice postponed diplomatic trips to Indonesia and Australia, in order to close a deal that had engulfed the first 15 months of his presidency. The achievement noticeably improved Obama’s standing on the international stage, giving him much-needed credibility with foreign governments, but to… Continue reading A Rich Embarrassment

Back into the Light

At an alumni function last year, I spoke with a friend I had not seen in over a decade. He had spent many of the intervening years in Afghanistan with the US Army, in an intelligence unit. I asked him his opinion of “Matthew Alexander” – the anonym of the military interrogator who had just… Continue reading Back into the Light