Roundup: Media's Take

M. Shahid Alam: Israel: A Failing Colonial Project

[M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University, Boston. He is author of Poverty from the Wealth of Nations (Macmillan, 2000), Challenging the New Orientalism (IPI, 2006), and Israeli Exceptionalism (Palgrave, 2009). His political essays have appeared in CounterPunch (USA), Dawn (Karachi), Al-Ahram (Egypt), Khaleej Times (Dubai), and The Daily Star (Dhaka).] Increasingly, despite its early military and political successes, Israel cannot for long endure as a colo

Todd Gitlin: Confessions of an Epistemological Skeptic

[Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in Communications at Columbia. His next book, The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election(written with Liel Leibovitz), will be out in September.] I’m struck by how quickly some of my fellow Entanglers have brought up the mother of all epistemological quandaries: How can we, the not very well informed, know what is the case in a far-off land of which we know, well, not

David Frum: Who Killed Detroit?

[David Frum is the editor of FrumForum.com. Frum is the author of six books, including two New York Times bestsellers: The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush (2003), and co-author with Richard Perle of An End to Evil: How To Win the War on Terror (2004). His newest book is, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again, published by Doubleday on December 31, 2007 and released in paperback in January 2009.] Who killed Detroit? Why did this once-mighty city fall so much

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: With the U.S. Trapped in Depression, This Really is Starting to Feel Like 1932

[Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has covered world politics and economics for a quarter century, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America. He joined the Telegraph in 1991, serving as Washington correspondent and later Europe correspondent in Brussels. He is now International Business Editor in London.] The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.... Let us be hones

Jill Lawrence: Another Patriotic Holiday, Another Day of Liberal Flag-Avoidance Syndrome

[Jill Lawrence is a PoliticsDaily.com columnist and former national political correspondent for USA Today. She has also written about politics for The Associated Press, The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Constitution and other publications.] Once again on a patriotic holiday, only two flags flew on my block, and it breaks my heart. What is it about liberals that makes so many so disinclined to embrace patriotic symbols, to show the world that they care? My block is in upper Northw

Gregory Rodriguez: One Man's One-Korea Dreams

[Gregory Rodriguez is a columnist for the LA Times.] Kang Cheol-Hwan, North Korean defector and activist, thinks Kim Jong Il's brutal North Korean regime will collapse within three years, five years at the most. But the prospect doesn't make him giddy. On the contrary, the imminent fall of the one of the world's most repressive states just means more work. However much he wants North and South Korea to be reunified, he knows that how it happens is as important as reunification itsel

Michael Hiltzik: The False Promise of Hoover Dam

[Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik is the author of "Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century," just published by Simon & Schuster.] The most striking sight greeting visitors to the Colorado River gorge known as Black Canyon used to be the great wedge of alabaster concrete spanning the canyon wall to wall. But in recent years Hoover Dam, that enduring symbol of mankind's ingenuity, has been upstaged by another sight signifying nature's power t

Nathan Ward: Take Me to the River in New York, Finally

[Nathan Ward is the author of “Dark Harbor: The War for the New York Waterfront.”] ...In the Colonial era, the waterfront was the province of those who wanted to go to sea, or at least to unload ships. Cargo-laden clipper ships entering the harbor produced a call for “Men Along the Shore!” — longshoremen. Back then, those men with the patience to keep alert for the flare or flag of an approaching vessel and the physical strength to “bull” cargo were really the only people allowed ne

Ian Williams: The Cold War is so over

[Ian Williams is the author of Deserter: Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans and His Past, Nation Books, New York.] It's not quite James Bond. The Murphy couple in their New Jersey Home with cans of coke, Bud Lite, and bottles of ketchup in front of them definitely made to be shaken not stirred. As for deep undercover, a Russian accent from someone with an archetypal Irish name like Murphy had even the friendly neighbors wondering what the deal was. Now with the

Fred Hiatt: Around the world, freedom is in peril

[Fred Hiatt is the editorial page editor of The Washington Post.] As America this weekend celebrates the birth of its liberty, in much of the rest of the world freedom and democracy are in retreat. Over the past decade, authoritarian rulers have refined their techniques to stay in power, learning from each other and thinking two steps ahead of democratic forces. Unprepared for this systematic reply to the advance of democracy from the 1970s through the 1990s, democrati

John Nichols: Thomas Jefferson Feared an Aristocracy of Corporations

[John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.] Thomas Jefferson's name gets thrown around quite a bit these days by the Tea Partisans, which is a good thing. A populist movement of the right or the left that neglected Jefferson, the most radical of the first presidents, would be a sorry affair indeed.

Jonah Goldberg: Byrd Tributes Go Overboard

[Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.] It is a good rule of thumb not to speak ill of the dead. But what to do when a man is celebrated beyond the limits of decorum or common sense? Must we stay silent as others celebrate the beauty and splendor of the emperor’s invisible clothes? You probably know why I ask the question. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate in American h

Michelle Malkin: Assimilation and the Founding Fathers

[Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies.] ...Even if we were a “nation of immigrants,” this would not explain why we should be against sensible immigration control. The Founding Fathers were emphatically insistent on protecting the country against indiscriminate mass immigration. They insisted on assimilation as a precondition, not an afterthought. Historian John Fonte assembled their wisdom, and it bears repeat

Henry D. Fetter: The Fight of the Century -- Really

[Henry D. Fetter is the author of Taking on the Yankees: Winning and Losing in the Business of Baseball and has written widely about the business and politics of sports.] Very few sports events (certainly far fewer than sports fans imagine) merit a place in the history of a society but one that does took place 100 years ago this Sunday. It was on Independence Day 1910, in Reno, Nevada, that heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson defended his title against former champion James J.

Danny Heitman: Fourth of July and Thoreau Remind Us That U.S. Progress is Linked with its Ecology

[Danny Heitman, a columnist for The Baton Rouge Advocate, is the author of “A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.”] The Fourth of July is not only America’s birthday, but also the anniversary of one of the boldest experiments in American letters. On July 4, 1845, Henry David Thoreau moved into a small cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts and began writing “Walden,” the autobiographical book that would define his legacy. Thoreau was many

Walter Rodgers: July 4 is Important -- But So is July 3

[Walter Rodgers, a former senior international correspondent for CNN, writes a biweekly column.] Perhaps only in small Yankee towns like this one in Connecticut are we reminded that the Fourth of July is about two other anniversaries at least as important as 13 English Colonies thumbing their noses at a British king. The fate of our beloved country hung in the balance those first few days of July 1863 because of the mortal threat posed by the Confederate States’ insurre

Eric O’Keefe: The Founders Didn't Create America; America Created the Founders

[Eric O’Keefe is Chairman of Sam Adams Alliance, a Chicago-based non-profit that supports citizen activism and responsible government.] When the Swedish botanist Pehr Kalm visited the American colonies in 1748 to find seeds useful for agriculture, he called it a place where “a newly married man can, without difficulty, get a spot of ground where he may comfortably subsist with his wife and children,” and “the liberties he enjoys are so great that he considers himself a prince of his

Peter Carlson: For the 2010 Census, Knocking on America's Doors

[Peter Carlson, a former reporter for The Washington Post, is a columnist for American History magazine. He is also the author of "K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude, Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist." He served as a temporary census worker this year.] ...I'm a retired newspaperman, and I enlisted as a temporary $18.50-an-hour census worker because I figured it would be interesting. As every reporter knows, it's always entertaining to meet t

Jeffrey Rosen: Brandeis’s Seat, Kagan’s Responsibility

[Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic, is writing a book about Louis D. Brandeis.] IN her Supreme Court confirmation hearings last week, Elena Kagan cited Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. as her model of judicial restraint in response to questions from Republican senators who want the court to overturn health care, campaign finance and economic regulations. Ms. Kagan picked the wrong justice. H

Sue Fishkoff: Red, White, and Kosher

[Sue Fishkoff is the author of the forthcoming “Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.”] IN 1972, a TV commercial changed the way Americans looked at kosher food. It showed Uncle Sam munching on a Hebrew National beef hot dog as a heavenly voice assures him it is free of the additives and byproducts present in lesser processed meats. “We answer to a higher authority,” the voice proclaims. Trust us — we’re kosher....