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The lesson I took from Craig's lecture was that when intellectuals abandon liberal principles, disengage from politics, and generally abdicate their role as "truth-tellers" for society at large, it is easy for demagogues read more

Military power should properly be seen as a means to an end.

Changing the rhetoric but not the paradigm that defines the reactions may deliver better public relations results in the short term but it will not transform a fundamentally faulted and failed policy into an effective one

Globalization has increased military aggression

David Bromwich,

Globalization has increased military aggression

David Bromwich,

Although threat inflation is an important and potentially costly political process, the American marketplace of ideas is quite robust and Iraq, in fact, does not represent a failure of the marketplace.

Although threat inflation is an important and potentially costly political process, the American marketplace of ideas is quite robust and Iraq, in fact, does not represent a failure of the marketplace.

Switch-side debate essential for effective citizenship

Grand Rapid Press (Michigan), May 2, 2010,

Scotty P has posted some Reps K answers over at the 3NR:

Neg reads reps K (generic), you need to answer it- blah blah blah.

In answering this, think about what the neg argument is- what are they trying to accomplish by making the debate about reps? Obviously the negative is trying to exclude certain parts of the aff so

Shouldn’t dispair – the global quality of life is improving

The Age (Melbourne, Australia),m January 1, 2010, p. 1 

The past year also set back efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000, with the target date only five years away. Yet, as with climate change, the world cannot afford to indulge in despair, the natural partner of defeat. Nor is despair entirely justified. Until last year, the Millennium Goals' hope of a

Science improves the quality of life

San Gabriel Valley Tribune (California), December 25, 2009 Thomas Sowell: The politicizing of science, p. 10

SCIENCE is one of the great achievements of the human mind and the biggest reason why we live not only longer but more vigorously in our old age, in addition to all the ways in which it provides us with things that make life easier and more enjoyable.

A permutation of radical left activism and reformism solves best

G. WILLIAM DOMHOFF is a distinguished research professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, In These Times, January 2010, He is the author of four books that were among the top 50 bestsellers in sociology in the second half of the 20th century: Who Rules America? (1967), The Higher Circles (1970), The Powers That Be (1979), and Who Rules America Now? (1983). More recently, he is the author of Who Rules America: Challenges to Corporate and Class Dominance, Sixth Edition (2010) and co-author of The Leftmost City: Power and Progressive Politics in Santa Cruz (2009). 

For liberals and leftists to successfully make change together, they must first reach an understanding, if not agreement, on four major areas:

* electoral strategy

* the crucial role of social movements

* the need for innovative economic models

* the definition of "us" vs. "them"

Here is a step-by-step approach for helping liberals and progressives find common ground. I am proposing a way for leftists to cooperate with liberals to generate short-term advances while at the same time competing with them for the allegiance of the majority to a strong egalitarian vision. In doing so I am claiming the fault is not in our values, but in our strategies. I am suggesting a "liberal egalitarianism." Yes, it's a long shot, but thinking big is worthwhile in moments of great crisis.