Do we really want the legacy McClane is leaving behind? Do we want a world in which the men kill and grunt as means of proving themselves?

Do we want a world in which the women talk about being independent, but really just want to be saved by a man whose name they can assume as their own?

I guess a lot of us do, because the story of "Live Free Or Die Hard" is as old as the hills. And just watch: I bet it'll get great word of mouth from people who say it's a great old-fashioned movie.

And that's true: It's old-fashioned in all the ways that keep power in the hands of the most predictable people.   more »

Every time the phrase "War on Terror" is seriously used, we're swept back out into the "desert of the real," the hyperreality of non-events created for propaganda purposes, to manipulate the public through generating an endless state of fear.

Fighting terror is a non-starter, if it is seen as making war, taking prisoners, torturing them, locking them up and throwing away the key.

Doing such things is not really fighting terror at all, but responding to it in exactly the way that most satisfies the terrorists themselves—with state terror—and in the way that Americans most humiliate themselves by humiliating others.

Obviously the seeds of terror are most successfully grown in Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, and other such compounds and in the larger "carceral" realities of Gaza and the West Bank and the overstuffed elitism of Saudi Arabia's non-functioning society, each of these being places and conditions nurtured by western and especially U.S. policy.   more »

"We - the human species - have arrived at

a moment of decision. Our home - Earth - is in danger

What is at risk of being destroyed

is not the planet itself,

but the conditions that have made it

hospitable for human beings"

- Al 'call me pompous' Gore

   more »

Keywords: gore, live, climate, change, pompous, earth

America is a modern Rome: an arrogant empire that does not understand the limits of power. I guess no empire really does. This is why they rise and fall. It is not an American trait; it is the nature of unchecked power.

Yet the right wing attempts to construct a moral ethos for American hegemony and aggressive drive to dominate the world. Unfortunately the basic premise of his argument goes against history.

The comparison between Rome and America is void of historical perspective. It nullifies world history of social, economic and political development. Humanity has gone through many struggles to move toward democratic systems and expand universal rights.

The fact the Rome was not a democracy should be seen in the context of human development and not the self-serving lens of American exceptionalism.   more »

Problems are piling up for US Republicans as they seek a presidential candidate with the strength and charisma to overcome the "Bush deficit".

The choice on offer has failed so far to inspire the party's electoral base, and polls suggest adverse ideological and demographic shifts could confound any future nominee.

George Bush, his approval ratings touching historic lows, cannot run again in 2008. But as one Democratic congressman noted recently, he will still be on the ballot.

Proposals to clean up the president's mess while distancing themselves from the Jonah in the White House are the primary challenge for would-be Republican successors.   more »