Much of what I wrote summarized the thoughts of writers before me like Paul Kennedy and Kevin Phillips. But there is one aspect of the curse of expansion that I underemphasized: how dominance creates megalomanic illusions of insuperable control, and how this illusion in turn is crystallized into...

HARRY Markopolos -- the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff who proved to be much smarter than the SEC -- says there are evildoers out there who will make the Ponzi scum "look like small-time." WRH permalink Go to Full Article

Another aspect, and one I think is more applicable now is the fact that one man (Irving Picard) has unilaterally opted to change the SIPC protection by arbitrarily changing the basis for payment of claims. Iâ??ve researched past SIPC cases, and am in contact with my counterpart in the Stanford...

The Counter-Terrorism Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office warned Israelis to exercise caution when traveling abroad during the Jewish holidays, due to the assessment that Hezbollah may try to attack Israeli citizens, and urged citizens in Sinai to leave immediately. WRH permalink ...

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The war of words between Israel and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has heated up in the last week, raising fears that another war between Lebanon and Israel is imminent. On Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese government that it would be held...

This newspaper has issued the warning before, about the possibility of Israelâ??s quest to derail the Obama agenda, whether for actual foreign policy reasons, or reasons of domestic political survival. This derailing could take place in South Lebanon, if weâ??re not careful. Thereâ??s been a...

It certainly sounds scary enough to make you want to go show up at a town hall meeting and yell about how misguided President Obama's healthcare reform plans are. Except that's not the future of healthcare -- it's the present. Long before anyone started talking about government "death panels" or...

The establishment media and the Southern Poverty Law Center are again floating the talking point that militia groups and worried gun owners are growing in the United States and that this could portend a violent act of domestic terror, despite the fact that every major domestic terror attack in...

So first we expanded our forces in Afghanistan. Then we took on the challenge of prison reform there (ignoring the fact that America's own prison system is a national disgrace). And yesterday we learned that U.S. armed forces are putting suspected Afghan drug dealers on a "kill or capture" list....

Then we learned this week of yet another devastating loss. On Sunday, August 9, 2009, Nicholas Skala died in his sleep in Chicago. Nick was only 27 years old, but as a third year law student at Northwestern University and as a researcher for Physicians for a National Health Program, Nick's...

Kuwaiti authorities reported that they foiled a terrorist plot to use a truck laden with explosive chemicals and fertilizer to attack Camp Arifjan, a base where hundreds of Hawai'i National Guard soldiers are located. WRH permalink Go to Full Article

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Wednesday that Sgt. 1st Class Tara J. Smith of Nashville died from an unspecified noncombat medical condition. WRH permalink Go to Full Article

The US governmentâ??s attacks on foreign financial institutions are one more means by which the US is slowly establishing controls that will prevent the populace from escaping their indentured servant status here, or just escaping, period. WRH permalink Go to Full Article

Russian plans to construct a Black Sea naval base in Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia threaten heightened tension. Go to Full Article