The American criminal justice system is abysmal and getting worse, a terrible indictment of a sick society. However, we can see signs of the movement toward health around the edges. Here’s a New York Reveiw of Books review of an encouraging book that tells of restorative justice strategies that do make a positive difference. It is a reason to hope when we see a mainstream media outlet spreading the word.

If people who care deeply about human rights and the soul of America were hopeful that we might see some major changes under the Obama administration, torture expert Alfred McCoy gives us reason for discouragement. Perhaps with Obama and Empire, we will mostly get “kinder, gentler machine-gun hand” (quoting Neil Young’s song about America in the presidency of George H. W. Bush) where the most important contrast with the Bush II years will be more effective public relations.

Here’s another current account of the American Empire at work–a tragic and arrogant destruction of an Indian Ocean island culture for the sake of U.S. power.

A sharp critique of American higher education–and how we are fairly to prepare young people to question and change the world for the better.

Chris Hedges, former prize-winning war correspondent has some harsh words about the irredeemable character of the institution of warfare–welcome words indeed. But does he take it all back with this one sentence: “Wars may have to be fought to ensure survival, but they are always tragic”?  Can we hope to overcome this curse until we reject totally the notion that wars may “have to be fought to ensure survival”?

Evidence that we are moving closer to the abyss in the war on Afghanistan.

A fascinating account of an Ivy League student who went “underground” at Liberty University and came away with the wise complexifying the the cultural wars.

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