Guest Editor

Cheryl Cline is the guest editor today.

Photo courtesy of Pierre-Paul Feyte
The Anti-American American Empire

By Tony Pivetta.
 
Exclusive to STR
 
The Roman Empire produced few exportable goods. Material innovation, whether through entrepreneurialism or technological advancement, all but ended long before the final dissolution of the Empire. Meanwhile, the costs of military defense and the pomp of Emperors continued. Financial needs continued to increase, but the means of meeting them steadily eroded. [ . . . ] The decrepit social...
Beltway Liberalism in 24 Words
Original article
If Only He Knew...
Original article
"Sin Tax" Revenues Climb
Original article
Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles
Original article
WashPost on Wikileaks: *Yawn*
Original article
The WikiLeaks Afghanistan Leak
Original article
The Best Magazine Articles Ever
Original article
California’s Proposition 19: Fundamentally An Issue of Racial Justice
Original article
Man Arrested and Jailed Under Fake G20 Law Finds There's no Record of His Arrest
Original article
Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah 'Worse than Hiroshima'
Original article
Safety Dance: When A Sexual Assault Allegation Makes Hard Time Harder
Original article
The Battle for Media Freedom: A Conflict of Cyber-Visions
Original article
The Dangers of International Aid
Original article
Infographic: Where Did the Money to Rebuild Iraq Go?
Original article
Doomsday Shelters Making a Comeback
Original article

(Editor's pick)
Only Pictures
Original article

A photo blog.

In the DVD player: Ultramarathon Man (interesting), Shut Up and Sing (recommended), Avatar (incredible, highly recommended), The Real Dirt on Farmer John (recommended), Collapse (recommended), The Singing Revolution (recommended), Hitler's Lost Sub (interesting), Sons of Anarchy, Season 1 (MUST SEE), Jericho, Seasons 1 & 2 (MUST SEE), Welcome to Macintosh (recommended), I Will Never Forget You (recommended), Frontline: Black Money (recommended), The U.S. vs. John Lennon (interesting), Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (strongly recommended), The Hurt Locker (intense, recommended), My Flesh and Blood (should see), Frontline: Ten Trillion and Counting (recommended), Frontline: The Madoff Affair (MUST SEE), Taxi to the Dark Side (MUST-MUST SEE), Frontline: Hand of God (MUST SEE), The Tunnel (recommended), Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (MUST SEE), Defiance (strongly recommended), Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda (MUST SEE), The Heart of the Game (highly recommended), Downfall (highly recommended), Frontline: Inside the Meltdown (recommended), White Light, Black Rain (strongly recommended), Rendition (highly recommended), Religulous (recommended), The Ground Truth (highly recommended), I.O.U.S.A. (highly recommended), The Wire, Seasons 1-5 (highly recommended); see recommended movies 

On the nightstand: This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, Wall Street Revalued by Andrew Smithers and Anatomy of the Bear by Russell Napier

Playing on Pandora or in iTunes: Cello Song by Nick Drake

 

The Anti-American American Empire
9.5
Tony Pivetta 2010-07-29 03:00
By Tony Pivetta.   Exclusive to STR   The Roman Empire produced few exportable goods. Material innovation, whether through entrepreneurialism or technological advancement, all but ended long before the final dissolution of the Empire. Meanwhile, the costs of military defense and the pomp of Emperors continued. Financial needs continued to increase, but the means of meeting them steadily...
Envy, Guilt and Self-Destruction
0
Bob Wallace 2010-07-28 03:00
By Bob Wallace.   Exclusive to STR   Oh, if only the Left was right and people were infinitely malleable blank slates! My heart would soar if it was true. All the differences between men, women, races and ethnic groups – if they were all environmental, just twiddle some societal knobs, and presto-chango! We’d get just about as close to Heaven on Earth as we...
Avaunt, Anabaptist Atavists!
7
Tony Pivetta 2010-07-22 03:00
By Tony Pivetta.   Exclusive to STR     You’ve really done it this time, Dr. Rand Paul. Our thought crime stands exposed! Your impolitic utterances have confirmed what our fascio-socialist elites (motto: “Forced to be Free! Hooray, Dumb-Ah-Crah-Cee!”) have long suspected; namely, that we Neanderthal devotees of do-nothing government uphold the right to...
Voting: Stupid Is As Stupid Does
8
Robert L. Johnson 2010-07-21 03:00
By Robert L. Johnson.   Exclusive to STR   A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll shows that 51 percent of the voting cattle are upset with Obama and the Democrats. Their solution is to replace the Democrats with Republicans! This is similar to actual beef cattle preferring Burger King to McDonalds. Either way, the cattle lose.   The Republicans, who the voting cattle are taking a...
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
8
Per Bylund 2010-07-21 03:00
By Per Bylund.   Exclusive to STR   What is fascinating in this day and age is how the definition of previously well-known concepts mysteriously have changed. I’m not thinking of e.g. the word “defense,” which nowadays seems to have a much broader meaning and includes waging wars, occupying foreign nations, and having permanent military bases in almost 200 foreign...
Coercion Is Death
7.5
B.R. Merrick 2010-07-19 03:00
By B.R. Merrick.   Exclusive to STR     We all hold opinions. That's one of the many, many things that set us apart from the rest of the animal world. There's nothing wrong, in my opinion, with having an opinion. Hell, I've got plenty. Let's just take one opinion as an example:   I believe that the three greatest composers who ever lived are Johann...
Public vs. Private
10
Paul Hein 2010-07-19 03:00
By Paul Hein.   Exclusive to STR     The two terms have always confused me. In general, public means the people considered as a whole, the populace, the citizenry, etc. Private, on the other hand, refers to particular individuals. So public ownership means ownership by everyone, which is a bewildering concept, to say the least. Private ownership, on the other hand, is...
A Lion in Daniel's Den
9
Jim Davies 2010-07-19 03:00
By Jim Davies.   Exclusive to STR     The abrupt termination of the distinguished, six-decade career of Helen Thomas, after she expressed her opinion about Jews on May 27th, has something fishy about it. There are layers of deception to be uncovered, and since nobody else has removed them, I will make the attempt. You read it here first.   Until that day, there had been no...
Nietzsche and the State
8.66667
Michael Kleen 2010-07-15 03:00
By Michael Kleen.   Exclusive to STR    “Where the state ends—look there, my brothers! Do you not see it, the rainbow and the bridges of the overman?”   Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is one of the most famous of the modern philosophers. A prolific writer on just about every subject, his views on the modern state have been largely overshadowed by his...
The Truth of the Matter
9.5
tzo 2010-07-13 03:00
By tzo.   Exclusive to STR     Freeman finds himself within the borders claimed by a government. This human being decides he does not want to participate in the government organization anymore, so he quits. He then finds a nice plot of "public" property and claims it as his own. He is quickly confronted with a government participant named Citizen, who informs him that the...

 

 Reprint Rights