Douglas Herman's Columns
Once I Was Your Candy Colored Dream Girl
Reflections on the plight of the great American auto industry from the ultimate insider. Column by Douglas Herman.
JFK and Obama--Profiles in Courage and Cowardice
"Those leaders who dare express a genuine determination to change the corrupt system once in office are probably warned by handlers, perhaps warned several times, that any idealistic breach, any ethical intention to overturn the entrenched money power system is a death sentence." Column by Douglas Herman.
The Confessions of Osama Bin Laden
"Who robbed you of $12 trillion from your Social Security system? Was it me or those you elected? Why won't your newsmen ask that question? Was it me who robbed you of trillions in Iraq? Was it me or those who you willingly elected? Republicans and Democrats? Was it me who rendered your banks insolvent? Was it me who disrupted Wall Street and destroyed investor confidence? Was it me who threatens to topple the global economic system? Or was it your own elected leaders?" Column by Douglas Herman.
Seeing the Maverick$ and Magician$ from Monticello
"I
visited
Deadliest Catch: One Alaska Fisherman to Another
Column by Douglas Herman.
When Weather Changes History in 21st Century America
"A disastrous rise of military industrial power, like a powerful storm surge, overwhelmed the old seawall of the Bill of Rights. That Category Six storm we now called the American empire, threatens to destroy the entire nation, the entire world, gathering strength these past several years." Column by Douglas Herman.
Shaft the Navy, Stiff the Nation, Start a War?
"Recall that other US Navy men, your fellow veterans, had to actually resist physical evil--napalm, bombs, and machine gun bullets. Those average guys aboard the USS Liberty. Remember those guys? Most Americans haven’t got a clue, since any reference to that perfidious attack rarely appears in the mainstream US media. But you, John, actually went out of your way to pen a preface to a book absolving good old Israel of attacking the US navy ship." Column by Douglas Herman.
The President, Congress, Fed--or Iran? Column by Douglas Herman.
A cautionary tale by Douglas Herman.
Faces of Truth vs. Faces of Liars
"We
sometimes see that new face shining through the elderly, shining through years
of toil, hardship and weathered honesty. We sometimes feel blinded by the light
we see reflected there. We call that light ‘character’." Column
by Douglas Herman.
The Means and Methods of a Modern Thoreau
"Many of us, myself included, live far removed from Thoreau. 'Simplify, simplify,' he said, while we complicate and trivialize our lives, chasing paychecks and mirages, vague ambitions and vaguer social duties. But still we recognize a wildness in ourselves that mirrors exactly that of Thoreau, the patron saint of wilderness and non-conformity, the standard-bearer of bullshit detectors everywhere." Column by Douglas Herman.
Smarter Than a Rothschild or a British Prime Minister?
Column by Douglas Herman.
Truther Long Before It Was Cool
" Thoreau was a Truther, more so than his more famous colleagues, Emerson and Longfellow. And that, my friend, is WHY Thoreau is more well known today than either of his somewhat forgotten colleagues, or his long forgotten townsmen. Thoreau, the Truther of Walden Pond, spent his days separating fact from fiction." Column by Douglas Herman.
"I’m sure readers at STR have given serious thought to the question, especially in the present time when our political leaders appear to have given so little serious thought to the consequences of their actions and what those actions do to the average citizen." Column by Douglas Herman.
The Controlled Demolition of the American Republic
"The controlled demolition of any great structure is done day by day. The painstaking plan of destruction in a structure this big requires a thousand minor explosive charges, applied by profiteers, cowards and men without consciences (bankers, lobbyists, generals, newsmen, senators, lawyers, clergy), with the complicity of millions of citizens too lazy, diverted or fearful to inspect the support pillars of the country from time to time." Column by Douglas Herman.
The First Annual Liberty Internet Awards
"Criterion Number One: Does the writer kick ass on a regular basis? Criterion Number Two: Does the writer pick important topics the mainstream media mostly ignores? Criterion Number Three: Does the writer write well, entertainingly, outrageously, effectively, and mostly on target?" Column by Douglas Herman.
Book review by Douglas Herman.
Aftermath: Day 2 of the War With Iran
Column by Douglas Herman.
"What [Thoreau] discovered was what most folks discover. Nobody much gives a damn about good and evil. Most folks were just too busy. At any moment, anywhere in the Western world, most men simply want to work and relax, 'get paid and laid,' as my younger brother so clearly defined the focus of most civilizations. The only root most men want to strike lies between their legs." Column by Douglas Herman.
Dear Senator McCain: When and Why Did You Sell Your Soul?
"...we
hear a lot about Islamofascists attacking
Working Class Hero: 40 Jobs in 40 Years
"I can honestly say, Walden wrecked me for life. That is, what was written in each chapter of Walden wrecked me as an unquestioning American worker bee, wrecked me as a student working many years towards an advanced degree." Column by Doug Herman.
Voting: Placebo Or Drug of Choice?
"What--or who--put so many vermin in Washington in the first place, that only a powerful pesticide would eradicate them all? From Frist to Pelosi, from Hastert to Emanuel, from Clinton to McCain, a whole lot of wishful American people went to the polls and dutifully put these human pests into positions of power." Column by Douglas Herman.
The Better Bitch: Condi or Hillary?
"While Rice is incompetent and thus dangerous, Clinton is dangerous because she is competent but even more devoid of ethics." Column by Douglas Herman.
Revolt in the Ranks? Be VERY Careful, Neocon
"Now, three years later, the vehemence of these common soldiers and sailors should give any Neocon a great deal to think about." Column by Douglas Herman.
"Actually
I hate immigrants. They ruin our country and wreck our institutions and
bankrupt the nation. I sincerely wish the Aztecs had slaughtered Cortez, and
the Incas had done the same to Pizzaro. I wish the Massachusetts Indians had
burned and sunk the Mayflower and all succeeding ships that tried to put
ashore in
"The chief unanswered question: How does a crashed airplane spread debris over several miles?" Column by Douglas Herman.
Vendetta: Heroism, Terrorism or Patriotism?
One could almost say the colonial Minutemen adhered to the same impassioned righteousness as this fictional film character V. They would not have their rights taken from them without a fight! They would walk their streets as free men. They would not have their homes broken into by governments forces." Column by Douglas Herman.
Young Oliver Stone in Fallujah
"He saw the dirt, the poverty, the death, the destruction. He recognized early the pervading filth of corruption, the greed everywhere, within weeks if not days of his arrival. He felt the scorn, the pity, the apathy, the outright animosity of every pair of eyes staring back at him. He smelt the stench of decay, the acrid smoke, the gunpowder, the pungent diesel fumes, the sweat, the sewage, everything overpowering the mask of tobacco smoke. He heard the rancor of a foul foreign language, the basso throb of a helicopter, the chatter of gunfire, the scream of the wounded, the shriek of hate and anguish of an occupied people. Bits and pieces would compose into a mosaic in his brain, even when he consciously tried to forget." Column by Douglas Herman.
Live Free or Die: Is Liberty an Illusion?
"We liberate ourselves one paw at a time, like wild animals chewing off a foot to escape a trap. The trap was built centuries ago and set for us long before we were born. Luckily we have a few one-footed examples hobbling around, like Solzhenitsyn, to lead by their courage." Column by Douglas Herman.
'You Disgrace Your Uniform, Sir!'
"So who, or what, did lead these top officers astray, dangerously close or directly into felonious behavior? Why none other than their top civilian leaders, of course. Because if the top men condone criminal behavior, indeed order criminal behavior, all those directly below them will obey the direct orders—or be forced to resign or face the repercussions." Column by Douglas Herman.
"And yet what had this huge, world capitol, the capitol of the mightiest nation in the world, done for these 58,000 youngsters whose names adorned the polished black granite? Had it given them many moments of pleasure while robbing their parents? Had it given these kids anything but a passel of lies before finally killing them off?" Column by Douglas Herman.
The S.O.B. Has to Go--Yeah, But Which One?
"Sons of bitches all. Despoilers, plunderers, warmongers, liars, cheats, con men, blowhards, bullies, religious hypocrites, perverts...." Column by Douglas Herman.
Gold, Silver and the Coming Crisis in Iran
"Some might call it the Deja Vu War, the same war happening all over again. The same accusers and the same accusations, the same threats and the same predictable UN sanctions, the same script and timetable. The same Shock and Awe air attack. The same stalemate. The same wasted lives, wasted resources and squandered billions by the exact same culprit, the state." Column by Doug Herman.
"Gee,
why
couldn’t
I
have
invaded
someone
instead,
even
my
next
door
neighbor,
and
gotten
a
multi-million
dollar
book
deal
out
of
it?
Why
couldn’t
I
smash
things
up
in
the
Bumper Stickers I'd Love to See
"A bumper sticker, unlike the endless stream of state or corporate propaganda, intends to question, not support the status quo. A bumper sticker may amuse, provoke, bolster, irritate, challenge, annoy, reassure, enlighten or propagandize a reader...." Column by Douglas Herman.
I Broke the Law at Walden Pond--Twice
"We break laws every day and neither the world nor our souls are worse for wear. Indeed, to be a law-abiding citizen often requires a citizen to either commit crimes ourselves or become silent accomplices to crimes committed by those we’ve foolishly empowered." Column by Douglas Herman.
Worst President Ever? You Might Be Surprised
"Wouldn’t
it be safe to say that once in power,
Heart of Darkness and the Fog of War
"The heart of darkness in the fog of war. Every soldier, even McNamara and Rumsfeld, begins his life as a civilian, in a society where arson, illegal entry, wanton destruction and murder are not only felonies but heinous crimes. Suddenly in uniform, wandering around in his own personal fog of war, a soldier realizes that all those felonies...are company policy. And he works for that company!" Column by Douglas Herman.
"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, not in our Hollywood stars or recording stars, but in ourselves. The grand ideas, the entire depth and breadth of human wisdom rarely if ever appears in the recorded diary of electronic Earthly chatter spewing out into space." Column by Douglas Herman.
The Two Million Dollar Sportfish
Sailing Around North America #7, by Douglas Herman.
The All New Devil's Dictionary!
21st Century definitions for the Neo-Age, by Douglas Herman.
Dead White Women: Which Ones Matter Most?
"Surprisingly, one beautiful, white, American woman murdered by a madman went mostly unreported by our watchdog mainstream media. Why?" Column by Douglas Herman.
Our Rogue Republic's Dangerous Game of Risk
"The Great Game, Rudyard Kipling called the global land grab that passed for empire building in the Middle East during the late Nineteenth century. Nowadays I call it Risk, the game of global domination." Column by Douglas Herman.
Cheerful Firebrand: New Job Title
"STR is home to a pretty rich and diverse range of characters. I read the bios at the end of essays with as much interest as the essays themselves. People living their lives as large and expansive as they can, coping with inner doubts, the loneliness of wayward individualism, emotional disconnections, social constraints, government restraints, and the dozens of daily compulsions that masquerade as necessities, pretty much describes us all." Column by Douglas Herman.
Part 6 of Sailing Around North America by Douglas Herman.
Sailing Around North America #5, by Douglas Herman.
"The drowned bodies in New Orleans will tell no tales, but their remains will speak volumes. Some will be featureless and grotesque, but each of them once had dreams. They loved and were loved. They laughed and cried. They lived humdrum, petty little lives, yet exalted lives, filled with fears and quiet bravery and pathetic desires. They lived large, at times, when filled with some animated spirit, some exuberant, liquid spirit that departed in a brief moment of terror." Column by Douglas Herman.
Sailing Around North America #4--Tinkerbelle
"We were all born gypsies. The urge is as much part of our heritage as in our DNA. Whether we trace our ancestors to the original Pilgrims, Puritans or prison ships, we've all come from someplace else." Column by Douglas Herman.
When Katrina Becomes Our Baghdad
"But most folks forget, in their patriotic self-absorption, that we brought the devastation on Iraq. Suddenly the shock of being on the receiving end of some equally powerful and devastating force—'Hell on earth'--stuns them." Column by Douglas Herman.
Smackdown! I Challenge Rumsfeld to a Royal Rumble
"I'll bet a million US servicemen and women would cheer wildly--'STOP LOSS!'--every time I smashed Rummy to the mat." Column by Douglas Herman.
Sailing Around North America: Sandsailor
"I love the desert almost as much as I love lakes. You can get lost--or found--in the desert. Become a mystic or madman, or enjoy lovemaking under the stars while all around you the world fossilizes." Column by Douglas Herman.
Sailing Around North America: Leaving
"'Wherever a man goes,' wrote Thoreau, 'men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions....' The best solution seemed to flee those dirty institutions. Throughout the trip, I would be warned, written up, lectured, scolded, and cautioned along the way by scads of government minions--but envied too, I imagined, by more than a few folks along the shore." The first in a new series by Douglas Herman.
Column by Douglas Herman.
"Norman Morrison died 40 years ago this November in Washington DC by self-immolation. He set himself afire outside the Pentagon office of Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. Before he doused himself and set himself aflame, he left his 15 month-old daughter nearby." Column by Douglas Herman.
The Shock (and Horror) of Reality
"No wand will wave away the woe. Yet, on the bright side, life itself is the most amazing fantasy novel, filled with horror, heroes, sinister shamans, wizards, terrified peasants and outraged villagers--us." Column by Douglas Herman.
Harry Potter and the Princes of Darkness
"The true 'wizards' of the world conjured not spells but words and deeds, everyday acts of quiet resistance. They refused to buy prepackaged ideas, prepackaged foods, prepackaged info-tainment and prepubescent fairy tales that became instant movies." Column by Douglas Herman.
" The day when enough young people refuse the threats and inducements of old people to kill other kids, all the Rumsfelds and Zarqawis (look at their ghastly mugs!) will disintegrate like those villains in an Indiana Jones movie." Column by Douglas Herman.
My Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize
"I'm sure there are thousands, millions more, who are waging a daily counter-offensive against the tyranny that seems to encircle our globe a little bit more each day. Guys and girls and geezers like me, chiseling that mortar from between the bricks in the wall. One brick at a time or toppling entire walls." Column by Doug Herman.
Count the Bullets: Blow Away All Arguments
"Perhaps the greatest reason many Americans believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and killed Kennedy is that a majority of Americans have never shot any guns, and certainly not a rifle with a scope. If the Warren Commission had been composed of unbiased shooters instead of senators and lawyers, the final verdict would likely have rejected the ludicrous assumption that Oswald acted alone." Column by Douglas Herman.
Legends, Tall Tales, Holy Warriors and Cartoons
"...no dragon meant no Saint George. No war against terror meant no George the War President. No war meant no re-election. No Osama The Dragon, forever terrorizing peaceful people everywhere, means no never-ending war. Without the war, a war without any foreseeable end, no enormous profits or secret agendas or consolidation of power is possible." Column by Douglas Herman.
Why We Will Lose the War in Iraq
Column by Doug Herman.
Geronimo, Cochise and Osama bin Laden
"In the end, every old warrior, chieftain or common soldier who ever fought knows what the fool continually ignores: the most enduring fort is a permanent peace built on a foundation of justice." Column by Doug Herman.
The War Lover and the Greatest War
Doug Herman reviews more war movies.
"Maybe there are no great war movies because there are no great wars. Maybe the best war movie is one that inspires people NOT to want to go to war, inspires people to practice the art of peace, rather than the science of war." Column by Doug Herman.
Last Living Will and Testament
"First of all, I wonder how I died? And when? Was I troubled or at peace with the world? Funny how unlikely we are to know the any circumstances pertaining to our own demise. But then most of us blunder through life anyway, unaware of much besides our senses and their immediate gratification—excuse me a moment while I open a cold beer--so death is simply the last and Ultimate Unawareness." Column by Doug Herman.
Nuke the Holy Land--For World Peace
Column by Doug Herman.
"Like many of those now in command of this ship of state, the SS America, the Ismays of the world always survive. Indeed they thrive, even prosper, whether in disaster or success. Whether Neocon, Bilderberger, Wall Street insider or architect of the New World Order, they’re the first ones into the lifeboats with a money belt firmly around their waist." Column by Doug Herman.
Dispatches of War: A Dozen Questions for Dahr Jamail
Interview by Doug Herman.
Serene Outlaw: Henry David Thoreau in His Second Century
MUST READ "At times, Thoreau thundered at his readers like a Calvinist preacher, rhapsodized like an Indian prophet, stung like a gadfly or chided their sensibilities as a droll friend. The odd collection of essayists who write for Strike The Root, and the thousands of readers who peruse the columns there may hardly reflect on the moralist under whose portrait their work appears, but by striving to write essays on a variety of topics, many of them dedicated to the rights of individuals, they keep his standards alive." Column by Doug Herman.
Sex, Lies and Call Girls: Why the U.S. Media Is a Whore
"The only difference between Gannon and those who write for the mainstream media is that Gannon usually got undressed before he sold himself." Column by Doug Herman.
Time and Tides Wash Us All Away
"The strange journey that took a simple native girl from her home on the bluff to a neighboring village, where she met an Englishman pivotal in the rise of colonial agriculture in Jamestown, from where they both sailed across the Atlantic with tobacco while the seeds of slavery and, hence, Civil War were being planted in Virginia roughly 250 years later, where an army gathered on the shoreline exactly opposite her birthplace, seems, in a historical sense, greater than the setting itself." Column by Douglas Herman.
Iran Time Bomb: Ticking, Ticking
"Indeed, the entire, Strangelovian scenario of trading missiles with Iran would make the present Iraq war seem like an afternoon concert with Jimmy Buffet." Column by Douglas Herman.
"Welcome, America, to the tar pits of the Persian Gulf, where we are the immense yet slow-witted mammoth, thirsting for oil instead of water, sinking slowly into the mire, befuddled and bewildered, our might and power slowly ebbing away." Column by Douglas Herman.
"When a soldier sees too much with his own eyes--too many fallen comrades and too many dead civilians--he's no good for war any more; he finally begins to question the false rationale. He begins to question the media slogans and military propaganda. He begins to believe his own eyes instead, his own conscience, his own heart." Column by Douglas Herman.
Money--Funny, Scary, Paper Money
"At the bus stop, I'd see money--coins & currency--scattered in the gutter. For the first couple of days, I'd pick up large and shiny coins and stare at their dates. A former coin collector, I'd wonder why a coin minted only a year ago now lay in the gutter ." Column by Douglas Herman.
Remember the Alamo--In Downtown Iraq
"Santa Anna won that memorable battle, but the catchphrase 'Remember the Alamo' continues to resound today with anyone defending a precarious yet precious position. History has recorded the Mexican victory as a moral loss, almost a war crime. How then might history treat Rumsfeld in the destruction of the City of Mosques?" Column by Douglas Herman.
Resident Evil--1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
"Thus we come to the George W. Bush era. Surrounded by Reagan/Bush henchmen Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bolton, et al, this minion of evil may yet outshine them all....the Bush/Cheney diabolical duo decided to launch pre-emptive terrorist attacks on Baghdad and surrounding urban areas, resulting in an estimated 100,000 Iraqi deaths and 16,000 US casualties. With four more years of unlimited power, the potential evil--destruction, death and moral decay--may yet surpass that of fellow Texan, LBJ." Column by Douglas Herman.
A Time to Love and a Time to Die
"Published in 1954, this lurid, little-known novel examines an ill-conceived occupation from the eyes of a simple soldier, corporal Ernst Graeber. Lurid (for its time) because of the almost pornographic description of warfare--and what war is not pornographic in the truest sense of the word?--the novel is nonetheless sympathetic to the individual soldiers entrapped by a war engineered by others safe at home." Column by Douglas Herman.
"George Bush won in 2004? Great! Let the damages continue to accrue until all of those responsible for keeping the maniac on the road suffer the consequences. Those of us forced to ride along on the neocon joyride will fasten our seatbelts and hope the airbags deploy for the crash we know is coming." Column by Douglas Herman.
What Ever Happened to Osama Bin Forgotten?
"What ever happened to a sense of justice in this country? Why all the concern for Laci Peterson and Jon Benet Ramsey but not for the millions of Iraq mothers who have their children dismembered by cluster bombs or poisoned by depleted uranium? What ever happened to a sense of Christianity in this country, not the smarmy love-thy-neighbor Christianity but the more difficult love-thy-enemy virtue that Jesus preached? Too tough for the telegenic Pharisees in their tailored suits, I believe." Column by Douglas Herman.
Silver: The Precious Metal That Spurred the Conquest of a Continent
"After all, the fate of nation-states is like the wind that drives hurricanes ashore; they begin meekly, with a gentle breeze and with sound principles, lofty ideals billowing sails, but build into fierce storms of cynicism and overt hostility, to smash everything in its path. The plundered treasure, whether oil or silver, lies scattered in the sand--or in the hands of those long since removed once the storm passes." Column by Douglas Herman.
A Tale of Two AWOLs: Dubya & I
"Therefore, I suggest that each officer or enlisted man, stateside or in Iraq, follow the same example set by our Commander-in-Chief. Run away for six months or a year....Leave the killing and maiming to others; you have better things to do. Like loving and living." Column by Douglas Herman.
Stupid U: College of Criminal Arts
Why Yale should be banned from politics forever. Column by Douglas Herman.
'Cover Your Ass' and Git Home Safe: An Open Letter to Occupiers
"Defending my freedoms, are you? Yeah, the same way William Tecumseh Sherman defended those of my Michigan forefathers, sacking, looting and raping Columbia, South Carolina while Mr. Lincoln kept dissident newsmen in prison." Column by Douglas Herman. Note: some bad language.
Tabloid America: Myth-Making, Mythology and Sensationalism
"Hydra is the great machinery of the modern state, and anyone who opposes the bloody waste, official lies and corruption of the state is, to some measure, Hercules." Column by Douglas Herman.
Jimi Hendrix: Anti-War Forever
"Jimi Hendrix, one of the best at voicing that betrayal and youthful rage, sang with a bluesy, cavernous force, a voice of dirt poor, Delta determination mixed with a unique, urban discontent, a voice widely ignored before that time by most of white, middle class America. In four short years, Hendrix became a combination court jester, outspoken agent provocateur and erotic Paganini to a wide swath of young people nauseous of the lies spewing forth from pompous Washington, DC and the whitebread media." Column by Douglas Herman.
Andersonville: Earlier War Crimes 'Abuse' Trial
"The true pornography of war (Is there any other kind?) whether the grim photographs of skeletal prisoners of Andersonville or the stripped and beaten Iraqi civilians of Abu Ghraib, is the willingness of so many otherwise decent people to support, encourage and partake in it." Column by Douglas Herman.
Let Us Now Thank Lynndie England
"Heap your pity or scorn on Lynndie England if you must--and she deserves it--but reserve even more for the true whores of war. For every Lynndie England with blood on her hands, there were dozens of Ann Coulters and Kathleen Parkers who hastened her there, so deeply embedded in the idea of conquest, bloodlust or vengeance they appeared as willing cheerleaders or as a succubus of war." Column by Douglas Herman.
Achtung, Nazi!--One Year Later
"Truly the winding road to tyranny is a slippery slope; we are upon it, and evidently, there's no turning back." Column by Douglas Herman.
From "Black Hawk Down" to "The Beast" of War, desert disaster movies and the valuable lessons to be learned. Column by Douglas Herman.
Jesus Tortured! News at Eleven!
"We make controversial, blockbuster movies of tortured prophets...while blithely installing bloodthirsty torturers in power to do our dirty work." Column by Douglas Herman.
Black Walls, Barricades and Tombs
What the architecture of empire building looks like. Column by Douglas Herman.
Pat Tillman, Meet Max and Lutz
"But Pat was not the first idealistic athlete victimized by the State for its own purposes. In life--and now death--Pat resembled two similar athletes little known to most Americans." Column by Douglas Herman.
No One Knows the Spam I've Seen
"Even Charles Dickens couldn't invent such spam names; I have to give them credit for that. Debugger O. Revives informs me, 'This guy always geets thhe girl, Jowrrd.'" Column by Douglas Herman.
Buy Gold--Before They Sell Out
"Is it human faith or a fabulous con job that makes paper money retain the value that all governments give it?" Column by Douglas Herman.
"For every Iraqi killed, another half dozen friends and family members become convinced Osama was correct when he observed: 'Our acts are reaction to your own acts, which are represented by the destruction and killing of our kinfolk in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.'" Column by Douglas Herman.
'I Wouldn't Wear That Shirt If I Was You'
"Dissent--speaking up or speaking out--is rude or impertinent to some, but a fractious scene in a library, or a possible punch in the nose, is better than a rifle butt to the door a decade in the future." Column by Douglas Herman.
Footsoldier: The Achilles Heel in America's Quest for Empire
"'There should be a law,' O'Brien wrote, 'If you support a war, if you think it's worth the price, that's fine, but you have to put your own precious fluids on the line. You have to head for the front and hook up with an infantry unit and help spill the blood.' The day that happens is the day warfare ends forever." Column by Douglas Herman.
"The secret agendas of the Neocons--Oil, empire and Israel--now lie fully exposed and call into question their divided loyalties." Column by Douglas Herman.
"...how ironic that holocaust survivors and Russian Jews, victims of Nazi and Soviet barbarism, do not glimpse their own former condition in the fate of the Palestinians. Those Jewish cultural descendents of the heroic defenders behind the walled ghetto of Warsaw fail to see or criticize the walls, barricades, fences, and oppression replicating like a virus in the occupied lands." Column by Douglas Herman.
An Interview with Col. Bo Gritz
By Douglas Herman. Obviously, I don't agree with some of the things he says, but you may find this interesting.
"But only by refusing to be a mind-controlled participant to the immorality of state-sponsored terror--mistakenly called war--will an individual declare his status as a free and sovereign state as God ordained. Of course the consequences may be fearful, yet only when enough citizens declare the airspace within themselves as peaceful, free and sovereign, will war cease." Column by Douglas Herman.
What Will You Do When They Come for You?
"When the state eventually comes for you and me--for an outspoken word or act of moral courage--will we run like those fellows on 'Cops,' or will we confront the uniformed watchdogs of society like Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge and cause an innocent death? Or will we conduct ourselves Like Henry David Thoreau?" Column by Douglas Herman.
A Tale of Two Heroines: Rachel Corrie & Jessica Lynch
Recommended "While crushed by the Israeli bulldozer operator, Corrie's true killer was the state, actually two allied states, who condoned her murder." Column by Douglas Herman.
Shock & Awe One Year Later: The Awful Shock of Reality
"While we focus intently on one historic crucifixion, a thousand crucifying acts are daily conducted in our name all over the globe. Forgive us Father, for we know too well what we do." Column by Douglas Herman.
Ass, Bass & Gas--All Coming to Pass
"I hate to be a spreader-of-bad-news, but when the AOL Empire features the story and the Las Vegas Journal reiterates the gloomy news of $3 a gallon by June, the Neocons are in deep trouble, along with the rest of us, and bye-bye Bush." Column by Douglas Herman.
Bone Collectors Buoyant for 2004
Column by Douglas Herman.
A Return to the Scene of the Crime
"Earlier Kennedy made known his intentions to 'smash the CIA into a thousand pieces' and scatter them to the wind. Certainly a president who threatened the enormous profits and seats of power of the hydra-headed, military/industrial/intelligence machine had to go." Column by Douglas Herman.
Did the War Party Kill Chandra Levy?
"Conveniently, the MOST important aspect of the Chandra Levy murder case was almost NEVER MENTIONED....Nowhere mentioned was The Condit Intelligence connection." Column by Douglas Herman.
Michael Savage, 9/11 and the Future Destruction of Washington, D.C.
"His explanation--like all of Mike’s explanations since he abandoned science--flew like the devil taking Jesus to the top of Herod’s temple and left the listener horrified at the precariousness of the perch and awed by the scenery below." Column by Douglas Herman.
We Had to Destroy the Village to Save It
Douglas Herman analyzes the phrases.
Nightmare on Elm, Dark Day in Dealey
Douglas Herman on the assassination of JFK.
Soldier: Just Say No, I Won't Go
"Funny how the sanest thing to do when trapped by the military is to act crazy." Column by Douglas Herman.
"I like Dubya. I really do. I believe that deep down, beneath that persona of God’s Chosen Messenger there lurks a loveable, smalltown lug lurching from one good ol’ boy malapropism to a possible global meltdown, on the advice or encouragement of genuinely sinister men who surround him. Think of Gomer Pyle with a mean streak addicted to crack cocaine." Column by Douglas Herman.
Death's Head: Piracy, Plunder and Foreign Policy
Recommended
"The conquest
of
Fossils and Elected Officials: Observations on a Doomed City
"In my search for Megalodon, I thought of the relative kinds of terrorism we humans are now facing. Was it only a year or two ago, up and down this Atlantic coast, everyone lived in fear of shark attacks? Harrowing, yes, with headlines screaming everyday, but now almost quaint in retrospect. The fear of shark attack, ironically, has evolved into an even more ferocious feeding frenzy and the proliferation of a sub-species of supershark we could call Neoconus megalodoni. Where, I wondered, are the headlines warning swimmers to get out of the water now?" Column by Douglas Herman.
"Massing
four deep behind a stone wall on Marye’s Heights—not far from downtown
Achtung! Are We the New Nazis?
"In America, as was the case in Nazi Germany, the imperceptible slide to tyranny increases in direct proportion to the number of voices of conscience that are ignored." Column by Douglas Herman.
"The Red Cross reported 61 civilians killed and 450 people injured in a single area south of Baghdad, many of them victims of cluster bombs. Curious how we go seeking weapons of mass destruction, and the weapons we seek are already in our own arsenal--and we have no compunction about using them." A good column by Douglas Herman.
"During the westward movement of American settlers after the Civil War, former Negro soldiers of the Union army were sent west to fight the Indians. Called Buffalo soldiers, they fought valiantly against Native Americans and served their distant Washington leaders well by doing the dirty work without really attaining any rights for themselves. The maneuver by Washington was both ingenious and diabolical: using disenfranchised former slaves as soldiers to control or eradicate disenfranchised Native Americans." Column by new Root Striker Douglas Herman.