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William Pfaff: Clarity in the American Interest
Title page of one of William Pfaff's books. I am not taking time now to dig around and find some of the best examples of the clear-headed perspective that William Pfaff brought to thinking about...
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Build Your Vocabulary, "Ass Baton" Edition
That's a police officer in Sweden, holding ... well, read on to find out. (Wikimedia commons.) As I mentioned in a previous post, I have spent the past five days on a criminal-trial jury in D.C....
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Can Cars Save Downtown?
Fresno's Fulton Pedestrian Mall in 2011 ( David Prasad / Flickr ) Everyone knows that cars, freeways, and automotive-borne sprawl helped kill America's traditional downtowns. That's a process we've...
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Fresno to South Bend to Louisville: The Elusive Elements of Civic Success
Louisville's skyline from the river ( Wikimedia Commons ) Earlier today I mentioned a video that a public-private alliance in Fresno, California, has produced to explain why they want to bulldoze a...
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Asking Martin O'Malley to Explain Baltimore
Martin O'Malley talks to Baltimore residents on April 28, 2015. (Matt Rourke / AP) Just ten days ago, President Obama was one of several speakers at the White House Correspondents Dinner to deliver a...
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'The American Prospect' Turns 25 and Has a Very Strong New Issue
Then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan (right) during her confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court five years ago. An article argues that her appointment may be one of Barack Obama's most significant...
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Talking With Martin O'Malley: Reform, or Pitchforks?
Martin O'Malley in Redlands, California, on Tuesday night ( Esri ) The geographic-information systems company Esri, which hosted the Q-and-A session I did on Tuesday night with former governor Martin...
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Cars, Pedestrians, and the Struggle for the Future of Downtowns
The Latino-themed shops that characterize the current Fulton Street mall in Fresno (James Fallows) Today Deb Fallows has a new item on the improbable tale of Eliza Tibbets, a 19th-century...
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Books by Friends: An Ongoing Series
From the classic American-jury movie, 12 Angry Men. (YouTube) An on-the-whole positive aspect of the writing life is that many of your friends are writers. Thus in circumstances like this I need to...
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Et Tu, QZ? The Boiled-Frog Watch Returns
Tom Toles cartoon from the Washington Post six years ago Long ago I resolved to limit my campaign against the boiled-frog cliché to no more than one post per year. And in fact I’ve let it lie for...
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An Incredible Time-Capsule View of One Downtown's Development
Does the 1960s version of tomorrow seem like yesterday? ( Victor Gruen Associates documentary, via YouTube ) You never thought there would be so much to say say about Fresno? Join the club! When my...
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What It's Like When Your City Goes Broke
View toward San Bernardino, along the usually dry bed of the Santa Ana River, from the hills to the north. The mountain in the left-center distance is Mount San Jacinto, 50 miles away en route to Palm...
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The Moral Weight of Warfare, Explored in a New Book
The Colombian artist Fernando Botero in front of his 2005 painting inspired by the Abu Ghraib abuses. That is one way of rendering the moral weight of warfare. A new book offers another. (Chris...
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The Battle for Downtown, from Canada to the Carolinas
Fayetteville Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, saved by ... cars? ( Wikimedia Commons ) If you’re joining us late: Fresno, California is determined to revive its struggling downtown by re-opening a...
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The Ass Baton Goes to School
Could this be Airhead High? (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, via YouTube) Recently I mentioned that during service on the jury in a Washington D.C. criminal trial, I had been alarmed to hear a police...
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How Fox News Is (Still) Hurting the Republicans
January 30, 1995, the beginning of modern media political history: Rupert Murdoch (right) announcing that Roger Ailes will run the newly launched Fox News. (Peter Morgan / Reuters) Let me recommend...
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Today a Bankrupt City Votes on Its Next Steps
San Bernardino from the south, with snow on the mountains after a winter storm (Wikimedia Commons) Last week I mentioned that a civic-bankruptcy drama was about to reach a climax in the beleaguered...
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The Right and Wrong Questions About the Iraq War
George W. Bush with part of his national security team at Camp David on September 15, 2001. "Knowing what we know now," the decision to invade Iraq can be traced back to that day. (Reuters) First some...
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San Bernardino Votes to Move Past Bankruptcy, Plus Pandas and the Finale to...
Pandas at the former Wolong Panda Reserve in Sichuan Province, later destroyed in an earthquake. Were these pandas eating what they really liked? Read on to find out. (Reuters) A harvest of updates: -...
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'Mayday! Emergency Landing. We're on Fire.'
At this instant, the pilot of a World War II-vintage plane was turning to fly past the Lincoln Memorial. Five seconds later, his plans entirely changed. (YouTube) Two weeks ago today, on the 70th...
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