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Here's the Back Story on the 'Fresno Reborn' Video (With Eminem and Detroit...
Over the weekend I mentioned the new video by our friends at the Bitwise tech incubator in Fresno, California, which exemplified the gritty spirit — “You think we’re losers? Well just watch” — that...
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The Fresno-Detroit Link: Poetry, and the Unglamorous Home of American Dreams
Two days ago I mentioned that a “Fresno reborn” video had a similar tone and toughness to the famous “Imported From Detroit” Eminem/Chrysler ad from the 2011 Superbowl that was an early sign of rebound...
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Is the New Chinese Airliner a Kind of Flying iPhone?
Illustration from Sina aviation news service of suppliers for China’s new C919 airliner. Earlier this week China’s state commercial-aerospace company, known as COMAC, rolled out the new C919 airliner...
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On Natural, and Less Natural, Approaches to the Autumn Season
This is part of the ongoing chronicle of a minor-seeming but conceptually significant effort in local community action. The conceptual significance, as set out mainly in this note, is that the...
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Paid Patriotism: I Hadn't Been Cynical Enough
In this new Thread I will revive a string of reader commentary, plus news updates (F-35, A-10, budgets and strategy, veterans’ welfare, future strategy), on the themes I dealt with in my Chickenhawk...
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Another Look at Maine Maritime: Who Is Providing Value, to Whom, and How?
MMA logoTwo days ago I mentioned the welcome news that the Maine Maritime Academy, which John Tierney had written about extensively as part of our ongoing American Futures coverage, had been recognized...
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The ‘Paid Patriotism’ Chronicles
Tiger Woods, while a Marine holds the flag at a PGA event. A retired Air Force officer, who still does some contracting work with the Pentagon, writes about the news that the Defense Department was...
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The President of Maine Maritime Weighs In
Here's the back story: In our American Futures reports from Down East Maine, my wife Deb and I wrote about the (obvious) importance of the seacoast in the region’s past and future, and John Tierney...
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On the Sociology and Economics of Omnipresent Noise
Two very different accounts of the neighborhood dynamics of modern community living, related to the community campaign being chronicled in this thread.First, from Mike Lofgren, multi-decade veteran of...
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Is the Dreamliner a Kind of Flying iPhone?
The short answer is “No.” But here is why I put the question in that form.Two days ago I showed a simple supply-chain chart for the new Chinese airliner, the C919, that highlighted the extent to which...
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What Rankles About the NFL's Paid Role in “Salutes to the Heroes”
Pro football looms large in modern America’s consciousness in all ways, but notably so in what we’ve been discussing as ChickenhawkPaid Patriotism. Ben Fountain’s wonderful novel, Billy Lynn’s Long...
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On Supporting the Troops, With Camo-Themed Headwear
TV screenshot sent in by a reader, November 8, 2015. In the context of this past week’s “Paid Patriotism” report by Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake, about the way the Pentagon has been paying pro...
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Request for Community Reports on Leafblower Policies
Electric battery pack for leafblower, as used in our yard in D.C. last week by the A.I.R. lawn company (Deborah Fallows)On Wednesday night, as reported here, our local Advisory Neighborhood Commission...
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On Flag and Camo Fetishism in a Chickenhawk Era
Short-version background to this post: what I’m calling Chickenhawk Nation is a country whose troops are always at war, but whose people are mainly untouched by war, and that tries to paper over that...
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Additional Reading on the Netanyahu/Obama Meeting
Cover of P. Sinclair’s Descent Into ParadiseJeffrey Goldberg has an extensive preview of today’s meeting between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. Obviously I agree with Jeff’s main...
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The NFL's Chickenhawk Celebrations, From Some Veterans' Points of View
This was the pre-kickoff scene for the Dolphins and Bills yesterday (AP photo, also used in Will Bardenwerper’s WaPo piece)Will Bardenwerper, who joined the Army after the 9/11 attacks and served as an...
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A Young Journalist Setting an Example for the Rest of Us
It’s too easy, and also rash and risky, to criticize people on the basis of perhaps-out-of-context social media snippets.So let me compliment someone! You may already have seen the video below, shot...
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Chinese and American Education: First-Hand Compare-and-Contrast
The two elementary schools Jocelyn Reckford has attended, and written about. From her site. The American public is hearing a lot about the values imparted by U.S. education at the moment, from the...
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How Remembrance Day Is Observed in Some Other Cultures
In response to this past week’s NFL observances of Veterans Day, including camouflage-themed clothing for coaches and sideline staff, a reader sends a comparative note on how pro sports teams elsewhere...
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The One Thing You Should Read Today, on Veterans Day
It is this extraordinary report, by Brian Castner, published today in Motherboard. It is called “One Degree of Separation in the Forever War,” and I promise you will find it worth the time, and later...
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