All the trouble in the world:
Voice in the wilderness Robert Fisk looks at some of the
killers, crooks and
torturers lining up alongside America in "defense" of "liberty and democracy".
Then there's this piece about
America as Athens or Sparta or Imperial Rome, which is reasonably
interestng.
And finally, an analysis of the whole idea of
patriotic consumerism, or the notion of Doing Your Bit by going out to the mall and buying
consumer goods.
(Suggesting even more strongly that the US government (and other Western
governments) are answerable to corporations before all else, interfacing with
citizens only as the consumers and shareholders of their corporate constituents,
and are beginning to drop the pretence of being anything other than that.)
Quite insightful, even if it does lose a bit of credibility by quoting
neo-Luddite crank Kirkpatrick Sale (he's the guy who smashes computers with a
sledgehammer on stage as a protest against the evils of technology).