Capping The Year
It seems all too sobering that 2008 -- a year enshrined by the intermingling of politics and hope -- would close out with such an image.
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The Chance Of Biscuits (Or, Is That A Snuff Film The Israeli Air Force Has Posted On YouTube?)
As much as Israeli defense videos illustrate how heavy firepower can be confined to a limited footprint, these images still convey extreme shock and the sense that such overwhelming firepower couldn't possibly avoid all collateral damage.
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I Heart Sderot
A thought on what this four-month-old shot of Obama in Israel front of a rocket collection has to say.
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The Rocket As Relative
This NYT slideshow seems to equate the aerial threat to Israel with the force of stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators.
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Obama: Fighting The Pull
What the photo captures and confirms is the real tension emerging between Obama, on the one hand, and his admirers and the press on the other.
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Structural Disaster
With the term of Palestinian president Abu Abbas expiring on January 9th and Hamas refusing to further recognize him, one way to think about yesterday's bombing of the so-called "Presidential building" in Gaza is in terms of the corrosive Palestinian power split.
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The Hands Do Speak. (The Question Is, Who Is Listening?)
A Congolese government soldier lies dead in the road not long after having been shot in the head. It is easy to immediately think of him as a statistic.
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Picks of the Year
To the extent the Afghan War draws heightened attention in the coming year (replacing Iraq as our "A" war), territorial stalemate and signification of futility will have much greater impact.
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Oh, Christmas Tree
After weeks of violence in Athens following the shooting death of a teenager by Greek police, protesters have been persistently trying to defile the city's Christmas tree in Syntagma Square. I find these images brilliantly unsettling, the fanciful lights and ornaments juxtaposed with officers of the state.
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Gitmo Christmas
This group has performed the same exercise three years in a row, emulating hooded Guantanamo prisoners engage in the act of shopping. The agenda is to remind Christmas shoppers, as they indulge in consumerism based on a supposedly sacred holiday, that war crimes at Gitmo are being committed in...
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Eliot On The Comeback
Eliot Spitzer's holiday card demonstrates a concerted effort to get past his sex scandal sooner rather than later.
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Your Turn: Finding One’s Place
The most stinging shot yet concerning the Bush legacy watch.
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Robert Gibbs, New Face Of The Administration (Or, Lower That Drawbridge!")
Why a strategically gifted, but otherwise behind-the-scenes player like Robert Gibbs ends up as press secretary is hard to figure.
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Holiday At The BAG (Or: Eat, Drink And Be Mary?)
I was wondering if you heard about two new illustrated bibles described by NPR as catering to a "more hip and secular" audience?
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