Category Archives: Politics

Treason For Revealing a Legal Program That Everyone Already Knows About

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Timothy Burke

A shorter follow-up on surveillance and Snowden. Jedi mind tricks only work on the weak-minded. So all the pundits who are saying that Snowden should be arrested and thrown in jail forever and ever for committing treason but who are … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

The Slow Poison of the Covert Imagination

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Terms like “rape culture” and “gun culture” are useful when they remind us that the harm of a thing is bigger, subtler and more pervasive than the thing itself. When we talk about guns, we’re missing an important point if … Continue reading →

Fifth Thought: How (Not) to Play the Hunger Games

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I was frustrated as a student activist in the 1980s about our dependency on the narratives and grammar of activism that we inherited from the 1960s and 1970s. Sometimes it felt more like we were historical re-enactors than people living … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 9 Comments

Second Thought: On the Persistence of Wrong Action

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Earlier this year, the novelist Teju Cole wrote an essay for The New Yorker called “A Reader’s War”. A lot of people in my various social media feeds, on both the right and left, found its premise naive and its … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 1 Comment

Scan Here For More Information

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Timothy Burke

We still have a Saturn that we bought brand-new not too long after the company began manufacturing. At 130,000 miles, it’s not exactly going strong, but it’s been a good car. I have to admit that we bought it as … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 7 Comments

The Moral of Pierre

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I heard just a small bit of a story on NPR this morning about “crunch time” in family life, where working parents feel the pressure of getting their kids fed with a decent meal, finished with homework, and to sleep … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 11 Comments

Moore’s Law (Munitions Edition)

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Let’s say twenty years ago I’d written a science fiction novel about how a futuristic nation has a massive force of flying robot bombs that are programmed with some target parameters and just fly around 24/7 on patrol looking for … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Generalist's Work, Politics | 21 Comments

Guns as Witchcraft

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Timothy Burke

Over the holidays, after the shootings in Newtown, I was in a conversation on Facebook in which I reiterated my point from earlier in the year that in the United States, gun ownership and gun practices are culture, and as … Continue reading →

Posted in Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 6 Comments

Why It’s Not Even Worth Talking About Gaza

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Timothy Burke

I don’t often link primarily to just say, “I’ll have what he’s having, bartender”, but this short essay by David Atkins on Gaza is a good reason to break that habit. As Atkins says, it’s pointless and thankless in several … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 14 Comments

Flash Mob Protest Wanted

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Yo, people of San Francisco! If ever there has been a store that deserves to be periodically picketed by a flash mob, it’s Unionmade. (493 Sanchez Street). The Gawker story has all the information you need to know. Postmodern bullshit … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 1 Comment