The Permanence of Permanent War, Part 1: Setting the Stage

By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH - 08.22.13

President Barack Obama's recent speech (1) on ending, or winding down, or cutting back on, or doing something to/with the "War on Terror" that the U.S. has supposedly been engaged in since the events of 9/11 has received a great deal of attention (2). Indeed the United States has been engaged in what can be described as "Permanent War" since the...

 

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Russia, America, Germany, and Political Homophobia

By STEVEN JONAS MD, MPH - 08.18.13

As is widely known, Russia now has a national law that bans the spreading of "information about non-traditional sexual behavior" to persons under 18. The law is based on legislation that was originally adopted in St. Petersburg under the sponsorship of its Mayor, one Vitaly Milonov. The law is based on the premises widely held by homophobes that a) homosexuality is an acquired characteristic,...

 

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Dr. J.’s TPJ Commentary No. 250 (Mag. 48): The Mysteries of Edward Snowden

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH – 07.01.13

Much has been written about this young man (who at the time of this writing, 7/1/13, is having quite some problem finding a country that will give him unconditional asylum.  Ecuador [which is likely receiving very heavy pressure form the US, is saying publicly that they don’t like his connection to Wikileaks even though they are still housing its founder, Julian Assange in their London embassy...

 

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Establishing Dictatorships: Lessons from History

By STEVEN JONAS MD, MPH  - 06.16.13

Admiral Miklos Horthy of Hungary is generally acknowledged to have been history’s first fascist dictator (that is an authoritarian ruler, operating under capitalism, who was not royalty).  And Admiral Horthy?  Well, while Hungary is presently a land-locked country, before World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a major naval presence on the Adriatic Sea, through Slovenia,...

 

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Sean Hannity's America

By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH - May 16, 2013

An earlier version of this column was published on BuzzFlash.com on February 14, 2007.  In light of the field day that the Fox”News”Channel is having over “Benghazi,” the “IRS Scandal,” and now the “AP Scandal,” as well as “what about Syria,” I thought that it might be fun to revisit an edited and slightly emended version of this one.

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The GOP and National Planning? Count on It

By Steven Jonas MD, MPH on 05.05.13

The GOP and National Planning, you say? Hasn’t the GOP always been against planning, particularly against nation-wide planning to deal with nation-wide problems? Well, actually not always. In the immediate post-Civil War period the so-called “Radical” branch of what was then truly the Party of Lincoln was very much for national planning in dealing with the problem of how to integrate the freed slaves into the regular economic and political life of the nation. They proposed to start with three central programmatic elements: universal co-equal education,

 

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