Cheryl Rofer

THE AIR WE BREATHE….A commenter at WhirledView put John McCain’s nonproliferation policy into context the other day, but his point applies far beyond that. The doctrine of “American Exceptionalism” is not especially radical in the US. The assertion that the US is uniquely selfless and fair-minded is a mainstream idea in American politics. The United […]

TIME OUT….Harumpf. Kevin said we could post photos, but I don’t see any way of doing that. What I was going to say was that I’m getting a bit tired of nuclear weapons and treaties and all that, but the issues with them just don’t stop. I’ve been saying that for several years now. Back […]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PSI!….In an article less tinged with snark than usual, Dana Milbank critiques National Security Advisor Steven Hadley’s appearance at the fifth anniversary celebration of President Bush’s Proliferation Security Initiative. This is one of the administration’s initiatives designed to keep us safer since 9/11, but they can’t tell us what it’s doing to keep […]

WARMING TO THE LAW OF THE SEA VIA THE ARCTIC?….The United States joined four other countries that border the Arctic Sea in Ilulissat, Greenland, this week to work out ways to deal with the Arctic’s growing accessibility as the ice thins. The other four are Denmark, Russia, Canada and Norway. As the ice melts, commercial […]

NO THANKS, WE’VE GOT ONE ALREADY…A League of Democracies, that is. John McCain and others frustrated by the need to do diplomacy and work with other countries keep putting forth the idea of a League of Democracies. That would be the guys in the white hats who would agree with the United States and offer […]

DOE/NNSA Mission…..Tbw asked for my opinion on the mission of the DOE/NNSA complex. In that regard, optical weenie suggested I look at the NNSA website. For those joining in the middle of this conversation, the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) is the part of the Department of Energy that deals with nuclear weapons. I don’t […]

LIEBERMAN HEARTS HAGEE….Joe Lieberman is scheduled to address Pastor John Hagee’s national summit on, I guess, Armageddon in July. If you want to petition Joe not to go, you can sign up here. I have to confess that I find the whole thing bizarre, from Hagee’s crowd’s making pets of Jews in preparation for the […]

GETTING SAFER….. Quick quiz: Are terrorist attacks increasing or decreasing? The answer depends on where you get your numbers from. Fareed Zakaria goes to Canada for his. The reason? Simon Fraser University doesn’t count civilian casualties from the war in Iraq. US databases do, and those casualties amount to 80% of the deaths they count. […]

AND THE WINNER IS…Russia! We don’t hear much about the Eurovision song contest here in America, but it’s big in Europe, particularly the countries that used to be part of other countries. I was in Estonia for the finals a couple of years back, and we were all feverishly texting our votes in to make […]

That Was Then……The K-25 gaseous diffusion facility at Oak Ridge is being demolished. It’s one more of the Manhattan Project facilities that is outdated and contaminated. But it’s also historic, so part of it will be preserved museum-fashion. I’d like to see that; heck, I’d like to have a piece of the diffusion barrier encased […]