Articles by Doug Lasken

  • Obama has destroyed the anti-war Left - March 1st, 2009

    What decade am I describing: The United State has chosen an impoverished, agrarian region halfway around the world to demonize and to pound into submission with its most advanced weaponry. The central governments of the region have never attacked the U.S., but we are told that militants in the area hate us and will [...]

  • Wars are Manipulated - February 1st, 2009

    This means, of course, that people are manipulated. Take the current Gaza conflict. The ceasefire came neatly before Obama’s inauguration, conveniently getting the new president off the hook for a spell, until a resumption of hostilities could be finessed on terms to fit the new administration. Now we’re on the brink of [...]

  • Israel vs. Hamas-ruled Gaza: Blame both sides - December 28th, 2008

    Expect a world-wide condemnation of Israel to erupt in response to the Israeli Air Force attack today across Hamas-ruled Gaza. If that outrage is to be valid, however, it should place equal blame on Israel and the Hamas operatives who have been firing rockets into Israel. Not because those rockets inflicted major damage [...]

  • The Dylan Torah - December 7th, 2008

    They have their reasons for invading Iraq, drone bombing Pakistan, and bailing out the financial industry and perhaps the auto industry, but who are “they”?
    We spent our Thanksgiving weekend in Minnesota, which was mercifully warm (up to 20 degrees on my early morning walks).  One of our destinations was the bar mitzvah of my mother-in-law’s [...]

  • Will U.S. Public Schools survive Government? - November 21st, 2008

    As a teacher for 25 yeas in the nation’s second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD), I find myself increasingly isolated in defending public education to my conservative and even liberal friends.  Unlike many of them, I continue to appreciate the fact that public schools in the U.S. are already in place, at a [...]

  • Spending cuts: Can they be objective? - November 15th, 2008

    Most rational people agree that in the face of the current economic meltdown, all levels of government- federal, state and local- should spend less money.  What no one agrees on is how to spend less.  One person’s pork is another person’s vital service, and we usually don’t have trusted third parties to figure out which [...]

  • End Obama’s Honeymoon Now! - November 11th, 2008

    Barack Obama euphoria and the president-elect’s frighteningly Bush-like foreign policy is tackled in this, Doug Lasken’s latest excellent piece. For his previous work for Liberty Maven see “Where’s A Good Party?“
    End Obama’s Honeymoon Now!
    By Doug Lasken
    A political honeymoon is that sweet time after a hard fought election in which the victor enjoys a large mandate [...]

  • Featured Commentary: Where’s A Good Party? - September 30th, 2008

    Note: This superb commentary regarding the current status of the two party system was submitted by Doug Lasken, an accomplished freelance author and English teacher in Los Angeles, California.
    Where’s A Good Party?
    by Doug Lasken
    Perhaps the best adjective to describe our presidential conventions is “noisy.” You’d think, from the impact, that the noise was generated [...]