Robert C. Koehler
Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book, "Courage Grows Strong at the Wound" (2016). Contact him or visit his website at commonwonders.com.
Articles by this author
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Views Thursday, August 28, 2008 State of Denial Talk about naive. The Union of Concerned Scientists apparently thought the Democratic and Republican national conventions would be appropriate events at which to bring up the awkwardly substantive topic of U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiles (6,000 or so) and policy (insane). Read more |
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Views Thursday, August 07, 2008 No Name for the River What astounds me about the "race card" -- which either did or didn't get played in the presidential race recently -- is its thinness. Read more |
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Views Thursday, July 31, 2008 Citizens of the World What a surprising burst of hope I felt, looking at the photo in the newspaper the next day: Barack Obama stands before 200,000 Berliners and addresses them as a "fellow citizen of the world." It may be premature, but I'm announcing it anyway: We've repealed the Bush Doctrine. There's no turning back. Read more |
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Views Thursday, July 24, 2008 The Next New Yorker Cover Since I'm usually one of the last people in the country to get my copy of the New Yorker (well, it sure seems like it), I'm aware of any excitement or controversy the new issue has generated long before the magazine actually lands in my mailbox. Read more |
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Views Thursday, June 26, 2008 An Urgency of Joy The culture of war goes quietly about its business. Last week, Congress fed it another $162 billion, perhaps with some nostalgia: This was the final war-funding request of the Bush administration, the lame-duck, despised status of which making absolutely no difference in the dispatch with which the money was delivered. Read more |
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Views Thursday, June 12, 2008 Be the Media Camera, lights, mike-in-the-face. Hey Bill Moyers, what are you doing at a left-wing, partisan media conference? That was how Fox News producer Porter Barry tried to ambush television's most venerable voice of sanity this past weekend, after Moyers spoke eloquently -- "Journalism can only exist in a vibrant, democratic culture" -- at the fourth annual National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis. Read more |
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Views Thursday, May 15, 2008 The Penta-Pundits Well, why shouldn't the Pentagon put its four-stars on the tube to ladle out patriotic talking points to the American public like mess hall stew? There's a straightforward quasi-honesty to government-managed news, which only has a weird feel because the Penta-pundits had to pose as impartial analysts and play along with the image the networks wanted to project: seriousness, independence, etc. How demeaning that their meetings with the Secretary of Defense had to be secret - an embarrassment awaiting ultimate exposure by the New York Times. Read more |
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Views Thursday, April 24, 2008 Shattering the War Consensus Why, for God's sake, does nothing change? The war goes on, the money flows, the blood flows, the lies stay exactly the same. Have you noticed? Have you ever wondered, with a stab of transcendent confusion, why a self-correcting rationality hasn't kicked in by now, why a saner awareness hasn't made itself evident in the macro-affairs of the nation by now? Read more |
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Views Thursday, April 03, 2008 Fire and Race What could be more brittle than "Americanism"? What could be more tedious than the mass defense of its teary-eyed, ahistorical ignorance? Read more |
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Views Thursday, March 20, 2008 Where War Meets Peace "I trained my weapon on him," Kristopher Goldsmith said. It was a little boy, 6 years old maybe, standing on a roof, menacing the soldiers with a stick. "I was thinking, I hate these Iraqis who throw rocks. I could kill this kid." OK, America, let's look through the sights of Goldsmith's rifle for a long, long half-minute or so, draw a bead on the boy's heart, fondle the trigger - what to do? The soldier's decision is our decision. Read more |