Iris Vander Pluym is the online ‘nym of an artist, activist and writer living in New York City. She has a B.A. in Communications, having graduated cum laude from an East Coast state university of no particular note. Iris has written professionally on the subjects of music technology and production techniques, and has interviewed various recording artists for publications such as Keyboard and Electronic Musician. Raised to respect the adage that one should never opine on the topics of politics, religion or sex in polite company, it turns out that those are pretty much the only subjects she has any interest in discussing. A self-described unapologetic, godless liberal, Ms. Vander Pluym blogs regularly at Perry Street Palace. Follow her on Twitter @irisvanderpluym.
Recent Essays by Iris Vander Pluym
By Iris Vander Pluym - 05.05.13
“[A]ny degree of ‘flexibility’ about torture at the top drops down the chain of command like a stone — the rare exception fast becoming the rule.”
-Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, former commandant of the Marine Corps and former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, respectively.
The Constitution Project's Task Force on Detainee Treatment recently issued its report.
By Iris Vander Pluym on 04.14.13
The H-1B visa phenomenon provides a curious counterpoint to the oft-stated conventional wisdom that American middle class jobs are irretrievably moving overseas solely because foreign labor is so much cheaper. In certain sectors this is undeniably true, particularly for industries that rely on low-skilled workers for high-volume manufacturing jobs...
By Iris Vander Pluym on 03.24.13
I.
I recently read a story about the C-130 Hercules transport plane (Lockheed Martin's Herculean Efforts to Profit From Defense Spending: The Epic Story of the C-130, TomDispatch, March 10, 2013). The author is Jeremiah Goulka, a former RAND Corporation analyst. It is the story of a powerful industry (the military-industrial complex)
extracting exactly what it wants from the U.S. taxpayer, as opposed to the other way around. It puts profit above all else, above even its ostensible purpose: i.e. the nation’s defense. What stands...