As U.S. drones continue to take flight over Pakistani soil and that country’s restive population becomes more and more resentful of what it views as excessive foreign meddling in its affairs by various actors – the West, Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists, and its old rival India – I think the topic of empire is more relevant than ever to the two countries that I consider my own.

Fifty years ago today, East German soldiers began overseeing the construction of the Berlin Wall. That wall came down in 1989, but as Der Spiegel reminds us, other walls remain elsewhere in the world.

Even more insidious, though, are the invisible walls we build with money and defend with lawyers, all in an attempt to defend the status quo and nail things down as they are right now.

Sorry, but life is like a river, and you can’t nail it down. Count me among those who yearn for life without such walls.

Tonight, on the 47th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination of we’re doing something a little different–discussing the Zapruder film and other footage from that day, along with the event itself and how Kennedy’s assassination changed America.

I was two years old then, so all I recall was my dad having me watch the funeral on the teevee. But as I grew up, it was impossible to ignore the impact of that day in Dallas on our collective psyche as a nation. Questioning authority, distrust of government, conspiracy theories, the war in Viet Nam, civil rights, hippies, Nixon (and all he did both good–like EPA and OSHA–and bad). How would thing be different if Kennedy had not been shot? Hard to say.

Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Johnson and Kennedy, passed away at the age of 90 on Saturday. Rather than repeat obituaries’ biographic details, this diary pays photographic tribute to his life’s passion, our wild public lands.

Glenn Beck’s rant last week wasn’t an attack on Christians in general, but part of a conversation between Roman Catholic bishops and their potential political allies in evangelical and LDS circles, saying “If you want to ally yourself with the LDS and evangelicals, you better clean up your own house first and deal with all those lefty peace-and-justice priests. We don’t need allies like that.”