A so-called moderate: The issue is not whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan committed a terrorist act. He did. Here is a prime example of reporting opinion as fact. Terrorism has a very specific, and legal, definition: (2) the term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents; [...]
The truth is that what happened at Fort Hood yesterday was horrific. It is simply incomprehensible how a Major in the US Army, a psychiatrist who had taken an oath to do no harm, could violate every oath he had ever taken and open fire on his fellow soldiers. It is an act of betrayal [...]
In a seat that Republicans have held since Abraham Lincoln, the winner of the Republican primary is pulling out of the race. The reason? Some have called the race a test of the GOP’s future: whether traditional conservative ideology would lead the way forward or if a more inclusive approach would draw more people back [...]
The Campaign Courage Equality Program is launching a fundraising drive to help pay for marriage equality initiatives in Main, Michigan, and Washington. Washington: Who we are: Approve Referendum 71 is the campaign to preserve domestic partnerships in Washington State. By voting to approve, voters retain the domestic partnership laws that were passed during this year’s [...]
The LA Times has a vague, but ominous warning about the federal deficit. They write: President Obama’s critics naturally want to blame the geyser of red ink on the grand ambitions of his administration, including the $787-billion stimulus package and expensive new health insurance subsidies. Longtime budget analysts, however, have seen this problem coming for [...]
From Richard Cohen’s column: The questions of what constitutes torture and what to do with those who, maybe innocently, applied what we now define as torture have to be removed from the political sphere. They cannot be the subject of an ideological tug of war, both sides taking extreme and illogical positions — torture never [...]
If you’ve been around any sort of media, you’ve heard that Senator Edward Kennedy has died. This really isn’t a shock since he was diagnosed with brain cancer not long ago. He was the last of his dynastic familial generation. I’m not into hero worship, so I can’t really say much about Ted Kennedy. He [...]
One of the more insulting commercials run by the Hillary Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary featured an anonymous phone ringing in what was supposed to be the Presidential residence. “When the phone rings at 2am…” the voice-over said ominously. The idea was to tell everyone that Clinton was “ready to go on Day One” [...]
Music is as old as humanity. As long as humans have had voices, or been able to beat on a log, or jingle shells, or whatever, there has been music. And, as with all human endeavors, some have been better at doing it than others. But there hasn’t been a “music business” for very long. [...]
Short of the universe of the Jabberwock, words have some set meaning. Sometimes they have one denoted meaning and another connotated meaning, but they have a meaning. So I have to take one of my favorite columnists, Gail Collins, to task for this badly worded turn: We hardly need to point out that Ensign was [...]
