Month: August 2010
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A Politician Admits a Mistake.
In Other News, Pigs FlyAs longtime chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank was one of the key architects of the housing bubble, and of the crisis that followed the burst. Not the sole architect, of course — the roots of the crisis stretch back to the Carter administration. (See “In Defense of Wall Street Greed” nearly […]
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Stumbling Toward a Middle Ground on the So-Called “Ground Zero Mosque”
Both sides of the controversy cite the First Amendment — freedom of religion vs. freedom of speech — but appealing to the Constitution is missing the point. Nobody — no serious person — is suggesting the government should forbid the project.
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Obama Fulfills Bush’s Plan for Responsible Withdrawal from Iraq
Operational discipline limited the display of the American flag while serving in Iraq — but these soldiers from the 4th Stryker Brigade have just crossed the border into Kuwait. Photo: Washington Post Just over a month into the new Administration, I wrote: President Obama today announced an Iraq withdrawal plan that George Bush would be […]
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It’s Not at Ground Zero and It’s Not a Mosque;
I Don’t Want It There, But I Don’t Want It BannedThread the needle time. Like the moderate Muslims I quoted in my prior post, I’m opposed to the project that has become known as the “Ground Zero Mosque.” As a blogger called milowent has pointed out, the project is not at Ground Zero, and it’s not a mosque. I agree with those narrow statements of […]
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Muslims Against the Ground Zero Mosque
When I first started hearing about it, the controversy over a proposed mosque near the gaping hole where the twin towers once stood seemed like an annoying distraction. I wished the whole discussion would just go away.  I sympathized with the visceral opposition to a monument to Islam near where fanatical Muslims killed so many […]
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“Islamism Is Not a Movement to be Engaged, It Is an Enemy to be Defeated”
You’ll never see me use the term “War on Terror” outside of quotation marks. Terror is not the enemy, it is one of the enemy’s tactics. That part is simple. Deciding what to call the enemy is much more complicated. I continue to resist the idea that Islam itself is the enemy, although others are […]