Category: Uncategorized
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Fort Hood Reminds Us That We Can’t Consistently Anticipate Evil
Hasan’s political beliefs are clearly significant in hindsight — but it’s absurd to think the Army somehow should have known he was dangerous. Our society doesn’t take action against people for thinking wrong thoughts, or for giving voice to them.
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Count One Lackluster Vote for Corzine
Ex-prosecutor Christie pledges tax cuts and clean government in a corrupt, high-tax state, and I’ll count that as a silver lining if he wins. But there’s no guarantee he would actually be effective at cutting taxes and fighting corruption, whereas he undoubtedly would follow through on his anti-gay veto threat.
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87 More Days Until Obama Breaks His Guantanamo Pledge
This week brings further reminders of why breaking that pledge will be the better part of valor. Many of the Gitmo detainees are Very Bad People, and there’s no good option for relocating them.
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“Every Republican in Congress Supports Reform” is a Stronger Message Than “No”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls out the other side for dishonest framing of the healthcare debate. I fear the Republicans may have lost the battle simply by letting the issue be framed, improperly, as healthcare "reform."
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Old Europe, an Unearned Nobel Prize, and a War of Necessity
Our European allies clearly have no stomach for the fight. As America considers sending up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, even the (relatively) stalwart UK today announced plans to send… um… 500. As in Iraq, it will fall to the United States to achieve any victory (or even stability) in Afghanistan.
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The “Obama Silver-Lining Watch” and the Nobel Peace Prize
At first blush, the Nobel Prize may seem to make it harder for an Obama administration to do anything involving a projection of American military power. But there’s another way of looking at it. While the prize is ridiculous, it’s not Obama’s fault that it was awarded. At the risk of indulging in wishful thinking, the prize may give him protective cover to act in the long-term interests of peace — even when it involves military action in the short run.
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Revisiting Cash for Clunkers
The Wall Street Journal has just labeled the Cash for Clunkers program "one of Washington’s all-time dumb ideas." (Hyperbole, of course — no program costing a "mere" $3 billion could possibly qualify for the all-time dumb list.)
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Dumbest. Extortionist. Ever.
Note to would-be blackmailers: insist on cash. Then you have at least some shot at deniability ("officer, I don’t know anything about the $2 million in the duffle bag").
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Encouraging Signs of Al Qaeda’s Decline
I just hope that Islam can reform itself more quickly than Christianity did. More than 130 years of religious violence passed between the 95 Theses and the Treaty of Westphalia.
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Ahmadinejad Seems to Have a Death Wish
It has become hard to imagine a peaceful ending to the Iranian nuclear problem. I’ve gone back and forth on this, but it seems highly likely that Israel, which twice before has launched pre-emptive attacks on nuclear facilities in hostile countries, will do so again.