The storm over the Danish cartoons has been mistakenly described as a debate over the limits of free speech. One of the milder posters carried during a Londonistan anti-cartoon protest read “FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS WESTERN TERRORISM.” The coverage in the mainstream American press has ranged from the banal to the bizarre, depicting broad-minded Danes [...]

An Austrian court this week sentenced British historian David Irving to three years in prison. His crime? Denying the holocaust. Americans have steeled ourselves to an ugly truth: Our commitment to free expression means we must tolerate freedom of expression for people we despise, or else it means nothing. But Europe is different. Public Holocaust [...]

This actually makes sense, the more you read it. What one Republican strategist called “a marriage of convenience� has developed between Mrs. Clinton and the Bush White House. Republicans, flailing for a handhold as they approach this year’s Congressional elections, would like to make Mrs. Clinton the face of the Democratic Party. And Mrs. Clinton, [...]

Please. Tell me this is a parody.

I’m agreeing with Tim F. that the panic over Arabs running our ports is an over-reaction. I’ve said that from the start. It would seem the Bush Administration held the high ground here: Can you imagine the outrage if it had been the federal government that said, “Hey, we can’t let a bunch of A-rabs [...]

This comes, oddly enough, from MSN’s tech blogger Robert Scoble: In the 2008 election he expects that Hillary Clinton will be a lockin for the Democrats. He doesn’t see anyone who can challenge her from the Democratic side. On the right side he’s expecting a far more conservative than even George Bush is. Why? His [...]

Michael J. Totten, fresh from his excursion into Kurdish Iraq, reports that, while the Kurds there may be paying lip service to Iraq, their hearts are for independence. One of the reasons they don’t claim it outright, Michael writes, is they want to achieve it fairly and honestly — and with a legitimate claim to [...]

In novels, that is, not in pick-up bars. “Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.” … “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” … “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Did you know, o [...]

Given the things that have happened in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Charlie Munn put together some thoughts about what Iran may have learned from it. This list feels dead on: 7. The media is your friend: Iran has been much better about laying out its case for acquiring nuclear technology than Saddam ever was. Part of [...]

At the time I decried, and I still think it’s rightfully so. But this perspective sheds some light on the why the court ruled why they did: Contrary to what many continue to believe, the Court in Kelo did not blaze any new trails. It was well-settled law dating back to Berman v. Parker in [...]

Apparently it pokes the cats and gets them to meow. Heh. Calm down, it was built back in 1650, so it’s not around anymore. Well, until I build a new one. More at Gizmodo.

Strange bedfellows indeed, especially when (as a commenter at The Glittering Eye suggests) it seems that Rush Limbaugh is defending Bush’s decision. However, I don’t like Carter’s logic: ”The overall threat to the United States and security, I don’t think it exists,” Carter said on CNN’s The Situation Room. “I’m sure the president’s done a [...]

Jeezus…this is crazy stuff. In fact, it’s so crazy I actually marvel at this guy’s attention to detail. Oh…you’ll see. From The Smoking Gun: This country, as you know, is filled with the deranged. And then there’s Travis Frey, a 33-year-old Iowa man who is facing charges that he tried to kidnap his own wife [...]

While the modern left has many valid critiques of our government, leftist leaders and writers often seem disconnected from the realities of the modern world, willfully ignoring the very real threats and challenges we currently face. I often find myself in the odd position of agreeing with what the left has to say but strongly [...]

This is encouraging news: In the first poll in the territories since Hamas’ victory, 66 percent of respondents said the new government should honor the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to negotiations with Israel. Among Hamas voters, only 12 percent said they chose Hamas for its political agenda, while 43 percent said they were fed up with [...]

I just found an interesting article in this month’s New Yorker about the former general counsel of the United States Navy, Alberto J. Mora: “Never has there been a counsel with more intellectual courage or personal integrity,â€Â? David Brant, the former head of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said. Brant added somewhat cryptically, “He surprised [...]

From the Washington Times: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle yesterday threatened a congressional investigation of a deal to give control of six U.S. seaports to an Arab company, while one key Republican said the Bush administration’s security reassurances were not adequate. [...] The classified deal would let Dubai Ports World (DPW) of the [...]

George Will takes a look at why it’s so hard to beat incumbents in Congress. He says the system has been rigged with breakwaters to hold incumbents in power. The breakwater has three componentsâ€â€?gerrymandering, campaign-finance “reforms” and the particular form of profligacy known as earmarks. In state after state, redistricting after the 2000 Census proved [...]

History bears out the fact that atrocities, in the name of religion, have happened as a result of man essentially being taken over beyond reason and act in ways that could not be comprehended to those not in that state of mind and belief. An interesting, but no doubt controversial take on the dynamics and [...]

Alito just hired one of his former clerks, Adam G. Ciongoli, to work with him at the SCOTUS. As the NY Times points out, Ciongoli was also the top aide to John Ashcroft when he was Attorney General. So what about the Federalist Society connection? Well, Ciongoli was a speaker at last year’s Federalist Society [...]