Bob Herbert is mad at Republicans again and wrote in the NY Times that the party is “anti-black”. His response to the ‘Pubs in the Senate refused to vote for a bill that would have given the District of Columbia a voting seat in the House of Representatives? The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years…
Op-Ed Blog
Ahmadinejad Who?
The New York Times says that focusing on Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a mistake. Political analysts here say they are surprised at the degree to which the West focuses on their president, saying that it reflects a general misunderstanding of their system. Unlike in the United States, in Iran the president is not the…
Ride a Bike, Save Time
Look familiar to anyone? The Houston Chronicle says that "traffic congestion in the Houston area and around the country is getting worse". No kidding. More: Some drivers blame the supposed waste of highway dollars on mass transit, or the wrong kind of mass transit. Transit advocates, and some who say they’d ride transit if only…
Justice for Ashton?
Ashton Glover was 16 years old when she was murdered by two high school classmates last year. After his arrest, Matthew McCombs, the trigger “man”, stated to police that he’d done it out of “morbid curiosity.” The evidence agreed: There was no fight or adversarial relationship between the girl and the two suspects that led…
Bush Wants Permanent Spy Powers
From Reuters: President George W. Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to expand the government’s domestic spying powers permanently or risk leaving the country vulnerable to another terrorist attack. The Democratic-led Congress in August temporarily expanded the Bush administration’s authority to monitor phone calls, e-mails and other electronic communications between individuals in the United States and…
Saudi Women Want to Drive
And why not? The BBC says that a group of Saudi women plan to deliver a petition to the King Abdullah which would, if approved, allow them to drive cars for the first time. Members of the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars plan to deliver a petition to King Abdullah by…
Robert Jordan Dies at 58
Robert Jordan, the author of the popular Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels died yesterday at the age of 58. I’m sorry to see Jordan die so young. He was a talented writer whose WoT series was terrific for the first few books. The last few were not as good and now I wonder…
Basra, Test Case for Withdrawal
The Christian Science Monitor says that Basra is turning into an emerging "Shiite Taliban state" now that the British are packing up their kit bags and leaving town: The billboard in Umm al-Broom Square was meant to advertise a cellphone service. Instead, it has become a message to those who dare to resist the rising…
Basic Morality Index
Michael van der Galien and Jason Steck both wrote about this article in the NY Times: Many people will say it is morally acceptable to pull a switch that diverts a train, killing just one person instead of the five on the other track. But if asked to save the same five lives by throwing…
The Difference
The back and forth between Robert Spencer, author of “Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t“, and John Derbyshire is ancient history in terms of Net time. But the subject is still highly relevant. Derbyshire said this in his initial review of Spencer’s book: I understand that this bogus equivalence must be very…