Category: Social and Political Pieces

The famous (if unlikely) team of Boies and Olsen are backpedaling on their case to overturn Proposition 8--and establish same-sex civil marriage by national default: The two high-profile lawyers who started the nation’s most significant lawsuit attempting to gain marriage rights for same-sex couples told the Supreme Court on Friday that it might find it very interesting …

Continue reading "Same-Sex Civil Marriage: Not Quite Ready to Go for Broke"

On a recent edition of Stakelbeck on Terror, he discusses with Tawfik Hamid the difference between the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  (That discussion starts at about 13:30 into the video below). http://dl2.cbn.com/cbnplayer/cbnPlayer.swf?s=/Archive/News/Stakelbeck_Terror_082112_WS Five years ago, I got into an extended email debate with an Indonesian Salafi.  One of the points he tried …

Continue reading "The Difference Between Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood"

Students in China are caught between two systems, one Marxist-Leninist and one capitalist.  The result is this: The curious collision of ideological coercion and material opportunity births a conformity-breeding exhaustion. To resist the constant current of ideological homogeneity requires relentless energy and vigilance: to remember that no matter how compelling the words of the anchor …

Continue reading "The U.S. and China: Passing Each Other in the Night on Academic Freedom?"

Federal agencies such as NOAA and the Social Security administration are trying to contain the excitement over their substantial ammunition purchases: Obscure federal agencies triggered a firestorm of conspiracy theories this week after they put out orders for thousands of rounds of deadly hollow-point bullets. But the agencies, most recently the Social Security Administration, are …

Continue reading "Federal Agencies and Ammo: Make Sure You Don't Overlook the Important Thing"

Some once part of the U.S. military are, to put it mildly, delusional about a possible internal rebellion: At issue is an article in the respected Small Wars Journal titled “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A ‘Vision’ of the Future.” It was written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army's University of …

Continue reading "Ending the Next Civil War Won't Be That Easy"

Things are getting very deep out there: President Barack Obama addressed supporters in Roanoke, Virginia on Saturday afternoon and took a shot at the business community. President Obama dismissed any credit business owners give themselves for their success: There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to …

Continue reading "Barack Obama and Small Business: They Wouldn't Get Very Far Without Us, Either"

That's what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is about to do: Many will doubtless regard with skepticism the Bloomberg administration’s newly announced “micro-unit” pilot program. The administration is asking developers to submit proposals for the design and construction of an apartment building on a city-owned site in Manhattan; the city will adjust zoning restrictions there, …

Continue reading "Making the Fifty Square Metre Apartment Look Like a Mansion"

The UN's latest idea for funding itself: The United Nations on Thursday called for a tax on billionaires to help raise more than $400 billion a year for poor countries. An annual lump sum payment by the super-rich is one of a host of measures including a tax on carbon dioxide emissions, currency exchanges or …

Continue reading "What a Billionaire's Tax Means Depends Upon the Currency"