Dick Cheney gave a very interesting interview to Larry King yesterday. First, he expressed shock and dismay that Amnesty International would criticize the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. “For Amnesty International to suggest that somehow the United States is a violator of human rights, I frankly just don’t take them seriously.” He went on to [...]

I have no idea what President Bush will say today, but I imagine that he will use the commemoration of Memorial Day to remind people of the great American soldiers of the past who fought to spread freedom and democracy around the world. That’s not the message that needs to be given. If I were [...]

I miss the Freedom Fries. And the Freedom Toast. In fact, I wish we could have taken it further. Imagine the high-school kid who gets caught making out with his girlfriend, turns to his mother and says “Don’t worry mom, it was only patriotic; we were Freedom Kissing!” We could have had Freedom Bread, Freedom [...]

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; I’ve been in NYC visiting family the last few days. Since I left, however, it seems that a group of moderate Senators has joined together across party lines to avert a Senate shutdown. Take note, people, this is possibly a once in a lifetime event, and I’m not [...]

That bastion of the “liberal elite media”, the New York Times, published this article today detailing the on-going investigation of atrocities committed at a holding cell and interrogation center in Afghanistan. Two men died as a result of poor treatment, while the armed initial response was basically to do nothing. In fact, the unit stationed [...]

It doesn’t seem to me like we have a good idea, nationally, of what public education is supposed to accomplish. The No Child Left Behind Act seems to indicate that the purpose of school is to provide a minimal standard of knowledge. Employers want public schools to provide a reasonably educated work force. Universities want [...]

Bring the boys home. President Bush, yesterday, gave a speech stating what should have been the absurdly obvious all along: new democracies take a lot of time and effort to implement and they face a lot of pitfalls. He even cited significant historic precedent, including the Articles of Confederation, to back up this claim. In [...]

I have to confess I’m still a little confused as to what we’re talking about here. Seems like there are about three unrelated issues here:

Whether sufficient academic freedom exists,
How people react when they hear something they don’t like, and
How debate and dialogue should be framed to be effective

My quick answers are: Yes, Stupidly, [...]

You have to respect the art of political misinformation, even if it is incredibly frustrating and off-putting. So, if you haven’t been paying attention, these are the latest developments in the filibuster stand-off:
- The Republican leadership offered a “compromise” in which the Senate would debate each candidate for 100 hours before voting. The Democrats have [...]

Bush’s National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, came very close to threatening North Korea yesterday, should they test a nuclear weapon. Of course, we cannot threaten them with sanctions because they already forbid virtually all economic contact with them, and it isn’t clear that we want to attack North Korea militarily, especially if they test a [...]