Secularism vs. Sharia
The threat of Islamism in Turkey is overblown
On the Newsstand:Giving
The New Miranda Decision and Souter’s Harvard Speech
With the predictable 5-4 lineup, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that, in order to exclude from evidence incriminating statements to the police, criminal suspects must have unambiguously invoked their right to remain silent. The case essentially asked, what constitutes a waiver of one’s Miranda rights? Does sitting silent, unresponsive, for nearly three hours, as did the suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, ... Read More
Icing Bros
James Taranto at the WSJ writes Best of the Web Today and occasionally adds a ruthlessly mocking section titled “Everything is Spinning Out of Control” (itself a snide poke at a dumb AP article, “Is Everything Seemingly Spinning Out of Control?”). Regardless, I’ve finally found evidence that everything is actually spinning out of control. Deepwater Horizon? War in the Koreas? ... Read More
Memorial Day Reading
This afternoon, I came across George Orwell’s “Revenge is Sour” in a collection of his essays. Originally published in the Tribune in November 1945, it speaks to the emptiness of revenge and — more topically for today — to the disconnect between civilians and soldiers in war. Below is the final paragraph: The Belgian averted his face as we went ... Read More
Rand Paul a Racist? I Think Not.
Sam Barr’s most recent post makes the rather shocking claim that Rand Paul, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kentucky being vacated by the retiring Jim Bunning, is a racist, or at least that he is not a non-racist. Sam deduces this from the fact that Mr. Paul is not a “consistent libertarian,” that he “picks and ... Read More
Chris Christie Takes Down Reporter, Earns Grudging Respect
I don’t pay enough attention to politics in my home state of New Jersey. I think I fear it would sap all of my youthful idealism. I certainly did not celebrate Chris Christie’s victory last fall. And his governance so far has been exactly what I feared. He’s actually trying to do what he campaigned on: make huge cuts to ... Read More
Hypocritical Mediocrity
Why did Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad get a student visa and U.S. citizenship? Marty Peretz argued yesterday that he shouldn’t have because he was mediocre. But I don’t think that Peretz’ reasoning is much better than mediocre itself. The evidence of Shahzad’s mediocrity begins with a Spring 1998 transcript which, quoting the New York Times, “showed that he earned ... Read More
Paper and Ink (Online)
As the business manager of a print publication, I can’t help but jump into a discussion about the issues raised in Jeffrey Kalmus’s article in the most recent issue of the HPR about the decision by the New York Times to charge for online content. Two experiences last week stirred my thinking about the economics of print journalism. The first ... Read More
Picking Charities
It’s Relay for Life time again, so I’ve been thinking a bit about how charities raise money and which charities I’d like to support with a college student’s meager donations. More than twice as many Americans participate in Relay each year (3.5 million) than get cancer each year (1.5 million); Relay has become so widespread that participants can raise money ... Read More
My Visit to the Tea Party
Today, I did something which went against the deepest instincts of my time at the Harvard Political Review: reporting. I heard two days ago that Sarah Palin was going to be in town for the Boston Tea Party rally, and I knew this was something that I simply had to see. So this morning I woke up bright and early, ... Read More
