According to early reports, the three gunmen who slaughtered an office full of French cartoonists and two police officers, said, as they departed the scene, “We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed…” Charlie Hebdo, the magazine, is essentially dead at the hands of religious zealotry. For what, you might ask, did Mohammed demand revenge? The publication […]
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Free Speech and the Death of Charlie Hebdo
07 Jan 2015
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Are Terrorists Islamic?
07 Jan 2015
I just finished reading part of a transcript from an interview on MSNBC this morning of Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, and reliable liberal. The topic was the massacre of twelve employees of a Paris magazine that had spoofed the prophet Muhammed with a cartoon picture with caption. All I can say is, “Wow!” […]
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News. News. News. January 7th Edition
07 Jan 2015
In what I hope will become a running feature here at Bereans @ The Gate, here are links of interest for today: A sliver of the GOP attempted a coup against John Boehner for Speaker of the House. They failed. Now, there are consequences. Some of them will lose choice committee slots. If you plan […]
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Huackabee’s 2016 Chances
06 Jan 2015
Mike Huckabee (R-ARK) is considering a presidential run in 2016. He has stepped away from his lucrative Fox News show so that he can ponder the possibilities. (Fox does not allow employees to run for office while under contract.) Indications are that he will jump into the contest. Huckabee is, without challenge, the standard-bearer for […]
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Spending and the debt. Are we winning or losing?
05 Jan 2015
As the new Republican congress gets set to tackle the Obama agenda, its pertinent to ask if we’re winning or losing on spending. After all, this is supposedly the reason for the rise of the tea party–out of control spending on the part of the Obama administration. This past fall the U.S. government reported the […]
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Marriage Benefits Without Marriage?
05 Jan 2015
Brigid Schulte, at The Washington Post, has written an interesting piece on Isabel Sawhill, a scholar at Brookings, and the future of marriage. Sawhill has historically promoted and defended marriage based on its economic benefits for both parents and children. For example, children in single-parent families are four times more likely to live in poverty than […]
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Interstellar: What Hollywood Ought to Be
02 Jan 2015
This review is late. After all, Interstellar debuted seemingly eons ago and most of those who are going to see it in theaters have already done so. If you are on the fence about the possibility, let me implore you. Get thee to a theater. Interstellar demands a large screen, high quality sound, and popcorn drizzled […]
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As we approach the new year and incidentally, Old Christmas (January 6), I thought I would leave you with a few “gifts.” These come from Federal, state and even local actions over the past year. I don’t really wish these on anyone, but they are current reality. Release of five more Guantanamo detainees, whose threat […]
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Did You Know You Were a Criminal?
31 Dec 2014
There is a great article on the subject of overcriminalization published in the Federalist Society’s Engage (vol. 15, 2, Dec. 16, 2014). This is a topic which has been drawing greater attention in recent years, and even been mentioned by the likes of Justice Antonin Saclia as a growing problem. At its simplest, it is […]
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Experts and Innovators
21 Dec 2014
With the recent brouhaha about the IRS, the EPA (jurisdiction over all bodies of water, emission rules for power plants, etc.), the new Consumer Protection Safety Board (from the Dodd-Frank bill), the State Department’s follies, and other agencies, even at state and local levels, it seemed like a good time to raise once again the […]