Melanie Phillips has a story in The Spectator, which, if it came from someone less perspicacious, I’d probably write off.  I had to arrest the loading of the screen on each of the three pages of the article to get it to stay visible long enough to read it, and unfortunately, her site’s not presently loading for me.  I read it quickly once through, but the outline is as follows.

I have some errands to take care of, but while I’m gone I’ll leave you with a letter to the editor that appeared in today’s Rocky Mountain News.  What you do with/to it is entirely up to you.  Todd Gochenour, “A DIFFERING VIEW: How is U.S. any different from Iran?” In its editorial of April 10, ““No real winner in hostage crisis,” the Rocky Mountain News lambastes the Iranian government

I mean, if Bush can control entire weather systems—launching hurricanes meant to turn simple black folk into rape-happy cannibals—than surely controlling one little messed up Korean dude and his pair of pistols is something he can likely do while shaving, or eating a waffle stack, or watching “The 700 Club”: Speaking at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network event in New York, [Presidential candidate, plagiarist, and Pat Riley wannabe Joe] Biden

From the Weekly Standard’s “Scrapbook”: In the Don Imus vs. Al Sharpton celebrity tag-team cage match that obsessed Washington last week, and which ended with the radio jock’s firing for racial insensitivity at the hands of his risk-averse CBS and MSNBC bosses, THE SCRAPBOOK has to confess that it couldn’t work up a rooting interest either way. As National Review’s Rich Lowry noted in his syndicated column, the controversy over

Pajamas Media is liveblogging the Alberto Gonzales hearings, which—like most politically-motivated witchhunts—is devolving into a cartoon version of some sixties protest.  Writes Captain Ed: “They’re breaking for lunch, and the audience is catcalling Gonzales, yelling ‘Liar!’ and something about torture, and now ‘Impeach! Impeach!’ It’s a farce, and so is this hearing, on both sides.” Meanwhile—in a further Democratic effort to bring America together and, in the process, raise US

In the interests of fairness, I point you to the WSJ’s take on gun-control vs. anti-gun control advocacy claims (full article available to subscribers only, so I’ll excerpt at length): The Virginia Tech shootings have reignited the gun-control debate, with both sides marshalling suspect numbers. Gun violence “is costing this country over $100 billion a year,” New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who is pushing tougher gun-control laws, said this week

Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune, “‘Accommodations’ could open door to more demands”: Last week, I wrote about Minneapolis Community and Technical College’s proposal to install ritual washing facilities to facilitate Muslim prayer. Is this a tempest in a teapot, as some have suggested? Canada, our neighbor to the north, is farther down the “accommodations” road. A glance north can shed light on whether prayer spaces and ritual washing facilities are likely

This week’s podcast features Jeff Goldstein and Neo-neocon on the inexorable attraction of defeat in Iraq, America’s penchant for self-flagellation, and finding meaning in a chocolate Jesus. Why does doom sell, and why are we so susceptible to the pitch?

From the SunJournal, Maine, “‘Hate incident’ in city”: One student has been suspended and more disciplinary action could follow a possible hate crime at Lewiston Middle School, Superintendent Leon Levesque said Wednesday. On April 11, a white student placed a ham steak in a bag on a lunch table where Somali students were eating. Muslims consider pork unclean and offensive. The act reminded students of a man who threw a

Inasmuch as yesterday’s thread on the merits of concealed carry permits on college campuses / in “school zones” turned into something of a cop-bashing thread instead of a more concentrated discussion on just how effective more permissive CC laws might prove to be either as a defense or a deterrent against rampage violence, I thought I’d reintroduce the question here. Because my point was not to question the efficacy of