Current Affairs

From this morning's NYT: [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/28/international/asia/28land.html?hp&ex=1135832400&en=553f5143549e60e2&ei=5094&partner=homepage] > [A]a 1989 statute that entitles people to sue the state, remains a beguiling fiction, scholars say. > "

The Washington Times gives us an excerpt from an interview with Howard Stern in the January issue of Esquire: [http://www.washtimes.com/culture/culturebriefs.htm] > But let's look at these people [on the Christian Right]. They want to take away a woman's right to

Curious about the National Security Administration's new tools against terrorism that has the civil libertarians crying in their apple martinis? David Ignatius at the Washington Post provides a nice overview of what's going on [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/27/AR2005122700718.

It's the honorable thing to do, but I cringe at the self-righteous homosexual brown shirts who see this resignation as a just result: > The Madrid magistrate who refused to marry same sex couples has presented his resignation to the Supreme Court. > Antonio Alonso, who is

> The State Department has launched an investigation into whether hard-line Islamic employees at the U.S Embassy in Egypt are working behind the scenes to deny visas to Coptic Christians, The Post has learned. NY Post Link [http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/59511.htm]. I guess the

> Paradoxically, Muslims in the US and Great Britain are, today, far more dominated by Islamist extremism than their counterparts in various Muslim countries. In many lands where the majority follows Islam, a struggle is underway between mainstream moderates and radicals inspired by the ultra-Wahhabi preachers of Saudi Arabia,

From a Washington Post editorial [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/21/AR2005122102055.html] , endorsing Judge Jones' opinion in the I.D. case: > If a school district adopts a policy of promoting a religious cosmology, however couched, in an effort to undermine science and

If you didn't hear, things didn't go well for the Intelligent Design folks in the Pennsylvania case. Judge John Jones (a Bush appointee) wrote a scathing opinion. Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/

A prison in Minnesota that houses 496 criminals--including 79 killers, 5 kidnappers and 17 burglars--doesn't have a fence around it, and the neighbors don't mind and, in fact, oppose plans to fence it in. Excerpt: > Residents of this suburb southwest of Minneapolis apparently