Michael Shermer wrote an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times about Holocaust denier David Irving being sentenced to three years in jail. He brought up some points about the First Amendment that are relevant to the debate in this state about Fred Phelps’ appalling funeral protests. He writes:
“The important question here is not whether Irving is a Holocaust denier (he is), or whether he offends people with what he says (he does), but why anyone, anywhere should be imprisoned for expressing dissenting views or saying offensive things. . . .
“Freedom is a principle that must be applied indiscriminately. We have to defend Irving in order to defend ourselves. Once the laws are in place to jail dissidents of Holocaust history, what’s to stop such laws from being applied to dissenters of religious or political histories, or to skepticism of any sort that deviates from the accepted canon?”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Republican turned Democrat attorney general candidate Paul Morrison (in photo) isn’t the only person in his campaign being accused of being disloyal to the GOP. One of the co-chairmen of his campaign is former Wichitan Mark Parkinson — a past chairman of the Kansas Republican Party and a former GOP state lawmaker. Conservative activist John Altevogt of Kansas City contends that Parkinson is an “agent provocateur” planted by the Democratic Party to “sow discord and seek every opportunity to undermine honest Republican candidates.” Parkinson argues that Morrison’s campaign team — which also includes co-chairwoman Wichitan Jill Docking — “shows the bipartisan nature of this race and our effort to take politics out of the attorney general’s office.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Surprise, surprise. The Kansas House voted Thursday to expand a bill requiring state inspections of abortion clinics to include all clinics that perform office-based surgeries. It’s a commonsense regulation that reflects the changing delivery of health systems. It also reflects a political reality: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has twice vetoed a bill limited to only abortion clinics, but has indicated that she would support one that included all surgical centers. If the purpose of the regulation is to protect patients and not just harass abortion providers or create a campaign issue, why not support the broader bill that likely can become law? Interestingly, the change revealed the divide within the Kansas pro-life community, with Right to Life Kansas supporting the change, and Kansans For Life opposing it.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Government should help create wealth, not just redistribute it, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne (in photo) argues in this piece. It could do so, according to a recent study, by reconnecting the “nearly 3 million less-educated young people between the ages of 16 and 24” to education and employment.
Dionne writes: “The decline of manufacturing employment means the economy is producing fewer well-paying jobs for the less-skilled. These disconnected young men tend to go to the poorest schools, grow up amid concentrated poverty and in families that often lack fathers, and face persistent employment discrimination. Face it: The one expensive social program we have for this group is incarceration. Can’t we do better?”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
It’s understandable that communities would want to reduce the sleaze factor of sex-oriented businesses. But our editorial today argues that legislative and city efforts to restrict their signs, tax their products, and rezone their locations could be doomed to legal failure.
The reaction of local lawyer Steve Joseph to these efforts is revealing: “Oh, make me some money. I’m loving it.”
Lawyers might be the ones who benefit the most from these laws. Like it or not, sex businesses have First Amendment rights, and they have a record of successfully defending them in court.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
There has been a lot of talk about how our society’s morals are in steep decline. So it was interesting to learn in The New York Times’ pop quiz on marriage that there are more long-term marriages today than in the past and that “aside from a huge spike in divorce after World War II, the divorce rates in the 1950s were higher than in any previous decade aside from the Depression.” The quiz — which included a lot of surprising answers — also noted that divorce rates have fallen by more than 25 percent since 1981. Of course, marriage rates have also declined.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is the power broker in Iraqi politics — about the last person the Bush administration wanted in that role, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Trudy Rubin noted in an op-ed piece on today’s opinion page. “U.S. officials mistakenly believed Iraqi secular parties would do well in the elections,” she wrote. Instead, Sadr now controls more than 30 seats in the assembly and was responsible for the weak Ibrahim Jaafari keeping his job as prime minister. That hurts us, Rubin wrote, because “America’s ability to withdraw troops from Iraq will depend on whether a new, four-year government can prevent the country from sliding further toward chaos.” And after Wednesday’s bombing of a golden-domed Shiite shrine, chaos and civil war seem increasingly likely.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Lawrence Summers, who announced his resignation this week as president of Harvard University, showed how many professors don’t support critical thinking when it challenges their orthodoxy. Summers had several high-profile confrontations during his tenure, including when he demanded that professors do more scholarly work and be more politically diverse, and when he pondered whether there might be some innate gender differences that helped explain why more men than women go into science and engineering fields. As a result, a group of faculty has been campaigning for his ouster, including forcing no-confidence votes. But as a Washington Post editorial noted: “University professors, of all people, should not require mollycoddling; they should be willing to embrace leaders who ask hard questions about how well they are doing their jobs.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
President Bush acknowledged that his administration is sending “mixed signals” on alternative energy research. That’s putting it mildly. Bush was referring to how a renewable energy laboratory he toured Tuesday in Colorado laid off 32 employees earlier this month because of lack of federal funding. But then last weekend, the Energy Department transferred $5 million back into the laboratory’s budget so that it could quickly rehire the employees before Bush’s visit. After all, it isn’t much of a photo op when there aren’t workers.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Money may not buy love. But in Jack Abramoff’s America, it’s got to be buying something. Otherwise, the total lobbying dollars would be going down, right? The Web site PoliticalMoneyLine reported this month that a record $1.1 billion was spent in the first half of 2005 lobbying the White House and Congress, 8 percent more than the previous six months. That 2005 lobbying pace averaged nearly $6.5 million a day or more than $540,000 an hour. The 27,000 registered lobbyists from 2,700 firms represented 13,500 unique clients, with the biggest spenders representing health care ($173.2 million). Uh — and exactly how are those of us out here in one-man-one-vote America supposed to compete with those passing out all this cash?
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The new visitors center under construction at the U.S. Capitol has become a money pit. Big surprise. The project was supposed to cost $265 million. Now estimates are as much as $584 million, or about $1,000 a square foot. That prompted The New York Times to suggest in an editorial that the center deserves a more candid title: “The Big Debt Dig, perhaps, as the center’s cost overruns mount apace with the egregious mass of deficit, debt and interest run-ups that will mark the larger budget folly of the Bush era for generations to come.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The deal giving a United Arab Emirates-owned company the management of six major U.S. ports has launched a bipartisan mutiny in Congress, but the security fears are probably overblown: Shipping is an international business, say industry experts, with many flags operating in American ports. And under the deal, port security would still be handled by the U.S. Coast Guard and other domestic authorities.
That said, port security is a huge concern, and there’s some dispute about how trusted an ally the United Arab Emirates is in the war on terror. Allowing an Arab nation to operate U.S. ports sounds crazy to many Americans.
Instead of threatening lawmakers with his first veto, President Bush should consult with them about how this port deal was vetted and convince them that it doesn’t open the door to terrorists. Congress also needs to look into why port security — a glaring vulnerability with only 5 percent of containers inspected — remains woefully underfunded.
That’s something to really get scared about.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
As the school finance debate finally gets rolling, with a House plan coming out Thursday and a Senate plan next week, many numbers will be flying around the Statehouse. Here’s one that probably won’t be: $271 million. That’s how much money Missouri’s 11 casinos generated for public schools last year, and a lot of those dollars came out of the pockets of Kansans.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Democrats hold their biggest lead over Republicans in 14 years, according to public opinion polls. Nonetheless, many are convinced they will blow it again, and have started to point fingers. “Convinced they will face another disappointment in November, Democrats are already busy figuring out who among them should be blamed for the inevitable defeat,” Dana Milbank of The Washington Post wrote in an op-ed commentary, which included a “guide for handicapping the Democratic precriminations.” His list (which has explanations for each excuse) included:
It’s Hillary’s fault.
It’s Bill’s fault.
It’s Joe Lieberman’s fault.
It’s Harry Reid’s fault.
It’s John Kerry’s fault.
It’s Al Gore’s fault.
It’s Howard Dean’s fault.
It’s Jack Murtha’s fault.
It’s Nancy Pelosi’s fault.
It’s Joe Biden’s fault.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, tells Time magazine that his biggest surprise about the job is that New Yorkers come up to him and say things like “Give ‘em hell,” that Eastern Europe is due a U.N. secretary-general, and that he’ll never run for office (whew). Asked about the prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the Iran nuclear crisis, which goes to the U.N. Security Council next month, Bolton also sounded more optimistic than most: “I never would have guessed that Libya was prepared to make the calculation that they were safer giving up the pursuit of nuclear weapons than continuing to go after them, and yet they did. . . . And that led to substantial progress in the relationship between Libya and the United States. If Libya can do it, Iran can do it, too. That’s why I say the decision ultimately is largely in their hands.” Bolton’s handling of the matter will be crucial, too.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Mayor Carlos Mayans took issue with Monday’s Eagle editorial criticizing his push to bring back Wichita State University football.
“The issue is enrollment,” he said. WSU’s enrollment decline since the end of football in 1986 has meant a loss of “millions of dollars,” argued the mayor.
A football program, he said, could attract students and help keep them on campus — and would be good for Wichita’s economic development and community spirit.
True, football is popular — no one’s against it in theory. But WSU has studied football pros and cons and decided against it, for a variety of reasons. It’s doubtful football would have a major impact on enrollment. And it is WSU’s decision to make, not the mayor’s.
The bottom line is cost. Unless Mayans and football backers can “show us the money,” this idea is a nonstarter. The mayor said to stay tuned; he’s working on funding. “I love a challenge,” he said.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Most of the debate and media attention about stem cell research focuses on embryonic stem cells. But David Prentice, a senior fellow for life science with the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback’s stem cell expert, argues that stem cells from umbilical cords and adults offer the greatest research potential. He told The Eagle editorial board last week that thousands of people are already being treated with these cells. “You’re seeing real results,” he said, unlike embryonic stem cells, which he argues generate more hype than research results.
Meanwhile, there is an interesting theory that stem cells may be key in helping understand and fight cancer. Some researchers believe that aberrant stem cells are responsible for helping tumors regenerate, The New York Times reported. If so, anti-cancer drugs need to be able to target these cancer stem cells in order to destroy tumors.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The following satirical headlines come from the Web site borowitzreport.com:
HALLIBURTON WINS CONTRACT TO RECONSTRUCT CHENEY’S REPUTATION; At $42 Billion, Largest Contract of its Kind, Company Says
ATHLETE WITHOUT COMPELLING PERSONAL DRAMA EXPELLED FROM OLYMPICS; Skier Concealed Adversity-Free Past From Officials, NBC
WITH SWEEPS UNDER WAY, NETWORKS ASK RUNAWAY BRIDE TO RUN AWAY AGAIN; Ratings-Hungry News Nets Make $1 Million Offer to Wilbanks
CHENEY ‘STILL WAITING’ FOR IRAQIS TO APOLOGIZE; Calls Invasion of Iraq ‘The Worst Day of My Life’
MICHAEL BROWN NAMED SECRETARY OF DEFENSIVENESS; Stunning Comeback for Former FEMA Chief
U.S. OFFERS TO RELOCATE INSURGENTS TO IRAN; ‘Keep Doing What You’re Doing’ Next Door, Rumsfeld Says
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Good news: President Bush is studying global warming. Bad news: He’s getting his info from a Michael Crichton novel.
The president reportedly met last year in the White House with sci-fi author Crichton (in photo), whose novel “State of Fear” dismisses global warming as an elaborate hoax perpetrated by evil scientists.
Never mind that Crichton’s “science” in the book has been thoroughly demolished by real scientists — the president “avidly read” the novel and spoke enthusiastically about it to the author.
To be fair, Crichton recently received one journalism award for his novel — from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists!
“It is fiction,” an AAPG spokesman said. “But it has the absolute ring of truth.”
You can’t make this stuff up. What’s next? Bush naming disgraced author James Frey as his drug policy adviser?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Conventional wisdom has been that the confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito will be enough to swing the U.S. Supreme Court decisively to the right ideologically. But many are closely watching moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy to see how much sway his swing vote will have now that Sandra Day O’Connor has retired. And liberals are holding onto hope, albeit feeble, that the president won’t have an opportunity to further shape the court. The liberal radio network Air America has even been playing a song parody titled “Hang on, Stevens,” a parody of the 1965 McCoys’ hit “Hang on Sloopy,” with lyrics calling for 85-year-old liberal Justice John Paul Stevens (in photo) to “Just wait until Bush leaves before you resign.”
One revealing test of the new order of things on the court will be what it makes of the federal law banning partial-birth abortions, a case it accepted Tuesday.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Israel has frozen the transfer of about $50 million a month in tax and customs receipts due to the Palestinian Authority in response to the swearing in Saturday of a Hamas-dominated legislature. This is understandable, given that Hamas advocates the elimination of Israel. But former President Jimmy Carter argued in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post that such action could backfire. “The likely results will be to alienate the already oppressed and innocent Palestinians, to incite violence, and to increase the domestic influence and international esteem of Hamas,” Carter wrote. “It will certainly not be an inducement to Hamas or other militants to moderate their policies.” Do you agree? Is there any hope for peace? Is this the fruit of democracy?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., acknowledged on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the Medicare prescription drug program has had some “stumbles and glitches.” But he also pronounced it a winner politically for Republicans in the fall elections and beyond: “I predict that six months from now or a year, a program that gives seniors affordable access to prescription drugs which are lifesaving — which they didn’t have before, which on average saves them $1,400 — is something that those seniors will appreciate.” Recent polls suggest Frist is either ahead of or out of step with public opinion on the issue, though, with most elderly Americans viewing the program as too confusing, not applicable to them or unlikely to save them money.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, wrote an op-ed piece for The Washington Post explaining his decision to publish the cartoons of Muhammad. He said it wasn’t provocation for the sake of provocation, and it wasn’t a PR stunt. Rather, he wrote, “I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. . . . The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously — and we certainly didn’t intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.”
He also raised interesting questions about the interplay of religion and democracy: “Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Bush administration’s contention that it has authority to wiretap U.S. citizens without getting court approval isn’t holding up in Congress. Leading Senate Republicans have said they want some degree of judicial oversight — including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan, who said last week that he would like to see the program brought under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told “Fox News Sunday” that “I am adamant that the courts have some role when it comes to warrants. If you’re going to follow an American citizen around for an extended period of time believing they’re collaborating with the enemy, at some point in time, you need to get some judicial review, because mistakes can be made.”
Exactly. Critics of the program aren’t saying that the government shouldn’t wiretap; they just believe the program needs some oversight to guard against abuses.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If one foreign company buys another, it’s not usually a threat to national security. But the bipartisan worry is well-founded over the $6.8 billion deal that’s about to give Dubai Ports World, a company owned by the United Arab Emirates, control of U.S. seaports in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. This might be fine in theory, with proper safeguards. That was the root of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s assurances Sunday. But as Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, noted, the deal’s conditions don’t relate to the company’s hiring. Especially with our ports as underprotected as they are — only 5 percent of the 2 billion annual tons of freight is examined on arrival — most Americans would be wary of any port control by foreign companies, let alone one owned by the country that was the financial and operational base of the Sept. 11 terrorists. As Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday: “It’s unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history. Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
