Why Obama's Tiny Changes To Gun Policy Are Actually Really Important
ASSOCIATED PRESS
View mobile site
For the established Republican order, the vista presented by this new year is filled with bewilderment and foreboding. For the last 28 years of presidential primaries, the consultants, donors and loyalists who constituted the party's so-called mainstream have taken it for granted that, in the end, the "most electable conservative" would once again ward off insurrection by the Visigoths of the GOP's outer reaches.
STILLFX via Getty Images
Today I'm pleading with my fellow gun owners to join with me being a part of the solution. This is common sense, and, ultimately, the best way to advance and protect the Second Amendment right we hold dear.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Here's the bottom line: The middle class is in crisis, and Secretary Clinton's proposals merely tinker at the margins of that crisis. They would not shift the fundamental direction of an economy that is growing more unequal every day.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
As 2015 ended, this country was certifiably terror-stricken. It had the Islamic State (IS) on the brain. Hoax terror threats or terror imbroglios shut down school systems from Los Angeles to New Hampshire, Indiana to a rural county in Virginia.
Dear Donald, Ted, Marco, Jeb, and the whole GOP field, Are you serious? Are you seriously contending that background checks for everyone who buys a gun are bad policy and a threat to the Constitution?
Radius-TWC
Two powerful universities whose wrongdoings were exposed in The Hunting Ground have gone to great lengths to attack the accounts of survivors: Harvard Law, which protected an assailant who was repeatedly found to have committed assault, and Florida State University, which covered up a rape investigation of its star quarterback.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Donald is not important to American politics because he might become the president. He's important because he is accelerating an already dangerous losing strategy for the GOP, making them more accountable to a small, volatile part of the electorate. May God save our country from Donald Trump.
Andy Cross via Getty Images
Colorado and other pioneering states are showing us what a reality-based, public health approach to marijuana looks like.
SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
The bill, pushed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and corporations including Koch Industries and Honeywell International, would force the online disclosure of sensitive personal information of sick and dying asbestos victims seeking compensation for their illnesses.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Trump's rallies are as hot a commodity as Jerry Springer tickets. His "fans" are there for the spectacle not the substance. They want the hockey fight, not the game itself. The game bores them. They just come for the brawls and bloodshed. And Trump gives 'em plenty of both. "Don-ald, Don-ald, Don-ald!"
Aaron P. Bernstein via Getty Images
Ten weeks -- ten weeks from today puts us in mid-March. And by the time we reach mid-March, we shall have a good sense of the outcome of the GOP presidential primary. Predictions are always a hazardous undertaking yet their allure may be irresistible.
We are beginning to see signs that Congress may be willing to move beyond the partisan divide over the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which hopefully means that we can fix problems with current law, build upon what is working, and continue to make progress in improving our nation's health care system. It is about time.
It's not enough for individual believers to worship God as they see fit -- a right which I and most Americans are happy to acknowledge and protect. According to Scalia, the government must place its thumb on the scale and promote and advance religion over non-religion.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The killing of Sheikh Al-Nimr should serve as a prime moment for the U.S. to reconsider its alliance with the Saudi regime, a regime that not only denies human rights to its own people but exports death and destruction abroad.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Everyone else's chances for victory almost require Trump's support in the polls to suffer serious damage. If nobody else manages to break into the front rank, then Trump is the best-positioned candidate to win the nomination -- hands down.
djgunner via Getty Images
Patent and copyright protection are not laws of nature, they come from the government. And in recent years we have been making them stronger and longer. As a result, these forms of protection apply to a much wider range of products, which means the products of technology cost us much more money.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Trump appears to have relented to requests for his favorite passages in the Bible by sharing, "Proverbs, the chapter 'never bend to envy.'" But the trouble is that it's not entirely clear that Trump's favorite Bible verse is actually in the Bible.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
It may seem passing strange for a civil libertarian, a general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union, to be celebrating the birthday of the dreaded FBI director. But for me, Hoover, who would celebrate his 120th birthday on January 1, was a godsend.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Notice the irony of Trump benefitting from the politics of resentment. Billionaires like Trump make off with too much of the nation's income and wealth, at the expense of ordinary working stiffs. And then Trump puts on his politician's hat and cashes in on the resentment. And here's where it gets really tricky. Some of the ultra-P.C. stuff is silly and makes it easier for the right to lampoon liberals. The broader challenge here is that many of the causes that Trump and company put down as P.C. are legitimate and overdue. How long will it take before cops who brutalize black citizens are brought to justice? Do we really want to evict 12 million law abiding immigrants, many of whom were brought here as kids? But when the local working class is getting clobbered economically, it's easier to play off the races against each other.
