Latest Articles

No, 2014 wasn't the 'warmest year in history'

February 1, 2015  •  The Boston Globe

UNLESS YOU'VE spent the last few weeks in solitary meditation on a remote island, you couldn't miss the wave of media stories breathlessly proclaiming that 2014 was the hottest year in recorded history. As usual, the coverage was laced with alarm about the menace posed by climate change, and with disapproval of skeptics who decline to join in the general panic.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Spare the blogger and lash us instead

January 28, 2015  •  The Boston Globe

ON JAN. 9, the government of Saudi Arabia publicly whipped a liberal Muslim writer, Raif Badawi, flogging him 50 times outside a mosque in Jeddah. It was the first installment of the 1,000 lashes to which Badawi had been sentenced — in addition to 10 years in prison and a fine of more than $250,000 — for the crime of "insulting Islam" on his former website, the Saudi Free Liberals Forum.

Two days later, following the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the Saudi ambassador to France joined in the great Paris solidarity march in defense of freedom of expression.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

On immigration, it's GOP v. GOP

January 25, 2015  •  The Boston Globe

THE MORNING after President Obama's State of the Union address, Politico had a story on how Republicans had responded to one contentious issue. The headline: "Priebus struggles to explain GOP immigration messages."

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

Gun rights should cross state lines

January 21, 2015  •  The Boston Globe

DOWN THE street or across the country, a valid driver's license is all you need to lawfully get behind the wheel of a car. If you've met your state's conditions to be issued a license — passed the test, submitted your fingerprints, paid the fee — there's not a state in the country that won't honor it.

A valid license to carry a firearm should be treated the same way.

Continue to the full article  |  More articles

American to the core

January 19, 2015  •  The Boston Globe

THE FINAL words of his final speech, delivered from the pulpit of the Mason Temple Church of God in Memphis on April 3, 1968, eerily foreshadowed the next day's catastrophe.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life," the Rev. Martin Luther King told his listeners, who had braved a thunderstorm to be there. "Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain…. I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

Continue to the full article  |  More articles