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Islam, 'honor' violence, and the silence of the progressives

April 13, 2014  •  The Boston Globe

"HONOR DIARIES" might not be coming to a theater near you, at least not if CAIR gets its way. The award-winning documentary about "honor" violence against girls and women in much of the Muslim world was released last month in honor of International Women's Day, and it didn't take long for the Council on American Islamic Relations to slap its all-purpose "Islamophobic!" label on it. The film has been shown in dozens of venues, but CAIR has raised enough of a stink to get screenings cancelled on several college campuses, including the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois.

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Unity in the death of a colleague

April 9, 2014  •  The Boston Globe

ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS, an award-winning Associated Press photographer, was killed on the job last Friday when an Afghan policeman in Khost fired an AK-47 into the back seat of the car in which she and three colleagues were traveling. Niedringhaus died instantly. She was 48, and had been covering conflicts and war zones, which she considered "the essence of journalism," since the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. By every account, she was a wonderful person and a superb journalist – "a life force," as AP's CEO Gary Pruitt put it, "spirited, intrepid, and fearless."

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Money in politics? McCutcheon's foes don't always say no

April 6, 2014  •  The Boston Globe

TRADITIONAL LIBERALS should be cheering the Supreme Court's decision last week in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which reaffirmed a value at the heart of the First Amendment: The best response to unwelcome or controversial political speech is more political speech. Democratic self-government depends on the right to participate in advocacy and debate, and the Constitution reserves some of its strongest language to support of citizens who choose to exercise that right: "Congress shall make no law" abridging it.

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Why no wine online in Massachusetts?

April 2, 2014  •  The Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS IS HOME to some of the nation's most enthusiastic wine drinkers, and Rick Libby of Ipswich is one of them. Libby is the owner of a California winery and the founder of The Traveling Vineyard, which promotes and sells wines through home-based wine tastings around the country. His passion for wines is infused with good humor; on his website and voicemail greeting, Libby identifies himself as "chief grape stomper and head cheerleader."

But when the subject turns to regulation — in particular his home state's bizarre prohibition on the shipment of wine directly to consumers — Libby is frustrated.

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How unborn babies become 'clinical waste'

March 30, 2014  •  The Boston Globe

JONATHAN SWIFT was being satirical when he penned his "modest proposal" that destitute Irish parents alleviate their financial woes by selling their children as delicacies for rich landowners. He assured his readers that 1-year-olds are delicious, "whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled."

That was satire circa 1729. Imagine what Swift at his most scathing would write today — say, a 21st-century "modest proposal" to use unborn fetuses for renewable energy.

But this — from a prominent story last week in The Telegraph, a British newspaper — wasn't satire:

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