Top Items:
Deborah Howell / Washington Post:
The Whole Story on Military Recruiting? — Numbers aren't just facts. They can be interpreted in many ways, even if they come from the same or similar sources. — Ann Scott Tyson, a respected military reporter just back from Iraq, wrote in a front-page story Nov. 4 that …
Shankar Vedantam / Washington Post:
A Political Debate On Stress Disorder — The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Richard A. Oppel Jr / New York Times:
Iraq Vote Shows Sunnis Are Few in New Military — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 26 - An analysis of preliminary voting results released Monday from the Dec. 15 parliamentary election suggests that in contrast to the remarkable surge in Sunni Arab participation in the political process …
Discussion:
Informed Comment
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Robert Steinback / Miami Herald:
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not — One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help. — If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law …
Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:
Cheap politicians — I don't make a million dollars a year but I think every member of Congress should be paid at least that much. It's not because those turkeys in Washington deserve it. It's because we deserve a lot better people than we have in Congress.
Discussion:
Vox Popoli
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The Big Trunk / Power Line:
WHAT KUTTNER COULD LEARN FROM LINCOLN — On Saturday in "Thinking about the Great Liberator" I wrote a little on Lincoln's exercise of the commander-in-chief's war powers during the Civil War. Wielding Lincoln as his club, left-winger Robert Kuttner coincidentally attacked President Bush …
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Michael Yon / Online Magazine:
Montage Or Mirage — The election photo-montage I posted last week has a certain propagandistic feel to it. It has all the usual suspects: the waving flag, the iconic soundtrack (Fanfare for the Common Man, hardly on the Iraqi Top 40) and the sequence of photos selected to tell a story ALL IN BOLD CAPITALS.
James Q. Wilson / Opinion Journal:
Faith in Theory — Why "intelligent design" simply isn't science. — When a federal judge in Pennsylvania struck down the efforts of a local school board to teach "intelligent design," he rightly criticized the wholly unscientific nature of that enterprise.
New York Times:
The Right Stuff — As director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin has been Congress's top economist, handpicked by the Republican leadership. Recently, he had some advice for lawmakers - mostly Republicans - who insist that more tax cuts will foster economic growth …
Richard Bernstein / New York Times:
Hometown Snubs Schwarzenegger Over Death Penalty — The stadium in Graz, Austria, now has a generic name (top). Its old name was taken down as a protest over the California governor's decision to allow the execution of an inmate. — BERLIN, Dec. 26 - For years the quaint Austrian town …
Discussion:
Big Lizards
Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
Power That Bush Can't Just Take — Since the holiday season is a time of generosity and goodwill toward all — even those who torture the Constitution and hoodwink the nation into ill-advised wars — let's do a little thought experiment. — Let's assume that George W. Bush's claim …
Discussion:
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Jere Longman / New York Times:
With Coastline in Ruins, Cajuns Face Prospect of Uprooted Towns — GRAND CHENIER, La. - Cameron Parish, where generations of Cajuns have hunted ducks and pulled up redfish, lost about 400 people to Hurricane Audrey in 1957. Last fall, when Hurricane Rita destroyed thousands of structures …
Sebastian Mallaby / Washington Post:
My Son and I, Game to Learn — This year my knowing 11-year-old was told to write to Santa Claus, partly to keep the fun going for his younger siblings and partly because it forced him to write. He seized the opportunity to ask, naturally, for a computer game: more stuff to distract him from writing and books.
Washington Post:
White House Prevarications — GIVEN ALL THE fuss about what government officials in Washington say off the record, it's surprising how little attention is paid to some of the things they say on the record. Take, for example, the subject of U.S. emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Bill Frist / Los Angeles Times:
Reining in Iran — IRAN'S RULING mullahs have waged a 26-year campaign to suppress dissent, support terror and pursue a nuclear weapons program. In recent weeks, it has become clear that international efforts to stop Iran's atomic program have failed to bear fruit.
Discussion:
The American Thinker
Bryan Woods / StormTrack:
The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 — *** Warning: Contains graphic content *** — It was exactly on year ago today, December 26, 2004, that the devastating Boxing Day tsunami slammed into the Indian Ocean basin. The tsunami was triggered by a massive earthquake of a magnitude of about 9.2.
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Herbert London / Baltimore Sun:
Thwarting terrorists is top priority — Partisanship of an extreme variety has reared its ugly head in Washington. Several lawmakers now object to President Bush's decision to engage in domestic spying in order to foil terrorist activity, which, it is claimed, exceeds his constitutional authority.
