Why We Should Get Rid of West Point  —  Want to trim the federal budget and improve the military at the same time?  Shut down West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, and use some of the savings to expand ROTC scholarships.  —  After covering the U.S. military for nearly two decades …

CNN the Latest Corporate Thug to Use Copyright As a Weapon to Eliminate Embarrassing Clips from YouTube  —  I'm sick of people knocking embarrassing videos off YouTube with bogus copyright violation claims.  —  The latest culprit is CNN, a network that was recently embarrassed by a video …

U.S.: Palestinians need not recognize Israel as Jewish state before talks  —  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people as a condition for renewing peace talks is unacceptable to the United States …

Warming Relationships in a Warm Locale  —  PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — President Obama, seeking to warm up relations with Latin America as he meets many of the region's leaders for the first time, spent Saturday here playing down his celebrity and casting himself as the new kid on the block.

The Torturers' Manifesto  —  To read the four newly released memos on prisoner interrogation written by George W. Bush's Justice Department is to take a journey into depravity.  —  Their language is the precise bureaucratese favored by dungeon masters throughout history.

The Bigots' Last Hurrah  —  WHAT would happen if you crossed that creepy 1960s horror classic “The Village of the Damned” with the Broadway staple “A Chorus Line”?  You don't need to use your imagination.  It's there waiting for you on YouTube under the title “Gathering Storm” …

Senator says Obama's appearance with Chavez ‘irresponsible’  —  (CNN) - Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, told CNN Sunday it was “irresponsible” for President Obama to been seen “laughing and joking” with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas on Friday.

Why We Should Get Rid of the White House Press Corps  —  Intense interest in the Obama administration has swelled the ranks of the White House press corps.  Outlets such as Politico have thrown a basketball team's worth of bodies at the project, and outlets that didn't even exist until recently …

Nato foils Somali pirates' attack  —  An attempted attack by Somali pirates on a Norwegian tanker was foiled by Nato warships and helicopters after an overnight pursuit in the Gulf of Aden.  —  Nato said a Canadian warship caught the pirates before releasing them after the gang attacked the MV Front Ardenne.

The Long Arm of the Law  —  A looming battle over the role foreign judges should play in U.S. courts.  —  From the magazine issue dated Apr 27, 2009  —  Harold Hongju Koh is a tweedy, brainy legal scholar who writes brilliant law-review articles that are carefully reasoned, if more or less impenetrable to non-lawyers.

Arguing the size of the “tea party” protest  —  In any case, experts see it as democracy in action, and that's a good thing.  —  ATLANTA -  —  How big was the Tea Party?  —  By some estimates, over half a million Americans took to the streets last Wednesday to protest taxes and Washington spending …

Despite Major Plans, Obama Taking Softer Stands  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama is well known for bold proposals that have raised expectations, but his administration has shown a tendency for compromise and caution, and even a willingness to capitulate on some early initiatives.