Author: Eric Scheie

This headline from yesterday’s Detroit Free Press says it all. No motive at all! There! Isn’t that clear?

Well here’s some interesting news. It turns out that the Boston Marath0n jihadists may have (gasp!) violated gun control laws: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts police official say the brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon before having shootouts with authorities didn’t have gun permits. And to think the NRA crackpots say gun control does…

Now that the second Boston jihadist has been caught, I have a lingering question. Is it possible that the Boston Marathon bombing represents the birth of an American Al Qaeda? If it does, then the arguments over whether this is “home grown” terrorism seem silly.  And if it does not, is that because it is only…

Really? The man who said that was dead Boston jihadist Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who seems to have believed that the word “values” means those values which agree with his own. The man was a teetotaling religious and sexual prude and accomplished athlete who was obviously very proud of himself. He looked down on Americans, and no doubt considered…

Along with thousands of others in Ann Arbor, my power is out. Which sucks. Fortunately, I have a small generator, which will keep the poor fish alive and let me check email. Here’s how it looks, purring along. It’s an older Honda, not terribly powerful, but pretty reliable. I have a transfer switch so I…

During my recent struggle over the question of white privilege (something I have of course acknowledged having, whether I like it or not), my thoughts turned to Aurora shooter James Eagan Holmes, whose alleged conversion to Islam — including strict adherence to Islamic dietary requirements and prayer five times a day — has been reported in the British…

An article at Salon.com expressed the hope that the bomber is a white man. The reasoning? If recent history is any guide, if the bomber ends up being a white anti-government extremist, white privilege will likely mean the attack is portrayed as just an isolated incident — one that has no bearing on any larger policy debates.…

There’s an interesting article in the May issue of Reason titled “The End of Power“: Insurgents, fringe political parties, innovative start-ups, hackers, loosely organized activists, upstart citizen media outlets, leaderless young people in city squares, and charismatic individuals who seem to have “come from nowhere” are shaking up the old order. These are the micropowers:…

I’m seeing these headlines: Two explosions near finish line… COPS: 2 dead, 23 injured… ‘Somebody’s leg flew by my head’… ‘Like War Zone’… AFTERMATH FOOTAGE…**WARNING: Graphic** NY POST: Suspect questioned… Saudi national under guard at hospital… CBSNEWS: SAUDI WAS ACTING SUSPICIOUS… NBCNEWS: ‘YOUNG PERSON HERE ON STUDENT VISA’… Bombs were inside trash cans… WBZ-TV LIVE……

I’m delighted to see a showing (however slight it may be) of progress in the GOP. A bill introduced in Congress on Friday would fix the conflict between the federal government’s marijuana prohibition and state laws that allow medical or recreational use. California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said his bill, which has three Republican and…

Sarah Hoyt said something at her blog that I consider as brilliant as it is painfully obvious: You do not in fact have the right to stop people thinking thoughts you don’t like. As to why fewer and fewer people seem to understand this, I don’t know. It seems that especially in academia, thought police…

My dear old friend Amanda Marcotte has issued a warning about certain people in the natural food industry. Some of them are (gasp!) right wing. Which means that if you are going to buy organic food, you should be very careful. For all the good stuff in the organic food movement, there’s also a sector of…

“I cover policy for the Washington Post, not local crime…” So claims Washington Post reporter Sarah Kliff in explaining why she did not report the unbelievable carnage at Dr. Gosnell’s Philadelphia charnel house which called itself an abortion clinic. This is not about abortion, but infanticide. (I don’t approve of abortion, but there is an important difference.)…

I do not like the picture which is staring me in the face on the front page of today’s WSJ: I found it online. The caption: Prince George’s (Md.) County police officer Chandler Coleman, center, wipes his eyes as he listens to Vice President Joe Biden speak about shooting victims as he sits Tuesday April…

Via Ann Althouse, I learned that the government is paying people to go door to door and pay people $90 to answer questions about  “drinking, medicine and drug use, mood, anxiety, behavior and medical conditions and personality.” Like any sensible person, she wouldn’t do it. But others have: Yet over 100,000 people have participated. $90…

Well this just beats all. Animal rights activists want to sic drones on their enemies:  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is actively shopping for a drone that would “stalk hunters,” the organization said Monday. The group says it will “soon have some impressive new weapons at its disposal to combat those who gun…

Earlier I came across an amazing statement by our highest court: “Obviously, direct control of medical practice in the states is beyond the power of the federal government.” The Supreme Court said that in a unanimous 1925 opinion which held that the Harrison Narcotics Act could not be used to prosecute doctors who prescribe narcotics…

During a golf game recently, the president of Bowdoin College hit up a prominent philanthropist for money and the man refused, calling Bowdoin “a ridiculous liberal school that brings all the wrong students to campus for all the wrong reasons.” After that, the philanthropist was castigated by the president as a knuckle-dragging troglodyte, who had…

And leave the rest of the West behind. Seriously, check out these pictures. (Via Glenn Reynolds, natch.) They are all engaged in deliberate retaliatory provocation against religious bigots who want to stone a woman to death for posting naked pictures of herself (something which most Americans take for granted under the Second Amendment*): Earlier today,…

They may be mostly a group of lefties, I am delighted that the ACLU has expressed concerns about the pending gun control bill. …we have seen in the past that the creation of these types of records leads sometimes to the creation of government databases and collections of personal information on all of us,” Calabrese…