White House environmental adviser Van Jones has now resigned in the latest installment of the nearly frenzied partisan skirmish between the Obama administration and political foes who are clearly battling it and Barack Obama himself every centimeter of the way. But can this one be blamed on the administration’s foes — or on poor, incredibly amateurish vetting by an administration which needs to...

Politico’s Michael Calderone reports that MSNBC has taken down Pat Buchanan’s article claiming that World War II was Britain’s fault, and that Hitler really never wanted to murder six million Jews. Of course, abruptly yanking the piece in response to a storm of outrage on the Internet (including a tweet to Rachel Maddow from yours truly) does not explain why MSNBC promoted it on their site...

David Broder asks, in the context of possible criminal trials for high-ranking Bush officials who ordered and sanctioned torture (a word he does not use, of course):

In the wake of 9/11 attacks in the USA, the relations between the “Christian West” and the “Muslim World” took a nose-dive. Australia is among the few countries who made a concerted effort to win over the hearts and minds of the Muslims in their own country and elsewhere. Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, now on a visit to India, announced in New Delhi that the International...

Pat Buchanan’s anti-Semitic, ahistorical screed about Hitler and World War II (linked through Matthew Yglesias) has caught some attention today, although not nearly enough considering that this is the same man who accused Sonia Sotomayor of being a racist:

No wonder Americans are increasingly opposed to Obama’s socialist, radical vision of a nationalized health care system. Just look at what Obama will do to you, to me and to our loved ones if we allow him to succeed with his downright evil plan. In the first place, Obama’s diabolical health care plan would kill many of our children even before they are born, because Obama will force pro-life doctors,...

An article in the Washington Times this morning, titled “EXCLUSIVE: Lack of translators hurts U.S. war on terror,” caught my attention. Not because it is a surprise that our nation is woefully short of linguists and translators. Not because such shortage does indeed hobble our ability to effectively fight the war on terrorism, especially in the Pakistan-Afghanistan regions. It caught my attention...

The toxic and putrid combination of early 21st century hate/demonization politics and the language of outright violence continues to escalate: Parishioners leaving the Faithful Word Baptist Church in the East Valley Sunday carried not just their Bibles, but guns as well. Pastor Steven Anderson said he and his congregation have received death threats after a controversial sermon earlier this month. “Guns...

That is the title of Norman Podhoretz’s new book. It won’t be out until September 8th, but the current issue of Commentary presents a symposium on the book, with contributions from prominent Jewish authors, mostly conservatives. Best I can tell from the symposium, the main thrust of Podhoretz’s argument is that American Jews have confused the Torah of Judaism with “the Torah of liberalism”....

As I am writing this, Senator Edward M. Kennedy is being laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. He joins his two slain brothers, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. In fact, Senator Kennedy is being buried only a short distance from where his brothers are buried, and where an eternal flame lights the graves not only of the former president and the former First Lady, Jacqueline...

When bringing to the attention of our readers articles written by others, I normally try to add some of my views, my own perspective—my two cents’ worth. In the wake of Senator Kennedy’s death, three giants at the Washington Post have written opinion pieces on the Senator’s passing. Yesterday, David S. Broder and George F. Will wrote “A Man Unbowed and Unchanged,” and “The...

Carnage outside the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, August 19. At least 100 were killed. For those tempted to think that America’s involvement in Iraq is drawing to a close, this article by Fateh Abdulsalam of Iraq’s Azzaman newspaper might come as a rude awakening. According to Abdulsalam, the government is either winking at or directly involved in the truck bombings and attacks of recent...

Andrew Breitbart seems not to have gotten the memo about treating the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy with sympathy and respect:

Every person’s life is like a kaleidoscope. Some pick up another’s life, hold it to the light and all the glass chips fall this way or that. And the person sighting through the cylinder puts it down and turns away, saying they’ve seen it all, when in fact, they’ve only seen one facet, one pattern in another’s life. Thus some remember only one thing or two about the life of another...

Here. I would say, “Everybody’s a critic,” but truth is the government’s dislike of the festival has nothing to do with music and everything with the Methodist Church’s opposition to the coup which brought the government to power. [Sort of crossposted on my personal blog.]

In the wake of Lutheran acceptance of gay and lesbian pastors who are “living in committed relationships” and their approval of a resolution to “recognize, support and hold publicly accountable life-long, monogamous, same gender relationships,” comes the inevitable… What does monogamy mean? First of all, there are gay theologians whose definition of this term is very traditional,...

A question asked by a member of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) got my attention. The question was: “I think most members of Congress don’t understand what it’s like to serve in the armed services. How many members of Congress have served in the military?” The MOAA’s answer was: The numbers of veterans in Congress has significantly diminished over the years....

Comments that follow an article in a newspaper/magazine/blog generally indicate the quality of its readership. The Economist magazine does get an impressive array of views. I offer below the views, tied in a string in a random fashion, of different readers under the article “Losing Afghanistan?” Reader No. 1: “The real purpose of the (American) occupation is to extend and entrench western...

In the morass of new and old media, a big media story has been breaking — or, rather, a story that would have once been a big media story. It’s not as big as it once would have been — and isn’t being played up the way it would have been even 5 years ago — because the subject of this story has gone from being a powerful media giant to more of a weakening relic from bygone big media...

A new NBC News poll reflects that Americans remain skeptical about the Democrats’ health care reform plans. For example, “a plurality” believes that the Democrats’ health plan would worsen the quality of health care; a result that, according to MSNBC.com, “is virtually unchanged from last month’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.” Fair enough. The president and the Democrats...

WE ARE THE ATOMIC CHILDREN AND WE ARE STILL DANCING It began before we went to school… we asked for live ponies, but received inflatable whales made of polypropylene instead. But it was okay. We waited and waited for April so we could dance can-can tournaments in the rain. We wore eerie iridescent swim suits glowing like uranium. Our swimsuits were always too big and showed everything, or they were always...

We call her Dr. E., one of the most remarkable women I have had the privilege of knowing almost exclusively through TMV and one delightful hour-long telephone conversation on her nickel. We share numerous ailments brought about by the scavenging effects of diabetes but, if you read her post today, it dwarfs my ailments to a mere pittance. Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes in simple terms argues for insurance carriers...

I am a Catholic, and I didn’t know. I didn’t know that the Catholic Church bars the draping of coffins with the American flag during funeral ceremonies in the church—even if the coffin contains the remains of a fallen military hero. I imagine that this “policy” applies to all national flags, because in an article in the Times Union of Albany, N. Y., quoting Ken Goldfarb, spokesman...

He may not have a chance in hell of being nominated, or of winning if the GOP were crazy enough to make him their candidate in 2012, but that does not mean his presidential aspirations should not be taken seriously. Republican strategist Mark McKinnon says we need to sit up and take notice, because Santorum’s political ideology is as extreme as it gets:

India and Pakistan won freedom from the British colonial rule in August 1947. Pakistan celebrates its Independence Day anniversary today (on August 14), while India marks it a day later. Let’s look at the media reports of celebrations in Pakistan. Pakistani leaders called for peaceful relations with India and announced new rights for tribesmen (in the militant-infested area) along the border with Afghanistan,...