Trayvon Martin Case Goes Beyond Race by Peter Funt We’ve all taken a crack at deciphering the Trayvon Martin case, so ponder this: George Zimmerman probably isn’t a racist and, if that’s true, then Zimmerman runs a greater risk of being convicted in Martin’s death. That such a theory is viable underscores the complexity of the case — thanks, in part, to Florida’s ill-conceived...

UPDATE: As mentioned below, Dick Cheney spoke for one hour and 15 minutes at the Wyoming Republican Party state convention in Cheyenne. Guess what “fair and balanced” Fox found memorable enough to become the centerpiece of and the title to their piece on Cheney’s appearance? You guessed it: “He has been an unmitigated disaster to the country,” Cheney said of Obama. And the title? “Cheney...

Do two make a trend? Richard Cohen of the Washington Post now writes a warm-hearted memoir of a post-White House encounter with President Eisenhower, ending with “He knew precisely who he was. That’s more than can be said for the people who now want to depict him as the eternal innocent.” It echoes my own experience back then and makes me wonder how many others like us later fell in love with a man they...

[Originally posted on January 11, 2011.] It’s that time of year.  Now, as the airwaves are filled with the same silly stories that the same silly people trot out every silly year, it’s timely, and I present it for your consideration, slightly altered and emended: NOTE: Spent all day Tuesday [January 11, 2011] at an update on changes to Federal and Oregon tax law for 2011. This is going to be very...

This isn’t about high school or college students. It isn’t about rednecks, reeling with beer, roughing up a gay guy late at night in some bar in the southwest. This is about the Secret Service and it appears to happen with some frequency. We’ve even seen an instance of it in this part of rural Texas when off-duty presidential guardians got involved in a local dispute and used their muscle...

Is inflation in this country well under control? You might think so if you listen to what’s coming from the Fed on the subject, or even from Paul Krugman, whose analysis of economic matters I usually find quite perceptive. Unfortunately, however, inflation here is not well under control when you look at it more closely and distinguish between “bad inflation” and “good inflation”...

Even before the humiliating failure of North Korea’s Taepo Dong-2 missile launch, the regime there was already considering the possibility of failure and whom to blame it on. Well, not exactly. The paranoid leadership apparently entertained the possibility of the “U.S., Japan and the ‘group traitors’ running South Korea” intercepting the rocket, and promised an ‘Unimaginable and Miserable Punishment’...

“The very rich are different from you and me,” F. Scott Fitzgerald famously quipped to his fellow scribe and drinking pal Ernest Hemingway… to which Hemingway just as famously replied, “Yes, they have more money.” Both men came from solid middle-class Midwestern stock. But Fitzgerald had gone to school with the rich boys and knew them intimately: the sporty banter, the careless...

Will the Summit of the Americas, to be held in Colombia this weekend, call for drug decriminalization? Columnist Julio E. Mayaudon of Venezuela’s El Carabobeno writes that despite all the evidence supporting an orderly decriminalization, an alliance of sorts between the U.S. and more authoritarian states will doom plans for legalization: The U.S. opposes it, preferring to put the burden on producing...

Did you know that working moms who don’t watch Fox are socialists? Neither did I. But then I asked some folks on Twitter, who were beating up on a friend of mine who is a left of center lady, not unlike myself, and was on Fox this morning (the national cable version, not the local), if they could link to the clip about which they were razzing my friend, since, being a working parent, I don’t watch...

George Zimmerman faced a judge today for the killing of Trayvon Martin.  He will remain in prison until his next hearing on May 29th. Following that appearance the prosecutors filed an affidavit to present probable clause for second degree murder.  Th affidavit states that Zimmerman profiled Martin and….. Later while talking about Martin, Zimmerman stated “these —holes, they always...

Could this be the dawn of a new era in the battle against illegal drug use? According to columnist Cristina de la Torre of Colombia’s El Espectador, for the first time in the 40-year history of the drug war, a ‘third way’ is being considered by leaders planning to attend the Summit of the Americas in Colombia next weekend: instead of a ‘shooting war,’ a ‘preventive war’. For...

With some context about Ann Romney’s early life as wife and mother…. Mitt legally sidestepped the Vietnam military draft by entering college and then by marrying and then by having children right away. Back then, for those who knew of these deferments and had family who would sometimes help with college, it was a path many took, and it was considered differently depending on who was looking…...

Time passes and takes with it those who can bear witness, reality becomes history, but in the deep well of national memory, the past holds lessons for the future. On this day 67 years ago, I was in uniform in a sleeping bag on a German farmhouse floor when someone shook me awake to whisper, “Roosevelt is dead.” At 21, I was part of a generation that could remember no other president. FDR had been sworn into...

Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons This copyrighted cartoons is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Several months ago I wrote this column on bullying which was syndicated nationally by Cagle Cartoons. As someone who talks to a lot of educators and kids I need to stress again: this problem is REAL. The new movie Bully is out. And it’s a film that needs to be watched and pondered by all. Here’s the trailer:

The announcement of second-degree murder which if found guilty of charge =25 years min without parole to life without parole. You cannot charge first-degree without going to a grand jury in Florida. She threw the book, it seems. Has to show a depraved attitude toward Trayvon in order to make a 2nd degree stick. The full evidences will tell the story. Florida has ‘sunshine law’… hold yourself...

Sorry to bother you, Mr. B. But something happened this morning I thought you should know about. What is it Selig? A leak in the piping? I hope my Stall #8 hasn’t been flooded. No, sir. Nothing that serious. It was just that guy who came by this morning. I don’t know who he was, but he said he was here to install gun mounts over the sinks and toilet bowls. Oh that. No need to worry. He was authorized....

It’s the last week of tax season: that annual gory, gruesome grind up Hill Ten-Forty (and Ten-Forty-One). Thus, a welcome surcease to my inevitable prolix prose. And, frankly, why reinvent the wheel? John Derbyshire was fired at the National Review this weekend, for finally crossing a line I’d noticed back in 2007:

UPDATE Orlando Sentinel: Like two worried parents with a wayward child, George Zimmerman’s lawyers stood puzzled in front of the Seminole County Courthouse on Tuesday and admitted they’d lost control. Zimmerman has not talked to or communicated with them since Sunday, said Craig Sonner, one of his lawyers. Worse, Zimmerman has done two dangerous things, his lawyers said, He telephoned a special...