Ultimate responsibility for the massacre of the 298 people aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 begins and ends in the Kremlin office of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Even if the triggermen who fired the missile turn out to be Donetsk locals, the so-called pro-Russian separatist militia fighters are armed and advised by Russian intelligence officers. Until […]
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Austin Bay: D-Day: Rangers led the way at Pointe du Hoc
Pointe du Hoc on Normandy’s northern coast was D-Day’s “high ground.” The promontory’s 30-meter high cliffs overlooked two long and relatively flat “beach zones” capable of handling large amphibious landing ships. The beach to the northwest is now best known by its D-Day code name, Utah. The beach due east — which connects to the […]
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David Sirota: Financial transaction tax could be helpful
If you read one business book this year, make it “Flash Boys” by Michael Lewis. The journalist famous for “Moneyball” and “The Big Short” takes readers inside the parasitic world of high-frequency trading that is harming the broader economy. The technical architecture of high-frequency trading is right out of a sci-fi movie — the schemes […]
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Rich Lowry: Democrats obsessed with bogus statistic
To paraphrase the line often attributed to Mark Twain, there are lies, damn lies and the “equal pay” statistic. The factoid that women earn only 77 cents of every dollar earned by men is the focal point of a feminist cargo cult. It has its own movement and its own quasi-holiday, the so-called Equal Pay […]
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Austin Bay: Venezuela’s gangster government blames America
Despite five years of Obama Administration “smart diplomacy,” Venezuela’s deteriorating socialist regime is following a classic script as its replacement caudillo blames America for his own regime’s legacy of economic folly, domestic repression, corruption and criminal turpitude. That America should continue to serve as a gangster clique’s scapegoat ought to surprise no one except the […]
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Rich Lowry: Media enjoy roasting Gov. Christie
Memo to Chris Christie: They hate you. If you don’t know who “they” are, you haven’t been watching the news or reading the papers. Usually, it takes winning the GOP presidential nomination for a Republican media darling to experience such an onslaught of gleefully negative press coverage. John McCain was the straight-talking maverick right up […]
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Leonard Pitts: Fourth Amendment going … going …
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Fourth Amendment. That’s the one that guarantees freedom from unfettered government snooping, the one that says government needs probable cause and a warrant before it can search or seize your things. That guarantee would seem to be ironclad, but we’ve been learning lately that it’s not. Indeed, maybe we’ve reached […]
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Rich Lowry: Obama will look for new ways to escape
In the great tradition of American civil disobedience, President Barack Obama is defying a law. It’s just one that he himself lobbied for, signed and lost a house of Congress over. Even Henry David Thoreau would be hard-pressed to understand this one. The famous dissenter refused to pay a tax because of his opposition to […]
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Austin Bay: Secrecy, privacy face uncertain future
Personal privacy is all but dead and gone, and we’re the worse for it, in my opinion. Privacy’s long goodbye began with Gutenburg. Though the invention of the printing press eventually gave us the gift of mass literacy, it also made gossip permanent. The camera gave paparazzi an anti-privacy weapon worth a thousand words. The […]
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David Sirota:Snowden is whistleblower of the year
For months, a debate over Edward Snowden’s status has raged. In the back and forth, one question about this icon who disclosed NSA abuses has dominated: Is he or is he not a whistleblower with all the attendant protections that should come with such a designation? As of last week’s federal court ruling saying the […]