christopher_hallam

Jacob Sullum notes that Newt Gingrich‘s position on the proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero amounts to a rather paradoxical argument that protecting American constitutional values means abandoning them altogether: In Gingrich’s mind, “apologists for radical Islamist hypocrisy” include not only the avowedly moderate Muslims who are trying to build Park 51 (whom he […]

Culture war counterterrorism: The harsh Republican response to President Barack Obama‘s defense of a mosque near ground zero marks a dramatic shift in the party’s posture toward Islam — from a once active courtship of Muslim voters to a very public tolerance after Sept. 11 to an openly aired sense of mistrust. Republican leaders have […]

Eric Holder and the Justice Department still haven’t submitted federal guidelines for the prevention of sexual abuse in prison. At National Review, Eli Lehrer has a really good summary of the dynamics: But corrections professionals have asked for revisions on the basis of expense (yes, the standards will cost money to implement) and the theoretical […]

Reihan Salam and Will Willkinson have put forth non-xenophobic arguments for ending birthright citizenship. . Tim Lee had a number of good points in response. I personally don’t think replacing the cumbersome process for becoming a citizen with a cumbersome process for becoming a non-citizen guest worker will alter the economic incentives to come and […]

Reihan Salam and Will Willkinson have put forth non-xenophobic arguments for ending birthright citizenship. I personally don’t think replacing the cumbersome process for becoming a citizen with a cumbersome process for becoming a non-citizen guest worker will alter the economic incentives to come to the U.S. illegally. Tim Lee had a number of good points […]

Matt Duss notes this from Jeffery Goldberg‘s new Atlantic piece on the possibility of Israel bombing Iran: Bush would sometimes mock those aides and commentators who advocated an attack on Iran, even referring to the conservative columnists Charles Krauthammer and William Kristol as “the bomber boys,” according to two people I spoke with who overheard […]

Matthew Yglesias points to this Warren Strobel post evaluating the State Department’s annual Country Reports on Terrorism: There were just 25 U.S. noncombatant fatalities from terrorism worldwide. (The US government definition of terrorism excludes attacks on U.S. military personnel). While we don’t have the figures at hand, undoubtedly more American citizens died overseas from traffic […]

Rand Paul distances himself from libertarianism: I choose to use a different phrase to describe my beliefs — I consider myself a constitutional conservative, which I take to mean a conservative who actually believes in smaller government and more individual freedom. The libertarian principles of limited government, self-reliance and respect for the Constitution are embedded […]

In light of Republicans’ newfound fear of Islamic studies programs in American Universities, I want to highlight this old piece by Benjamin Popper about an academic discipline that poses an unparalleled threat to freedom: A paper (PDF) released this summer by two sociologists, Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, adds empirical evidence to this observation. The […]

Immigration restrictionists have tried to justify their support of draconian anti-immigrant laws like Arizona’s SB 1070 on the grounds that illegal immigrants cause crime and the fact that the federal government is not acting on immigration. In fact immigrants are less likely than the native born to commit crimes, and the federal government is deporting […]