At the same time we're worrying about what enemies like North Korea and Iran are up to, maybe we could expend a little effort trying to get our allies to join the modern world:
A Saudi newspaper says the kingdom's religious police are now allowing women to ride motorbikes and bicycles but only in restricted, recreational areas.
I'm sorry if you think is a silly post. Wait, actually I'm not:
The commentator who posted about this called it an "absurd" decision. A "gutless and heartless decision" seems more appropriate to me:
Last Friday, the U.S. Army formally decided not to award Purple Heart medals to the victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, which claimed 13 lives and wounded 32 people. The Army preposterously claims that handing out medals would damage Major Nidal Hasan’s “ability to receive a fair trial.”
The problem with gun-purc hase background checks few seem willing to talk about:
WASHINGTON — About 4,000 Hoosiers could not pass a federal background check to buy a gun because of mental illness.
In Delaware, a state about one-seventh the size of Indiana, a background check would block nearly 19,000 people with mental illness records from getting a gun.
The "Freedom in the 50 States" study measured economic and personal freedom using a wide range of criteria, including tax rates, government spending and debt, regulatory burdens, and state laws covering land use, union organizing, gun control, education choice and more.
Unbelievably, the Supreme Court has been considering other issues besides gay marriage. In a apparent victory for privacy rights, it ruled this week that using a trained dog to sniff for drugs on the porch of a home constitutes a seach and if it's done without a warrant it violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition again unsreasonable searches. I say "apparent," because some legal analysts are unhappy with how narrowly the case was decided:
Gotta hand it to Justice Sotomayor. She asked the most pertinent question about gay marriage of Ted Olson, one of its advocates arguing before the Supreme Court:
Mr. Olson, the bottom line that you're being asked -- and -- and it is one that I'm interested in the answer: If you say that marriage is a fundamental right, what state restrictions could ever exist?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked.
TACOMA, Wash. — John Connelly leaned forward on his barstool, set his lips against a clear glass pipe and inhaled a white cloud of marijuana vapor.
A handful of people milled around him. Three young women stood behind the bar, ready to assist with the preparation of the bongs, as the strains of a blues band playing downstairs sounded faintly off the exposed brick walls.
Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) wants to create a "virtual Congress," where lawmakers would leverage videoconferencing and other remote work technology to conduct their daily duties in Washington from their home districts.
War on drugs, the conservative view:
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A sweeping plan to overhaul Indiana's criminal sentencing laws will go before a legislative committee after Republican Gov. Mike Pence said last week he worried the proposal wasn't tough enough on low-level drug offenders.
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