Latest Op-Eds at The Garrison Center

Three this week, as per the schedule I posited in an earlier post -- Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. All of them by yours truly:

US vice-president Joe Biden put American exceptionalism on display in a big way Saturday (February 7), laying down a tough line of patter to the 2015 Munich Security Conference. Biden called on Russian president Vladimir Putin to "get out of Ukraine," doubling down on US threats to escalate conflict in the Russia-Ukraine border region by arming Kiev's forces.

"Too many times, President Putin has promised peace and delivered tanks, troops and weapons," quoth Biden, by way of promising peace and simultaneously promising to deliver tanks, weapons and possibly US troops.

"Joe Biden's Dangerous Game," 02/08/15

Last May, the European Union Court of Justice asserted a "right to be forgotten," ordering Google and other search engines to remove "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive" personal information from search results on demand.

Glossing over the difficulty of objectively deciding what kind of information might be "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive," Google promptly complied. The web search giant created an application process through which individuals could quickly and easily register their demands that EU web users be forcibly made a little dumber. Maybe even as dumb as European Union Court of Justice judges.

Or maybe not.

"'Right to be Forgetten?' Fuhgeddaboudit." 02/10/15

Under "hate crimes" laws, if a victim belongs to any of various "protected classes," and if the criminal's motive is demonstrably connected to the victim's status as a member of such a class, additional charges may be laid and additional penalties or punishments levied.

Those conditions are repugnant to the 14th Amendment's requirement that all Americans enjoy equal protection of the law. They designate some victims as more valuable than others, and some criminals as more culpable than others, with respect to the same crimes.

"Hate crimes" laws also do damage to the 1st Amendment's enshrinement of our rights to think, speak and worship as we please.

"'Hate Crime' Means ThoughtCrime -- #everylifematters," 02/12/15

So far this week's Garrison Center op-eds have been picked up by other mainstream or popular publications five times (you'll find such pickups listed and linked at the bottom of each story) and I'm expecting a few more.

The Garrison Center neither seeks nor accepts financial contributions. But I do. Check out the top of the sidebar for ways to support my work at Garrison and elsewhere.