Navigating past the
same-sex marriage ‘ick factor’

By WESLEY PRUDEN

This is not what Barack Obama expected for a coming-out party. The “historic” revelation that he is now fully evolved, as from tadpole to frog, and now grooves on same-sex marriage, was meant to be marked with quiet ceremony. No music, no flowers, no kiss, no dancing, not even a cupcake.

Rage and outrage over same-sex marriage would take everybody’s mind off the dreary economy, which whimpers on. Everybody was then supposed to shut up and get back to work (for those with work).

Should we obey all laws?

By WALTER E. WILLIAMS

Let's think about whether all acts of Congress deserve our respect and obedience. Suppose Congress enacted a law - and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional - requiring American families to attend church services at least three times a month. Should we obey such a law?

Suppose Congress, acting under the Constitution's commerce clause, enacted a law requiring motorists to get eight hours of sleep before driving on interstate highways. Its justification might be that drowsy motorists risk highway accidents and accidents affect interstate commerce. Suppose you were a jury member during the 1850s and a free person were on trial for assisting a runaway slave, in clear violation of the Fugitive Slave Act. Would you vote to convict and punish?

A censored race war?

By THOMAS SOWELL

When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks - beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work - that might seem to have been news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn't.

"The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug.

Planet Food: Ling & Louie’s Asian Bar and Grill

3801 Old Seward Highway (North end of the University Center)
338-5464

By SCOTT BANKS

It’s bad form to read restaurant reviews before you go to a restaurant to review it. But I couldn’t resist. Ling & Louie’s earned some bad ink and a fair amount of good ink. The beef that kept rising to the top was the lousy service. So I walked in prepared to get cranky and wait. That foul mood never materialized, the service was always prompt, friendly and helpful and the food was good, too.

Easterners are cranky
because they’re sleep-deprived

By TOM BRENNAN

I've been spending time on the East Coast lately and been getting some important insights on the difference between East and West.

For one, all the primetime television shows run an hour later in the East than they do at home in Anchorage. Then the evening news is on at 11 p.m., followed by Jay Leno and David Letterman at 11:30. At home we get the late news, weather and sports at 10, leaving our favorite practitioners of high-school humor on at the decent hour of 10:30.

Who is 'racist'?: Part II

By THOMAS SOWELL

Around this time of year, I sometimes hear from parents who have been appalled to learn that the child they sent away to college to become educated has instead been indoctrinated with the creed of the left. They often ask if I can suggest something to have their offspring read over the summer, in order to counteract this indoctrination.

This year the answer is a no-brainer. It is a book with the unwieldy title, "No matter what ... they'll call this book Racist" by Harry Stein, a writer for what is arguably America's best magazine, "City Journal." In a little over 200 very readable pages, the author deftly devastates with facts the nonsense about race that dominates much of what is said in the media and in academia.