Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
On Saturday night, dozens of white, armed American militants stormed a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon seeking to take a “hard stand” against federal government “tyranny.” It’s a wild story. Here’s what you need to know. Sidebar The Oath Keeper Who Wants to Arm Black Lives Matter » Q: Where is this? A: The…
THE INTERCEPT HAS OBTAINED a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices used by the military and by intelligence agencies. The document, thick with previously undisclosed information, also offers rare insight into the spying capabilities of federal law enforcement and local police inside the United States. The catalogue includes details on the Stingray, a…
The issue that the most Americans regard as the most important one facing our country right now is terrorism. Fear is more powerful than reason. Not that there has ever been a reason to doubt that. The American public’s priorities are a bizarro version of Short Attention Span Theater, with issues constantly flickering in and…
Photo Hillary Clinton addressed guests at the Saban Forum held by the Brookings Institution in Washington on Sunday. Credit Mark Wilson/Getty Images WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton said on Sunday that the Islamic State had become “the most effective recruiter in the world” and that the only solution was to engage American technology companies in blocking…
Recent tragic mass shootings in California and Colorado have reignited a longstanding debate over when it is appropriate to call mass killing in the U.S. an act of terrorism. The debate has more significance in ideological and partisan battles than it does in the law. While federal law creates some special authority to charge international…
WASHINGTON — United States security officials told President Barack Obama on Saturday that there was still no indication that the two people who carried out the deadly attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 dead this week were linked to a larger terrorist group. The officials also told Obama that there was evidence the…
We are now into week two of the media’s obsession with Donald Trump‘s claim to have seen thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11, a claim that is at once patently false and worthy of endless debate. Enter former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to make…
After what was likely a heated debate around the editorial desk, The New York Times decided to rework a story that described Robert Lewis Dear, the man who killed three people and wounded nine others at a Planned Parenthood clinic on Friday, as “gentle.” A story published on Saturday about Dear’s background used that adjective,…
The New York Times this morning has an op-ed by Al Jazeera host Mehdi Hasan, whom I regard as one of the world’s best television journalists. Its primary point is one that has been recently promoted by others such as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes: namely, that in the wake of 9/11, George W. Bush diligently avoided,…
Nov. 20, 2015 8:17 p.m. ET In the wake of the Paris attacks and a terrorist video showing images of Times Square, some schools have canceled field trips to New York City, even as officials insist the city is safe. Schools in New Jersey, Long Island and Maryland this week abandoned plans to visit Manhattan,…