Featured Articles — July 3, 2009

July 3, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles 

Interesting Takes From Home And Abroad:

The Meaning of Ricci By Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post
The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Ricci case — that white firemen suffered illegal discrimination when a promotional test on which they did well was thrown out because not enough blacks did well — will have no effect on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. While overturned on Ricci, she is protected by the four dissenting justices who upheld the side of the case she had taken as a Circuit Court judge. Sotomayor was additionally helped by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s insistence on reading her dissent from the bench, as if to emphasize the legitimacy of her position — and, by implication, Sotomayor’s.

Making History By Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal
Monday, July 1, was heavy and hot, and a full-scale summer storm passed through the city late in the morning. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania rose to speak. He knew he was endangering the respect in which he was broadly held, his “popularity,” but he once again counseled caution: Slow down, separation from Britain is “premature,” to declare independence now would be “to brave the storm in a skiff made of paper.” When he sat down, “all was silent except for the rain that had begun spattering against the widows.”

California’s Budget Crisis: Is There a Way Out? By Kevin O’Leary, Time
With budget negotiations stalled, a cash crisis looming and its fiscal crisis deepening, California today will begin issuing IOUs — formally called registered warrants — to tens of thousands of businesses and individuals to whom the state owes money. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday declared a fiscal emergency and ordered a third unpaid furlough day each month for 235,000 state employees. California’s fiscal crisis has been years in the making and will not be easy to fix. But is there a solution?

The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic By Kimberley Strassel, The Wall Street Journal
Wherever Jim Hansen is right now — whatever speech the “censored” NASA scientist is giving — perhaps he’ll find time to mention the plight of Alan Carlin. Though don’t count on it.

Flag Burning and Free Speech By Eugene Volokh, The Wall Street Journal
Congress is once again considering a constitutional amendment to ban the desecration of the American flag. The proposal, introduced this spring in the Senate by David Vitter (R., La.), and cosponsored by 20 other Republicans and Democrat Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, probably won’t get enough votes. Yet even if it doesn’t, one longstanding misunderstanding about the First Amendment is likely to live on.

Afghanistan ’surge’ will test Obama’s military muscle By Con Coughlin, The Daily Telegraph
President Obama hopes Operation Khanjar will finish off the job in Afghanistan that under-funded British forces have failed to do.

Pyongyang Pressure Points By Christian Whiton, The Wall Street Journal
Governments on both sides of the North Pacific may soon have stronger policies toward North Korea than they have in years. The question is how far democratic capitals will press North Korea to renounce its nuclear weapons programs. A key test is whether they can maintain pressure until the Pyongyang regime verifiably ends its misconduct. This is no small threat; Pyongyang has recently tested nuclear and ballistic missile weapons, not to mention its nuclear technology proliferation to terrorist-supporting states and its infamous human-rights abuses.

Iran’s Tarnished Foreign Policy By Meir Javedanfar, RealClearWorld
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad´s absence at the African Union summit was a bit conspicuous. After four years of globetrotting, it would take a lot for Mr. Ahmadinejad to give up the chance of addressing such an important forum as the African forum. The Iranian President has always felt that in places such as Africa he has an audience for his anti-American and anti-Israeli views. This would have been a perfect opportunity for him to declare his return as the new president, and to promote his image as a statesman.

Israel struggles to adapt to a changing picture of Iran By Philip Stephens, Financial Times
No one watches events in Iran more closely than Israel. Tehran has long been the abiding preoccupation, some would say obsession of political discourse in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Now the story line has changed

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