David Boaz

The Washington Post has a 12-inch story on Tuesday with this headline: Freshman from Arlington Comes Down With Mumps Is that news When I was a kid back in the benighted 60s, everyone got mumps. Why is it news today Because now we have vaccines, and kids don't get mumps any more. So ...

The Washington Post has a 12-inch story on Tuesday with this headline:

Freshman from Arlington Comes Down With Mumps 

Is that news? When I was a kid back in the benighted 60s, everyone got mumps. Why is it news today? Because now we have vaccines, and kids don't get mumps any more. So it's actually news when somebody gets "the mumps, a highly contagious viral disease." Sounds bad when you put it that like that, but it seemed a standard part of growing up a generation ago. According to this timeline, a vaccine was licensed in 1967, and an improved one in 1971. And since then, I guess, nobody gets mumps. Another reminder of why paying a high percentage of our income for medical care is not exactly a bad thing.

Bloggers are claiming a victory for the internet after a Mississippi man had his death sentence overturned.

Let me start by saying that I was not and am not a supporter of the Iraq war, and personally I'm an old-fashioned skeptic about religion. But I was appalled to hear Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a leading Islamic scholar, declare on an NPR interview show on Tuesday that the Pope's statements "themselves ...

To say that the Pope's statements are themselves acts of violence goes against the principles of liberty and freedom of speech.

Let me start by saying that I was not and am not a supporter of the Iraq war, and personally I'm an old-fashioned skeptic about religion. But I was appalled to hear Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a leading Islamic scholar, declare on an NPR interview show on Tuesday that the Pope's statements "themselves are acts of violence." Interviewer Diane Rehm wanted to make sure what she'd heard. She asked him, "You're saying that the language itself is an act of violence?" "Of course it is," Nasr replied. Discussing the violent reaction to the Pope's quotation, he declared, "He who uses the sword shall perish by the sword." Later in the show, Rehm read a quotation from a column by Anne Applebaum, who wrote that westerners of all political stripes "can all unite in our support for freedom of speech - surely the Pope is allowed to quote from medieval texts - and of the press. And we can also unite, loudly, in our condemnation of violent, unprovoked attacks on churches, embassies and elderly nuns." Asked for his reaction, Nasr said that such violence was "not unprovoked--it is provoked." "Because words are violence?" asked Rehm. "Of course," replied Nasr, "of course." I want to be careful not to pick out obscure members or adherents of any philosophy and draw large conclusions from them. But Nasr is not so obscure. He's a distinguished professor at a leading American university. He holds a Ph.D. in the history of science and philosophy from Harvard and is the author of more than 20 books, from publishers including Oxford University Press. His university held a conference honoring him, titled Beacon of Knowledge. The website of the Seyyed Hossein Nasr Foundation declares him "one of the most important and foremost scholars of Islamic, religious and comparative studies in the world today." So it seems fair to say that Nasr is not an oddity; he's a recognized Islamic scholar. Read more...

The Associated Press reports: When Susan Kuhnhausen returned home from work one day earlier this month, she encountered an intruder wielding a claw hammer. After a struggle, the 51-year-old nurse fended off her attacker by strangling him with her bare hands. I hope she isn't arrested for possession of dangerous hands.

The Associated Press reports:

When Susan Kuhnhausen returned home from work one day earlier this month, she encountered an intruder wielding a claw hammer. After a struggle, the 51-year-old nurse fended off her attacker by strangling him with her bare hands. 

I hope she isn't arrested for possession of dangerous hands.

As chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) is charged with helping House Republicans get elected and re-elected. In this difficult year for Republicans he's facing a tough race at home in the Buffalo area. According to the Wall Street Journal (paid reg. required), he's using ...

As chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) is charged with helping House Republicans get elected and re-elected. In this difficult year for Republicans he's facing a tough race at home in the Buffalo area. According to the Wall Street Journal (paid reg. required), he's using today's standard Republican formula: promise to cut taxes and spend, spend, spend:

Mr. Reynolds, with about $3 million in campaign contributions, has run ads on local television for more than a month, earlier than in past campaigns. The first emphasized his support for low taxes and few business regulations, ending, "Tom Reynolds -- Fighting to save New York jobs." Another had two retired military officers hailing his role in saving the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station from shutdown. The third featured a mother holding her toddler while recalling the congressman's help in forcing Blue Cross/Blue Shield to cover surgeries for the child's cleft palate. "Tom Reynolds has a big heart," she says into the camera.