Haresh Daswani | The business of terrorism

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For those who have not gone through the dossier that was presented about the Mumbai attacks, the observations on how organized and well-funded these organizations are well-established. There are many major groups who are funding around $4 billion in terrorist acts for camps in Pakistan. Imagine if this amount was used for good; the country would…

Sam Singer | Taking government out of the “marriage” business: (Another) reconciliation on gay marriage

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For hurling same-sex marriage back into the Op/Ed cycle, we owe thanks to gay-marriage supporter Jonathan Rausch and gay marriage opponent David Blankenhorn, the joint authors of a widely circulated New York Times piece which seemed to steer the naturally polarized dialogue toward more civil waters. In it, they claim to have reached a “reconciliation”…

Transcript and video from the first President Obama news conference

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President Barack Obama held the first prime-time news conference of his presidency Monday night. Obama took questions from reporters on topics ranging from the economic slowdown and discussions in Congress of his proposed stimulus legislation to issues involving Iran and the Middle East and the news that New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez has confessed…

Chris Graham | How? vs. How Much?

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We’re running a few minutes behind to get to the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner to hear former President Bill Clinton, and my wife, Crystal, is at wit’s end. We’d spent the sunny, springlike afternoon with my college roommate and his wife in Richmond and taken our swanky dinner clothes with us to change there instead of being…

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can be quite deadly

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It’s just words, isn’t it? “That’s so gay.” “He’s gay.” “She’s a lesbian.” Kids say them, they don’t mean anything. Pay attention, and you can still hear the crowd singing “The Good Ol’ Song,” to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne,” after a touchdown at a University of Virginia football game. “We Come from Old…

Lisa Schirch | The right to self-defense is not a strategy for peace

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From an Israeli perspective, the cost in international outrage and Palestinian civilian lives of the current attacks on Gaza is worth the price of crushing Hamas’s firepower. The goal is seductive, and Israel will likely succeed in slowing the development of rockets by Hamas in the short term. But just like Israel’s siege of Lebanon…

Supreme Court lets lower-court rulings in lesbian custody dispute stand

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The latest attempt of a Virginia woman to have the United States Supreme Court overrule a series of rulings in a long-running custody dispute involving her former domestic partner failed Monday. The Supreme Court let stand the lower-court rulings that recognized that a Vermont court has jurisdiction in the case involving custody of a child…

Cheryl Talley | Change we really need

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It was early on Election Night. I, along with fellow Democrats, had come to the Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant in Downtown Harrisonburg to watch the returns. A big tent had been erected in the parking lot. One of the organizers lowered the TV sound briefly and announced that cars parked in the municipal parking lot…