Where have the neocons gone?

McCain's and Romney's losses to Obama have thrown the neocons out of power for the time being. But these guys play long-ball, and they'll be back. I wish this article were kept up to date: http://thinkprogress.org/report/the-architects-where-are-they-now/?mobile=nc This is also a nice tracker. http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=douglas_feith

New York 'least free' state in U.S.

The Mercatus Center of George Mason University ranks states according to their taxes and business regulation and says that these are the worst states, in this order: New York, California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Rhode Island. The Dakotas and Oklahoma are the most free. They should either expand their criteria to add other freedoms, or change their title from 'freedom' to 'free market'. http://freedominthe50states.org/

Ultimate prize: forcing Catholic churches to marry gays

The Danish legislature today has passed a law that will compel all churches to perform gay weddings. If this violates a priest's conscience, his bishop has to find another priest to do it. But what about the bishop's conscience? I'm liberal by nature, but this doesn't respect the freedom of conscience or the diversity of opinion. The gay rights movement here is overplaying their hand and it will inevitably cause the pendulum of public sympathy to swing backwards.

Why we want to ban homeschooling in America

The Obama Admin is planning to deport a German homeschooling family who sought political asylum in the United States. In Germany, homeschooling has been banned since the years preceding the rise of Hitler. This puts liberals in a bind. On the one hand, we are for free choice in general, and natural local solutions instead of institutionalized corporate solutions. On the other hand, there are utopians among us who see compulsory schooling as the critical linchpin to ensure future generations believe as we do. With conservatives having babies at higher rates than liberals in general, they will overtake liberals in a democracy unless liberals can convert their children. This is why 'we' (liberals) want to ban homeschooling and why weren't squawking about this case, which would otherwise have gotten the attention of the ACLU.