Archive for 2014

CHANGE: Towns Say ‘No Tanks’ to Militarized Police: Growing Unease Over Departments’ Use Of Vehicles and Gear Designed for Battle. “Peter Kraska, a professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, believes recent revelations about federal surveillance programs are helping drive the discomfort with outfitting police departments like the military. The armored vehicles are ‘a pretty visual example of overreach,’ he said.”

Would you rather live in Mayberry, or Fallujah?

SO YOU’VE HEARD IT FROM ME, YOU’VE HEARD IT FROM BARACK OBAMA, AND NOW IT’S IN THE DAILY PRINCETONIAN: Many people shouldn’t go to college.

“GAME-CHANGER:” India Opens Up Tourist Visas. “On Wednesday, India announced it sought to extend its visa-on-arrival program to tourists from 180 countries, including the U.K., U.S. and China, in a bid to accelerate slow growth in tourism. . . . This slowdown, in part, was prompted by widespread concerns over women’s safety in India, which dominated national consciousness after the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in December 2012. A series of high-profile attacks on foreigners, including the gang rape of an American last June and of a Danish tourist last month, further dented India’s image as a popular tourist destination, travel agents said.” Yeah, I think it’s going to take more than easier visas to offset that.

SALENA ZITO: Pa. House race previews Dems’ 2016.

Sometimes the smallest races tell the biggest stories.

Take Pennsylvania Democrats’ primary race to replace Allyson Schwartz in suburban Philadelphia’s 13th Congressional District. (Schwartz is campaigning for the Democrats’ nomination to challenge Gov. Tom Corbett in November.) . . .

This race is the country’s first glimpse of what a post-Obama Democratic Party could become. Despite all of its post-2012 proclamations, Organizing for America — Obama’s campaign machine — probably will not run the world, let alone a very twitchy party that is ready to break away from the Obama years and stretch out on its own.

Obama has disappointed many progressive Democrats; he’s lost the connection with many blue-collar Democrats; he’s done no favors for many establishment Democrats on a host of issues, including helping to lose their House majority. As for Democrat outsiders, his presidency only emboldens their chances to be authentic change-agents.

Keep your eye on this race: It’s a small but telling glimpse of what 2016 will look like for the party.

Read the whole thing.

SIPPICAN COTTAGE: Why We Homeschool. “We simply have an approach. It’s very simple: Every day, we just make sure our children know something they didn’t know the day before. We require measurable results — from them, and from us. That’s it. That’s all. That approach is not attempted — that approach is not allowed — at the public school.”

As I say in my new book, nobody cares about your kids as much as you do.