There are a lot of interesting pieces regarding the horrific attack on the satiric French magazine... and some awful pieces as well.
One of the best is from Ross Douthat:
In this sense, many of the Western voices that have criticized the editors of Hebdo have had things exactly backward: Whether it’s the Obama White House or Time Magazine in the past or the Financial Times and (God help us) the Catholic League today, they’ve criticized the paper for provoking violence by being needlessly offensive and “inflammatory” (Jay Carney’s phrase), when the reality is that it’s precisely the violence that justifies the inflammatory content. In a different context, a context where the cartoons and other provocations only provoked angry press releases and furious blog comments, I might sympathize with the FT’s Tony Barber when he writes that publications like Hebdo “purport to strike a blow for freedom when they provoke Muslims, but are actually just being stupid.” (If all you have to fear is a religious group’s fax machine, what you’re doing might not be as truth-to-power-ish as you think.) But if publishing something might get you slaughtered and you publish it anyway, by definition you are striking a blow for freedom, and that’s precisely the context when you need your fellow citizens to set aside their squeamishness and rise to your defense.
Not the author's fault but one of the worst is Bill Donohue's reaction:
But not everyone is so supportive. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, a U.S. organization that "defends the rights of Catholics," issued a statement titled "Muslims are right to be angry." In it, Donohue criticized the publication's history of offending the world's religiously devout, including non-Muslims. The murdered Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier "didn’t understand the role he played in his [own] tragic death," the statement reads.
"Had [Charbonnier] not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive," Donohue says, in what must be one of the more offensive and insensitive comments made on this tragic day.
"Killing in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned. That is why what happened in Paris cannot be tolerated," says Donohue. "But neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction."
Douthat does what Donahue does not: separate what is offensive to them from what is permitted and needful to be able to say.
philly.com:
Cartoonists across the world react to Charlie Hebdo massacre
More politics and policy below the fold.
Josh Gerstein:
President Barack Obama fiercely defended the virtues of free expression following a shooting spree at a Paris satirical publication Wednesday, a sharp contrast to his more tepid response to previous attacks involving issues of religion and free speech.
Controversies over anti-Muslim rhetoric and violent reactions have repeatedly drawn in Obama during his presidency, ranging from the role of an anti-Islam movie in attacks in Benghazi, Libya, to the burning of Qurans by a Florida preacher to the administration’s avoidance of the term “Islamic extremism.”
McConnell says CBO estimate that 40 hour bill adds to deficit doesn't bother him. "It will be on the floor." #ACA
— @jrovner
National Journal:
Rank-and-file Republicans are fuming at what they see as the heavy-handed tactics of Republican leaders, one day after a divisive vote that narrowly handed Speaker John Boehner the gavel for another term.
Members who opposed Boehner on the floor are frustrated that two rebels have already been stripped of committee assignments, while the speaker's allies, angered by an embarrassingly close vote that played out on national television, warn darkly of more punishment to come. And some conservatives who backed Boehner complain that they are now facing a different kind of retribution—from the Right.
Boehner himself made a plea for unity and downplayed any talk of revenge Wednesday morning, a day after declining to reappoint a key challenger, Rep. Daniel Webster, and one of his supporters to plum committee assignments. Boehner said the decision may not be final, but his allies are not being so coy.
FDU:
Ignorance, Partisanship Drive False Beliefs about Obama, Iraq
False beliefs about the invasion of Iraq and President Obama’s citizenship still flourish among Americans, according to the most recent national survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind. More than four-in-ten Americans say it is likely that U.S. forces found active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, and nearly a fifth say that President Obama “probably” or “definitely” is not a citizen of the United States. Beliefs like these are strongly connected with partisanship and media choices, with Republicans and Fox News viewers being more likely to endorse them, but conspiracies thrive elsewhere, as well: twenty percent of non-white Americans, for instance, think that the Secret Service is intentionally leaving Obama unprotected.
“Our leaders in Washington can’t seem to agree on much,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of political science and the director of experimental research for the poll. “But when the public can’t even agree on basic facts about politics, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.”
Overall, 42 percent of Americans believe that U.S. forces found active weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq. Republicans are more likely to hold this belief than Democrats: fifty-one percent of Republicans think it’s “probably” or “definitely” true that an active program was found after the 2003 invasion, with 14 percent saying that it was definitely true. Still, large portions of other groups think that the WMD program, a major part of the justification for the invasion, was actually found, including 32 percent of Democrats. Part of the confusion may come from reports that individual chemical weapons shells, and related items have been found in Iraq, mostly thought to be vestiges of a WMD program shut down after the U.S.-led invasion in 1991.
“People who think we did the right thing in invading Iraq seem to be revising their memories to retroactively justify the invasion,” said Cassino. “This sort of motivated reasoning is pretty common: when people want to believe something, they’ll twist the facts to fit.
Margot Sanger-Katz:
Nationwide, we’re on track for a nasty flu season, with both a large number of cases and many severe ones that require hospitalizations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Twenty-nine states and Puerto Rico are reporting high flu intensity, through Dec. 27, the last week with available data. In some parts of the country, flu infections have outpaced those from each of the last few years, according to data from the C.D.C.
Google Flu Trends, which measures flu intensity using search terms, shows a similar pattern of high flu activity.
The worrisome outlook is the result of a confluence of factors: an early start to the flu season, with more people sick in December than usual; a strain that tends to make people sicker; a relatively low vaccination rate; and a mismatch between this year’s flu vaccine and the virus that’s making people sick.
“We’re already above the peak that we saw last year, and we’re increasing,” said Dr. Michael Jhung, a medical officer at the Influenza Division of the C.D.C. who predicts it will be several more weeks before flu infections peak.
Charles P. Pierce:
Somehow, another attempted terrorist attack has gone largely unnoticed. It is very strange how this happens sometimes.
Agents from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went to the scene after the blast to gather evidence and place markers. The FBI said that a gasoline can was placed next to the device but the contents did not ignite. According to the the FBI, officials are seeking a "potential person of interest," described as a balding white male, about 40 years old. "He may be driving a 2000 or older model dirty, white pick-up truck with paneling, a dark colored bed liner, open tailgate, and a missing or covered license plate," the FBI said in a statement said.
I think local and federal law enforcement immediately should begin profiling every man in Colorado matching this description.
Who am I kidding? Here's the CNN home page. Can you find the story on the attempted destruction of an NAACP office in Denver? Pro Tip: "Hunt For Terrorists" is the headline on a different story. Honest.
Politico:
Other data collected on the national and state level support Leighley and Nagler’s thesis. A 2012 Pew survey found that likely voters were split 47 percent to 47 percent between Obama and Romney while non-voters preferred Obama 59 percent to 24 percent, a 35 point margin. A 2006 Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) study found that non-voters were more likely to support higher taxes and more government-funded services. They were also more likely to oppose Proposition 13 (a constitutional amendment which limits property taxes), dislike then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and support affordable housing.