Thou Shalt Think for Yourselves

As the nation continues to grapple with the best policy solutions to help prevent gun violence, powerful lobbying groups like the NRA continue to wield outsized influence over the ongoing conversation. That’s why pediatricians, who are currently lobbying Congress for stronger gun laws in order to safeguard children’s health, are treading cautiously as they quietly […]

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz says the current state of Formula 1 is “nothing to do with racing any more”.

This is why I don’t watch it anymore. The sport is managed too poorly for us to get any sort of real motorsport.

A decision from Pakistan’s highest court in Peshawar has ruled that US drone strikes on tribal lands have taken place illegally and in violation of human rights. The court found that the strikes…

The US government is waging electronic warfare on a vast scale — so large that it’s causing a seismic shift in the unregulated grey markets where hackers and criminals buy and sell security…

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has just published a study into the state of online copyright infringement in the UK, with some very interesting conclusions. The researchers found that 10% of the country’s most prolific infringers are responsible for almost 80% of all infringements carried out online, but with a bonus. These plus an additional 10% of infringers spend 300% more than ‘honest’ consumers who don’t infringe copyright at all.

The number of cases of measles in the Swansea area has risen by 13, bringing the total to 1,074, health officials have said.

Vaccinate.

The nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation is raising money to pay for a court stenographer to transcribe the events of Bradley Manning’s court martial. Over the next three to four months, the…

Former Archbishop of York David Hope has “strenuously denied” he “acted negligently” in not referring sexual abuse complaints against a Church of England cleric to police.

President Obama came into office 2009 with a promise to make his administration the most “open” in history in terms of revealing information to the public about the inner-workings of government, a…

Earlier this week, a Mississippi man escaped death by just a few hours when the state Supreme Court agreed to block his execution, scheduled for that Tuesday evening. Although hair sample evidence was available for testing, and Willie Manning’s conviction had hinged on unreliable jailhouse informant testimony, the court had just a week earlier refused […]

But we should keep using capital punishment, right?

More than nine million children around the world are sponsored by Western donors and a major new report on the work of one aid agency has found that sponsorship does improve children’s lives. It has reopened a long and fierce debate over whether this hugely popular form of giving to the poor is either ethical or effective.

Israel has approved the construction of nearly 300 new Jewish settler homes in Beit El in the occupied West Bank.

Ugh.

The Church of Scotland has held “useful” discussions with the Jewish community over a controversial report which questioned the divine right of Jews to the land of Israel.

Yes, that does say “the divine right of Jews to the land of Israel.”

The Army says Afghan poppies — the source of much of the world’s heroin — can be a “source of stability” for the war-ravaged country.