President Obama's Speech, May 23, 2013

THIS IS THE CORRECT ACTION AND LONG OVERDUE.

"For the first time, a president stated clearly and unequivocally that the state of perpetual warfare that began nearly 12 years ago is unsustainable for a democracy and must come to an end in the not-too-distant future. ... the United States must return to a state in which counterterrorism is handled, as it always was before 2001, primarily by law enforcement and the intelligence agencies. That shift is essential to preserving the democratic system and rule of law for which the United States is fighting, ... ."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/opinion/obama-vows-to-end-of-the-perpetual-war.html?pagewanted=1&hp

A Burial Virginians Should Respect

"Tamerlan, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, are believed to have set off two bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264.

After Tamerlan died in a shootout with police on April 19, disposition of the ethnic Chechen's remains became controversial with local cemeteries refusing to accept them, while some family members sought to have them transported overseas. Massachusetts officials, including the city manager in Tsarnaev's hometown of Cambridge and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, called for the body to be buried outside their communities.

On Friday, an official death certificate released by Menino's office showed that Tsarnaev had been buried in a Muslim cemetery in Doswell, Virginia, near Richmond."  http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-deserved-notice-bomb-suspect-burial-funeral-director-212654413.html

And Virginia and Virginians have objected.

Why? A technicality? Religious intolerance? Moral indignation? A technicality in the transfer of the remains: certainly merely correct the forms. Religious intolerance: certainly Virginia, the first guarantor of religious freedom, would not object. Moral indignation: certainly Virginians have laid to rest the remains of those condemned for more heinous acts. What doctrine, philosophy, morality, false piety would deny the human respect for a dead man in a dignified burial. We bury dogs and cats in "pet" cemeteries, do the remains of any man deserve less.

Guns for Grandma?

The NRA portrays and defends private sales of firearms as merely among family and friends. From a public notice on May 3rd by the U.S. Attorney's office in Virginia: "Kimberly Yvette Dinkins, 44, of Manassas, Va., was sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for dealing firearms without a license. ... According to documents filed in connection with the case, Dinkins purchased 31 firearms – all handguns – on three consecutive weekends from Nov. 17 through Dec. 1, 2012. ... the firearms bought and sold by Dinkins were eventually recovered from juveniles and felons who utilized the firearms during drug trafficking schemes."