Different Views on the Supreme Court’s Decision on Same Sex Marriage

The Atlantic -- Andrew Sullivan

It is Accomplished

“But some things you know deep in your heart: that all human beings are made in the image of God; that their loves and lives are equally precious; that the pursuit of happiness promised in the Declaration of Independence has no meaning if it does not include the right to marry the person you love; and has no force if it denies that fundamental human freedom to a portion of its citizens.”

SCOTUSblog -- Ryan Anderson

Symposium: Judicial activism on marriage causes harm: What does the future hold?

“This ruling will likely cause harm to the body politic: to constitutional democratic self-government, to marriage itself, to civil harmony, and to religious liberty.”

SCOTUSblog -- Erwin Chemerinsky

Symposium: A landmark victory for civil rights

“The Court’s decision striking down laws prohibiting same-sex marriage will be regarded as a landmark ruling advancing equality and liberty. It is the Court playing exactly the role that it should in society: protecting those who have been traditionally discriminated against and extending to them a right long regarded as fundamental.”

The Confederate Flag

The Atlantic -- Ta-Nehisi Coates

What This Cruel War Was Over
The meaning of the Confederate flag is best discerned in the words of those who bore it.

"It is difficult for modern Americans to understand such militant commitment to the bondage of others. But at $3.5 billion, the four million enslaved African Americans in the South represented the country’s greatest financial asset. And the dollar amount does not hint at the force of enslavement as a social institution. By the onset of the Civil War, Southern slaveholders believed that African slavery was one of the great organizing institutions in world history, superior to the “free society” of the North."

Chicago Sun Times -- Mary Mitchell -- Mitchell: South Carolina moves to shed itself of symbol of 'hurt, pain and humiliation'

I disagree strongly with those who claim the Confederate Flag is not a racist symbol. Slavery was a racist institution, and the manifestation of white supremacy.

Washington Post -- Karen Tumulty and Robert CostaOnce politically sacrosanct, Confederate flag moves toward an end

The banner was long considered politically sacrosanct in the South, at least among conservative whites. It now appears that a rush is on to banish it, along with other images that evoke the Confederacy and sow racial divisiveness.

The Daily Beast -- Jack Hunter -- The ‘Southern Avenger’ Repents: I Was Wrong About the Confederate Flag

Putting people before an agenda or broad prejudices puts us all in a much better place. It can, and should, make us repentant of our past behavior. It did for me.

Maybe the primary campaigns won’t just be dull

Fox news -- Jeb on the Tonight Show

Fallon noted that "Tonight" had a lot of younger viewers, and wondered what type of message Bush would offer them.

"I think we need high, sustained economic growth so they can get jobs," he replied.

“Fallon wondered what his message would be to older voters.

"I think we need high, sustained economic growth," he said. "To them, I would just say it louder."

Hillary and Jeb both declare they are candidates.

WSJ Blog -- Dante Chinni -- Why Clinton will be Hard to Beat

“...five charts, showing why she remains formidable—and where she has potential vulnerabilities.”

CBS -- Dante Chinni -- Jeb-Bush-previews-2016-campaign

"You can improve the life of people, whether it's in the programs for the developmentally disabled, or changing our economy, or fixing our higher education system," the former Florida governor added added. "All of these things can be fixed. “

An election in Turkey turns back President Erdoğan’s march to authoritarian rule.

NewYorker.com -- BY DEXTER FILKINS -- The End of the Erdogan Era?

"As he grew stronger, Erdoğan constructed a cult of personality about himself, which made him stronger still. He dominated the news, often appearing on television several times a day, commenting on or inserting himself into seemingly every question in public life."

NYTimes -- AP -- Turkey's New Parliament Features 4 Key Parties

Four parties will dominate Turkey's 550-seat parliament following Sunday's elections. Here is a sketch of each political force.

• Justice and Development Party
• Republican People's Party
• Nationalist Movement Party
• People's Democratic Party

College Politically Correct Dogmas Reflected in AP US History

Real Clear Politics -- Peter Berkowitz -- College Board's Reckless Spin on U.S. History

By obscuring this nation’s founding principles and promise, the College Board’s U.S. history guidelines will erode the next generation’s disposition to preserve what is best in the American political tradition.

Scholars Concerned About Advanced Placement History -- Letter Opposing the 2014 APUSH Framework

The new framework is organized around such abstractions as “identity,” “peopling,” “work, exchange, and technology,” and “human geography” while downplaying essential subjects, such as the sources, meaning, and development of America’s ideals and political institutions, notably the Constitution. Elections, wars, diplomacy, inventions, discoveries—all these formerly central subjects tend to dissolve into the vagaries of identity-group conflict.

WSJ -- Lynne Cheney -- The End of History, Part II -- The new Advanced Placement U.S. history exam focuses on oppression, group identity and Reagan the warmonger.

If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

President Ronald Reagan, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, 1987

“But when I looked closer to see the purpose for which the quotation was used, I found that it is held up as an example of “increased assertiveness and bellicosity” on the part of the U.S. in the 1980s. That’s the answer to a multiple-choice question about what Reagan’s speech reflects”.

Four Views of the Tragedy in Iraq

All agree that backing Maliki was a mistake

WP -- By Ali Khedery July 3, 2014 -- Why we stuck with Maliki — and lost Iraq

“The crisis now gripping Iraq and the Middle East was not only predictable but predicted — and preventable. By looking the other way and unconditionally supporting and arming Maliki, President Obama has only lengthened and expanded the conflict that President Bush unwisely initiated.”

WP -- Fred Hiatt -- Iraq’s tragic ‘unraveling’

“She was heartened by the narrow victory of a nonsectarian electoral bloc — and dismayed when the Obama administration nonetheless backed, in the post-election scramble to form a government, the divisive, Iranian-backed prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki.”

WP -- Marc Theisen -- Obama’s Iraq Disaster

“When Obama took office he inherited a pacified Iraq, where the terrorists had been defeated both militarily and ideologically.”

WP -- Fareed Zacharia -- Fareed Zakaria: Who lost Iraq? The Iraqis did, with an assist from George W. Bush

“The first answer to the question is: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki lost Iraq.”