Deep Thought

National Security — The King’s (Islamophobic) Speech. King’s public statements have revealed a deeply Islamophobic and paranoid streak in his thinking, and his list of proposed witnesses has shown a brazen anti-Islamic slant.

NYPD’s Religious Profiling – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic. This where you see the really long-term effects of terrorism. It’s not simply the number of people you murder, it’s how the smallest can alter the character of a country. Some incompetent asshole straps a bomb to his underwear, and now we have to get full body scans. The free exchange of ideas is one of democracy’s greatest benefits. Universities, ostensibly, are supposed to showcase that more than anywhere else. But for want of conjured evil, we’re willing to part with that asset.

Terror Hearing Puts Lawmakers in Harsh Light – NYTimes.com. But at Thursday’s hearing, there was no single institution summoned to the hot seat. The few outside witnesses who appeared were eager to combat radical extremism, not defend it. Mostly, it was the committee itself that seemed to be on trial.