Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The notion of 'savvy and sophisticated' Islamist supervillains is 'wildly off the mark,' Brookings' Daniel Byman and Christine Fair write in Atlantic magazine.

Many Afghan suicide bombers 'never even make it out of their training camp,' thanks to the jihadi tradition of the pre-martyrdom 'manly embrace': 'the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests.' (Theological question: Do you get fewer virgins for an own-goal?)

On the American home front, al Qaeda and its sympathizers often don't look much brighter:

• In 2006, an FBI sting rolled up the 'Liberty City Seven,' whose ringleader, the Washington Post reported, 'wanted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, which would then fall into a nearby prison, freeing Muslim prisoners who would become the core of his Moorish army. With them, he would establish his own country.' Sounds like a plan!
  
• 2007 saw the arrest of six Islamists who planned to launch an armed attack on New Jersey's Fort Dix, but were rounded up after they 'asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.'
  
• In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed associate Iyman Faris went to jail on charges involving a plan to topple the Brooklyn Bridge by severing its suspension cables with a blowtorch.
  
• The 2005 Jose Padilla indictment revealed that some Islamic terrorists haven't quite mastered speaking in code. One of Padilla's co-defendants insisted he was just talking about sporting goods on the surveillance tapes, but couldn't explain why he'd asked his co-conspirator if he had enough 'soccer equipment' to 'launch an attack on the enemy.'"

Abolish State Income Taxes | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary

Abolish State Income Taxes | Richard W. Rahn | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Why is it that some of the states with the biggest fiscal problems have the highest individual state income tax rates, such as New York and California, while some of the states with the least fiscal problems have no state income tax at all?"

"On average, schools, health and safety, roads, etc. are no better in states with income taxes than those without income taxes."

"the high-tax-rate states also, on average, have much higher per capita debt levels than states without income taxes."

"those states whose government workers are less than 40 percent unionized have median per capita state debt of $2,238, while those states where unionization rates are over 60 percent have a median per capita state debt of $6,380."

"Jurisdictions that imposed an income tax to generate a given level of revenue experienced lower rates of economic growth relative to jurisdictions that relied on alternative taxes to generate the same revenue."

"Income taxes, as contrasted with consumption (i.e., sales) taxes and modest property tax rates, are far more costly to administer and do far more economic damage (by discouraging work, saving and investment) and are far more intrusive on individual liberty. The states without state income taxes overall have had far better economic performance for most of the past several decades than have the income tax states — particularly those with high marginal taxes."

FOXNews.com - German court sentences priest to a 10-month suspended sentence for sexually abusing girls

FOXNews.com - German court sentences priest to a 10-month suspended sentence for sexually abusing girls: "A court in southern Germany has convicted a Roman Catholic priest of sexually abusing three underage girls and handed him a suspended sentence of 10 months.

The state court in Weiden said Tuesday it found the cleric guilty of unduly touching young girls below the waist during religious education classes in an elementary school in four cases last year.

The court also fined him €4,000 ($5,200)."

That doesn't sound like justice.