Sections SEARCH Skip to content Skip to site index Subscribe Log In Subscribe Log In Advertisement Opinion Supported by ByPaul Krugman Opinion Columnist June 4, 2018 Last week The Stanford Daily reported a curious story concerning Niall Ferguson, a conservative historian who is a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. The story itself, although ugly, isn’t that important. But it offers a window into a reality few people, certainly in the news media, are willing to acknowledge: the bad faith that pervades conservative discourse. And yes, I do mean “conservative.” There are dishonest individuals of every political persuasion, but if you’re looking for systematic gaslighting, insistence that up is down and black is white, you’ll find it disproportionately on one side of the political spectrum. And the trouble many have in accepting that asymmetry is an important reason for the mess we’re … [Read more...] about Opinion
Opinion
Opinion: Trump melts down after Cohen raid
Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post Published 7:52 am, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 Now Playing: President Trump continued his criticism of the FBI raid of the office of Michael Cohen. Media: GeoBeats In an extraordinary series of events, the FBI executed a no-knock raid on President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen's office, home and hotel. The president, seated alongside his top military and civilian national security advisers to discuss a response to the Syrians' use of chemical weapons, launched into a rant in which he did not rule out firing special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, accused law enforcement of bias, whined that Hillary Clinton was not being prosecuted, suggested Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein had behaved improperly in signing off on the Foreign Intelligence Amendment Act (FISA) warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page, railed again at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not recusing himself (and thereby allowing the … [Read more...] about Opinion: Trump melts down after Cohen raid
OPINION: Are there enough beds in our NHS?
Opinion Generic stock photo of a nurse on a ward. Photo: Rui Vieira/PA Wire Archant It’s been another tumultuous week for the region’s mental health trust, as over the border in Suffolk there was an announcement that inpatient beds would be closed on Lark ward, at Ipswich Hospital. There is a lot of talk in health at the moment about keeping people out of hospital, in the community. This isn’t only in mental health care - in an interview with the boss of Norfolk’s new drug and alcohol service published in this newspaper today, she points towards more community care. And over recent years hospitals have reduced their bed numbers as research showed patients recovered better at home with the right care and support in place. But then what happens when someone does need a bed and there are none available? We’ve seen this happen with tragic consequences in the past, and just last week a stroke patient from Northrepps was asked to move to a day room so … [Read more...] about OPINION: Are there enough beds in our NHS?
OPINION: ‘Italy’s mandatory vaccine law should be adopted worldwide’
A recently passed law making vaccinations compulsory for school starters provoked fierce debate in Italy. Alberto Giubilini, an Italian expert on infectious diseases currently working at the University of Oxford, explains why he thinks other countries should copy Italy's vaccine law. In the first four months of this year, around 1,500 cases of measles were reported in Italy. As a response to the outbreak, the Italian government introduced a law making 12 vaccinations mandatory for preschool and school-age children. Parents will have to provide proof of vaccination when they enrol their children in nursery or preschool. In this respect, the Italian policy follows the example of vaccination policies in the US. But there’s one crucial difference: the Italian law doesn’t allow parents to opt out on the grounds of “conscientious objection”. Unvaccinated school-age children, up to 16 years old, will still be able to enrol in school – but their parents will … [Read more...] about OPINION: ‘Italy’s mandatory vaccine law should be adopted worldwide’
OPINION: ‘Circumcision is an existential question’
Ervin Kohn, President of the Jewish Community in Oslo, tells The Local that a ban on circumcision, or brit milah, would mean the end of his 720-strong community. Anne Lindboe, Norway's children's ombudsman, is an ambitious woman. It's interesting that since she took office more than a year ago, she's written two opinion pieces in the newspapers, both of them on circumcision. There are a lot of problems concerning children which she has not addressed, but she has addressed this twice. I think she gets a very good reception from the general public in Norway. It's a strange custom to most Norwegians. They're not used to it, and the general public is secular, so it's easy for them to look on it as barbaric. People find it repulsive. They look at these newborns and think 'poor babies'. In the public debate, they propose an age limit of 15-16 years, so they're arguing that they're not proposing a ban, even though we are obligated to do it on the eighth day of … [Read more...] about OPINION: ‘Circumcision is an existential question’