On Veterans Day, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez fired shots from the general direction of the Ellipse and WashingtonMonument toward the White House.  Otherwise, he had no apparent plan and did no reconnaissance. Nevertheless, left-leaning religion bashers have found in Hernandez’s “Jesus”/”Anti-Christ” rants another opportunity to ignite fears thatall Christians are dangerous, inflexible, intolerant, etc.—and they can cite govt. “studies” to back up their claims.  A bit too convenient in an election year…  See:

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/9863-white-house-shooting-suspect-sparks-fears-of-anti-christian-paranoia

Three articles appeared simultaneously in The Washington Post, ironically on Veterans Day.  Two related directly to the last week’s United States v. Jones Supreme Court case regarding warrantless surveillance, and a third columnist didn’t appear to realize he was treading adjacent territory.  In any case, the Post editors, who as late as last year would probably never have published headlines such as the ones that appeared Nov. 11, for fear of ridicule, are thankfully energized.  See:  http://www.thenewamerican.com/opinion/972-beverly-k-eakman/9790-surveillance-skepticsdebunkers-get-rude-awakening, a powerful piece with a jaw-dropping punch line.

Direct attempts to rescind laws that once protected citizens have begun in earnest (see http://www.thenewamerican.com/opinion/972-beverly-k-eakman/9641-justice-dept-targets-freedom-of-information-act):  A Justice Dept. that is already under fire has taken the audacious step of targeting the Freedom on Information Act, a law first enacted by liberal Democrats back when it was to their advantage.  Today, not so much…  Among the proposed changes: lying to requesters about the existence of documents.  Due to the outcry, the Dept. just rescinded (for now) that particular section, but insiders say it is strengthening other aspects of the proposal to make it difficult-to-impossible for requesters to secure information.

In case you were tempted to disregard the Nov. 1 release of testing results by the Education Dept. and move on:  Don’t.  Boasting “significant progress” with a mere 1- or 2-percent percentage-point difference, when there is already a 3% margin of error takes guts, after all.  But what will really rile you is the Department’s failure to mention the items that make up the largest part of testing content — in the name of diversity and tolerance.  See it here, just published:  http://thenewamerican.com/culture/education/9625-new-education-dept-statistics-beg-questions-on-race-ethnicity .