Charles C. W. Cooke

Discussion of the the implications of 3D printers and the history of the “insurrectionist” theory of the Second Amendment.

Discussion of the Benghazi scandal, the virtue of revolution in the Arabic world, and whether or not the American revolution can be called “great.”

Discussion of the political implications of the kidnapped women in Ohio.

Discussion of whether it matters that a majority wanted Toomey-Manchin.

Yesterday, the front page of the Houston Chronicle boasted a photograph of a five-year-old boy who attended the National Rifle Association’s annual convention with his family. In the photograph, the boy, Tate, is holding a plastic gun, “using a video-game at an exhibit booth.” “Focus for day: Child safety,” declared the Chronicle’s headline. The sub: “Families taking practical advice and positive memories home.” Tate’s mother, Rebecca, is both practical and positive: She wishes to make “sure [her children] know the proper way to be around [guns] and not to be afraid.” ›› Read on National Review Online

In 1995, a flabbergasted and irritated Senator Chuck Grassley informed the United States Senate that “83 and one half percent of all computerized photographs available on the Internet are pornographic.” Congress must act, proposed Grassley, “to help parents who are under assault in this day and age.” Online, he observed, “there is a flood of vile pornography — and we must act to stem this tide.” Whatever one’s view of pornography — or of Grassley’s ill-fated stand against it — the senator was destined merely to learn by experience what King Canute knew by instinct: However loudly you command them, some tides just will not be stemmed. “Continuing to rise as usual,” chronicled Henry of Huntingdon in the twelfth century, “it dashed over [Canute’s] feet and legs without respect to his royal person.” Witnessing his planned failure, Canute “leapt backwards, saying, ‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings.’” Then he hung up his crown, never to wear it again. ›› Read on National Review Online