The Dumbest Generation is a book that is painful to read, but which Americans dare not ignore. The book’s title reflects the confrontational character of its findings: Mark Bauerlein addresses a topic that refuses to be ignored, and he does so with a command of the facts and the passion of a jeremiad.

Success or failure for a political lobbyist often comes down to access; without easy access to legislators, it is naturally much harder to apply the pressure to drive legislation in the desired direction. But lobbyists in Austin, Texas, may soon begin applying a variation on Chairman Mao’s saying, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” — albeit not in the way the Marxist dictator had in mind.

A recent New York Times op-ed is proving to be simply the latest in a long string of such pieces proving that the editors at the supposed “paper of record” simply do not “get it.” Opining under the headline “Preserving Reasonable Gun Limits,” the editors of the New York Times demonstrate a breathtaking disregard or misunderstanding for the nature of constitutionally guaranteed liberties in the United States.

According to its website, the Department of Homeland Security “has a vital mission: to secure the nation from the many threats we face. ... Our duties are wide-ranging, but our goal is clear – keeping America safe.” Unfortunately, while ostensibly busy with the performance of those wide-ranging duties, DHS employees have managed to lose track of nearly 300 firearms — and some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of known criminals.

When he was running for President, Barack Hussein Obama claimed that a decision to elect his opponent would mean, in essence, a “third term” for George Bush. The purported purpose for voting for the candidate of “Hope and Change” was to mark a break with the past eight years, right?

Are objects evil, or is it the purpose for which a person uses it which is evil? This is a fundamental question that underlies many public policy debates in our country, but rarely does it so near the surface as it is in the debate over gun control.

A Washington Post article details some of the appalling tactics employed by the CIA as operatives (some lacking any interrogation training) attempted to beat the truth out of detainees. As detailed previously for TheNewAmerican.com, the CIA’s policy of so-called Extraordinary Interrogation Techniques left corpses in its wake, and allegedly involved the routine violation of the U.S. felony torture statute, which defines torture as including “the threat of imminent death; or the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering.”

In recent years, a popular understanding has arisen that DNA is an infallible form of evidence; whether one is speaking of a crime scene or a paternity test, whether on the news or in a crime drama, “The genes don’t lie.” But now a new study has found that DNA can be as open to falsification as any other form of evidence.

When the Obama administration and congressional Democrats decided that they could start mandating that every American citizen make purchases as dictated by the federal government, the lurch away from rule under the Constitution to living by federal diktat was clear to virtually everyone. That the mandates imposed by ObamaCare are unconstitutional has now been made clear by the courts. And now at least one legislator in South Dakota is demonstrating the absurdity of the entire endeavor through a little legislation of his own.

In a development that ought to surprise no one, the Obama administration is planning to release its plan for new gun-control legislation within the next two weeks. The fact that Obama made no mention of such legislation during this week’s State of the Union address is hardly an indication that such a move is not on the administration’s agenda; it simply means that while the Democrat leadership is loath to let a crisis “go to waste,” that does not mean that they intend to broadcast their intentions, either.