Opinion

The hidden key to mass shootings and other comments

Ex-Prosecutor: Indicting Russians Is the Wrong Course

The upshot from Robert Mueller’s indictment Friday is that “the Russians are engaged in ‘information warfare’ against the United States,” notes former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy at National Review. But “our response should not be . . . the filing of a lawsuit. That is provocatively weak.” The better response to our enemies is via counterintelligence and by imposing a “prohibitive cost” that “makes attacking us against their interests.” Moreover, prosecution for such acts is “a dangerous game,” since America also seeks to influence politics abroad. “Do we really want to signal that we see such agitation-by-information as an indictable crime, in response to which the affected government should issue arrest warrants that will inevitably make it risky for Americans to travel outside the US?”

From the right: Economy’s Short-Term Future Looks Good

Three developments could presently derail President Trump’s economic gains, Irwin Stelzer notes at The Weekly Standard: the “rise in share prices, a wave of protectionism and political turmoil.” But Stelzer finds it unlikely recent market events “will have enough of an impact on consumer confidence to offset the stimulative effect of the tax cuts, at least in the short run.” As for “protectionist measures,” he cites former Fed governor Larry Lindsey, who notes that imports are but 15 percent of GDP and “even in a worst-case scenario,” President Trump’s ideas “are simply not apocalyptic.” And while there’s a good chance Democrats will take the House and seek to impeach Trump, there’s “no need to worry” about the impact on the economy. After all, Stelzer points out, during the “uncertainty surrounding Bill Clinton’s impeachment,” shares soared 43 percent and “the real economy grew at [an] annual rate of around 4 percent.”

Conservative: Overlooked Key to Mass Shootings

In the wake of the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting, observes Susan L.M. Goldberg at PJMedia, “no one in the mainstream media or government wants to acknowledge” the key issue: fatherlessness. She cites Warren Farrell, author of “The Boy Crisis,” who notes that “minimal or no father involvement . . . is common to Adam Lanza, Elliott Rodger, Dylann Roof and Stephen Paddock.” Farrell says Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz’s “fatherlessness was compounded by the death of his adoptive mom.” Numerous factors are cited for a rise in mass shootings, “but boys with significant father involvement are not doing these shootings. Without dads as role models, boys’ testosterone is not well channeled” and they “become among the world’s most destructive forces.”

Political analyst: Joe Lhota’s Load of Conflicts

Give James Dolan credit for placing MTA head Joe Lhota on the board of Madison Square Garden, argues NY1’s Bob Hardt. But Lhota and Gov. Cuomo should each get “a demerit for allowing such a blatant conflict of interest.” Lhota, who’s paid $150,000 a year for the MSG spot, “should know better than to take money from a company that’s sitting smack dab in the middle of a mass-transit hub while also helping decide mass-transit policy.” He’d be wise, says Hardt, to “walk away from Madison Square Garden while deciding how the rest of us ride to work.”

Culture desk: Lighten Up on the ‘Peter Rabbit’ Bashing

It didn’t take long for critics to hit Sony Pictures’ “Peter Rabbit” for showing Peter and his siblings slingshot a blackberry into the mouth of their neighbor, Mr. McGregor, who’s allergic to it. Sony quickly apologized, but “before everyone moves on to the next hashtag nontroversy,” advises Matt Welsh at Reason, it’s worth observing “just how bonkers this (successful!) complaint was, and what it says about the growing consumer demand to be shielded from artistic expression that carries even the faintest whiff of danger for an identifiable outgroup.” For starters, “Peter Rabbit and McGregor spend the better part of the movie actively trying to murder one another.” And besides, “slingshotting forbidden fruit is an awfully ineffective poison-delivery method.” Most important, the movie makes clear Peter went too far. “The moral of the story isn’t murder-thy-neighbor, it’s check yourself before you wreck yourself.”

— Compiled by Adam Brodsky