Osler's Razor

As many of you know, one of the issues I care about is the treatment of juvenile offenders.  I was very happy in 2005 when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional when used against those who committed their crimes as children, and even happier when the Court more recently restricted the use of life without parole against juveniles.  There is an ethic that underlays both:  A differentiated level of concern for children, even those guilty of terrible crimes.

Given that public debate and outcome, I'm surprised there was not more of an outcry when the Obama administration announced that they had used a drone to kill 16-year-old US citizen Abdulrahmen al-Awlaki, who is pictured above.  As the Atlantic reports, officials have been ambivalent about whether the killing was accidental or intentional.

That's the topic of my new piece, which is just up at MSNBC-- check it out here.

Also, I realized that I forgot to post here my most recent piece over at the Huffington Post:  Our Dangerously Safe Jesus.