Obama and Muslims in Turkey, Gun-Control Debate in Pittsburgh Shootings

Our daily look at stories and topics that are lighting up the Internets:

Obama's Olive Branch

President Obama is in Turkey today, attempting to turn a new page in U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Here's how the blogosphere is reacting to Obama's new tone overseas:

Happy : Liberal David Rothkopf on the new face Obama's giving America: "Obama has had a successful journey because he has stepped more or less seamlessly into the role of world leader and done so with both substance and style that have in some important ways altered for the better America's relationship with the world." Joseph Palermo concurs. Liberal Jacob Heilbrunn is a fan of Obama's speech calling for Turkey's admission to the EU before the Turkish Parliament: "As Europe grapples with the issue of making Turkey a full-fledged member of the European Union and with Turkish immigrants living in its midst, Obama's speech was courageous and far-sighted... Obama, then, isn't just acting like an American president, but a world leader." And Nathan Gardels explains why Turkey is so important for the Obama administration: "The new Obama administration has assigned such pivotal importance to Turkey because it is the great experiment in the world today of both non-Western and post-secular modernity... how this experiment works out, and the impact it has on the rest of the Muslim world, if any, is of profound importance to the West."

Unhappy: Conservative David Frum analyzes Obama's attempts to repair America's image: "You Europeans condemn George Bush? Well I humbly condemn him too. That's not self-criticism. It's self-praise via the criticism of others. And that's the very opposite of humility." Conservative Michael Rubin thinks Obama's take on the problems between the U.S. and the Muslim world is naive: "If a conflict exists between Western liberal notions of freedom of expression and Islamist sensitivity, we should not undercut our freedoms simply for the sake of respect. Rather, we should stand firm in our principles, and demand the same respect for them as some Muslims demand for Islamist precepts." Conservative Ed Morrissey is unhappy with the media for considering Obama's statement that "the U.S. is not at war with Islam" somehow newsworthy. He writes: "Obama spoke in the tradition established by Bush over the last seven-plus years of emphasizing that America did not declare war on Islam... The more we can keep the Muslims on the sidelines, the better off we are in fighting against the radicals." And Christopher Hitchens and Matt Welch think Obama needs to do more about Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide.

Gun Control

The recent shooting in Pittsburgh spurred (the mostly left half of) the blogosphere into talking about gun control today. Dalitso Njolinjo sparks the debate: "I know for gun owners and gun rights activists it is a matter of individual freedom (even though I think that American courts have misinterpreted the framers' original intent for the second amendment), but when innocent citizens are murdered, don't you have to reassess priorities?" Tony Campbell argues that not everyone is entitled to own a gun: "The writers of the Constitution did not add the 2nd Amendment for individuals to own guns for their personal use; they added the 2nd Amendment to protect the new country from internal insurrection and/or foreign invasion." Liberal Paul Helmke is unhappy with the gun lobby's rhetoric. Jackson Williams has this interesting piece on the pro- and anti-gun debate taking place in the Huffington Post comments section. Plus, this headline on the Pittsburgh shooting will make you do a double-take.

... Meanwhile ...

An Obama assassination plot is foiled in Turkey... Keith Urban dumps 150 square feet of feces on East 11th Street in New York City... The best Bloomberg headline ever... And Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe might actually have stolen the Lost Arc.