Opinion

President Obama has been called one of the most eloquent of the modern presidents – and not without reason. That reputation will be put to the test tomorrow when he speaks in Berlin, a city which has served as the stage for two of the best-known modern presidential speeches: John F. Kennedy's "ich bin ein Berliner" address, which will see its 50th anniversary next week, and Ronald Reagan's "tear down this wall" address.

If you care about the Republican Party's plans to modernize, then you should know that there have been some positive developments on that front online. There is a growing community of "reform conservatives," and they are broadly unified by two big ideas: a willingness to recognize that the economic problems America faces are different from the problems President Reagan faced, and the understanding that the task most appropriate for the Republican Party to tackle is the economic health of America's middle class.

As Senate democrats and President Barack Obama gear up for another round of gun control legislation, I find it ironic that the same lawmakers who think expanded background checks are useful in helping filter out who shouldn't own a gun, don't see the same benefits when used by U.S. businesses to sift through potential job candidates.

In July 1846, Massachusetts tax collector Sam Staples confronted Henry David Thoreau, a transcendentalist period philosopher, over his delinquent six-year tax bill. Staples threatened Thoreau with arrest if he didn't pay, but Thoreau refused. He opposed the Mexican-American War and slavery, and didn't want to give the government money to fund things he objected to. He willingly went to jail.