Outside the Beltway

Colombia’s Constitutional Court has struck down a US basing rights deal.

What do the critics mean when they say that the United States should be more like Germany?

The 9th Circuit yesterday ruled that Stolen Valor laws violate the 1st Amendment and that there is a limited right to lie.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, appearing on San Francisco’s KCBS radio, called for an investigation in the efforts to stop the building of a Muslim cultural center at the hallowed Burlington Coat Factory location blocks from Ground Zero.

Radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger is quitting her radio show following a firestorm over her use of the N-word.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and his hair, will live to fight another day.

Wired proclaims, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.” It’s great linkbait but completely wrongheaded.

Zeldorf Ragshaft III asks, “What is it about bloggers on this site? You somehow have the idea you know better than the rest of us what is right and what is wrong.”

Why do we need to license barbers, again?

Given public opinion on the proposed Islamic community center that is currently cominating the news, we would expect that opposition to the project would be strongest in Manhattan itself.

The title says it all.

According to John Bolton, Israel has a deadline of August 21st to attack Iran’s nuclear program. This is the fourth deadline he’s set in the last three years.

If the President looks worried, he has a pretty good reason.

Career fields dominated by women tend to pay less than those dominated by men. But gender discrimination isn’t the main reason.

President Obama’s motorcade caused gridlock in the Los Angeles area last night, although one wonders how people could distinguish it form the average Monday.

Students entering college today have never worn a wristwatch and think email is slow.

Harvard has overtaken Princeton to retake the top spot in the US News college rankings.

How did the future of this former Burlington Coat Factory turn into a national political issue ? Well, it’s a rather interesting story.

Renowned author Ray Bradbury hates big government but wants it to fund the colonization of Mars. That a man of his intelligence and insight can hold such diametrically opposed thoughts is an amusing reminder of the limits of human rationality.

Same-sex marriages are still barred in California, but how long that lasts is in the hands of three judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under what authority can the police lock down an entire city block, restricting our freedom of movement absent probable cause?

Either Obama’s Defense Secretary and commanding general are conspiring to undermine his July 11 deadline for withdrawal from Afghanistan or that they’re carrying out his intent.

Ross Douthat’s latest New York Times column demonstrates an appalling misunderstanding of history in the context of immigration.

As many American soldiers have died in Afghanistan under Obama as under Bush.

On January 3, 2008 Mike Huckabee celebrated a victory in the Iowa Caucuses, will be able to repeat that in 2012 ?

Yet another sign that the America of my youth is dead: whole wheat bread is outselling white bread.

General Stanley McChrystal has been hired to teach leadership at Yale.

Robert Gates says he wants to retire next year, but will the call of duty cause him to stay longer ?

You heard it here first, the GOP will not gain control of Congress in 2010.

Free parking is a very inefficient use of land resources that wouldn’t exist without government mandates and subsidies. Is it time to end the practice?

A major part of the problem with the seeming growing wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in some quarters of US politics is that it seems to equate Islam as “the enemy.” If that’s the case, then US foreign policy has some ‘splainin’ to do.

The GOP is playing a dangerous game with the anti-Islamic rhetoric that it seems to be courting these days.

Again, despite the rhetoric of some, the US does continue to enforce laws relevant to the border and, indeed, enforcement has been on the rise.

When John McCain is the voice of reason in the GOP, things are really screwy.

An essay claiming that the TED talks are “the new Harvard” is gaining some traction from a lot of people who ought know better.