My latest for World Policy Review, “Oversight or Not, Drones Are Here to Stay,” has posted.

The athletes gathered at the London Olympics have sacrificed much of their lives training to excel at their sports. But most also have extraordinary genetic advantages.

Slate asks “How Badly Would Usain Bolt Destroy the Best Sprinter of 1896?” and answers with an odd “visualization” of unexplained methodology.

Nicholas Kristoff figures that, if we can’t ban guns, we can at least make them safer.

The Fort Hood shooter is being ordered to shave his beard or have it forcibly removed. It’s rather silly.

Kids, the President of the United States has a message for you: stop hanging out and get to work.

Penn State was facing a four year suspension of its football program but worked out a less harsh punishment.

Those of you looking to fill your October evenings now have three presidential and one vice presidential debate to look forward to.

Major metropolitan areas are routinely shut down for presidential fundraisers.

One would think that people who have decided that commenting on a political blog under their own name isn’t worth the risk of blowback would feel a certain sympathy for a scientist-astronaut who values her privacy deciding not to tell the world she was gay.

Have Americans taken casual wear at the office too far? Most Americans seem to think so.

One gender gap, at least, is narrowing: American men are starting to worry about the size of their butts.

Andrew Sullivan believes Sally Ride “had a chance to expand people’s horizons and young lesbians’ hope and self-esteem, and she chose not to.”

Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died yesterday aged 61. Her obituary revealed that she was gay.

Bobby Bowden now owns the record for most wins by a head coach in college football’s top division, thanks to the NCAA taking 111 wins away from Joe Paterno. He’s quite rightly not excited about it.

A man dressed like a goat is living among the mountain goats of northern Utah.

The cover of Patrick Wensink’s novel Broken Piano for President bore a striking resemblence to the label of a certain quality Tennessee sour mash whiskey. So, Jack Daniel’s’ lawyer sent him a nice note.

The NCAA more than lived up to the hype of “unprecedented” sanctions.

What happened in 1970 to decouple wages and productivity?

Two liberal columnists say a recent Mitt Romney ad proves he’s out of touch—and implies that he’s running a racist stealth campaign.

Alex Pareene’s quip that “Aaron Sorkin is why people hate liberals” has gone viral.

Farhad Manjoo is trying the demo version of Microsoft Word 2013—which he likes—but notices something out of place.

In a stunning reversal of policy, DOD is allowing soldiers to march in a gay pride parade in uniform.

President Obama set off a firestorm by claiming business owners didn’t build “that.”

Stephen Green projects the best case and minimal winning scenarios for Obama and Romney.

CFR’s Laurie Garrett has a piece in The Atlantic headlined “Good Job, CIA: Your Pakistan Vaccine Plot Helped Bring Polio Back From the Brink of Eradication.”

Rob Tornoe has revised his Joe Paterno-Bear Bryant cartoon in light of the Freeh Report.

Antonin Scalia says “The only question in Bush v. Gore was whether the presidency would be decided by the Florida Supreme Court or the United States Supreme Court.”

Antonin Scalia says Supreme Court justices have a collegial relationship and make decisions based on legal philosophy, not politics.

Nick Cohen dubs this year’s London Games the “Censorship Olympics.” Had he called them the “London Censorship Olympics,” the “2012 Censorship Olympics,” or titled the piece “Censorship Takes London Gold” he might have faced civil or criminal penalties.

While the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United has been blamed for the massive increase in money in this year’s campaign, it really wasn’t the culprit.

Jeopardy phenom Ken Jennings contends Mount Everest isn’t really Earth’s highest peak.

“The average Canadian has quietly become richer than the average American,” claims a pro-Canada organization.

The Koch brothers will spend more money in this election cycle than the entire McCain campaign did in 2008.

Microsoft sold its cable stake in MSNBC years ago; now, it’s ending ties with the MSNBC.com website, too.

Why are USA Network characters suddenly saying “Shit”?

In a groundbreaking investigative report, the New York Times has found that it’s easier to raise children if there are two parents and two incomes than one parent and one income.

David Brooks is wistful for the noblesse oblige of the elites of yore.

The Bush tax cuts were much more progressive than you probably think.

Sage Stallone, who appeared with his father Sylevester is several films, has died aged 36 of an apparent prescription drug overdose.

We’ve reached a point where our wonder at modern technology fades almost instantaneously and is replaced by annoyance that our technology isn’t better

Those of us who subscribe to DirecTV have lost Comedy Central and 16 other Viacom channels.

Public interest groups want the Supreme Court to fix our stupid copyright laws.

Stephen Bainbridge argues that corporate governance regulation in the wake of scandals and bubbles is almost uniformly bad.

A new study suggests that taxing millionaires sends millionaires to somewhere that doesn’t tax millionaires.

An overwhelming number of likely voters say President Obama has changed America; most say for the worse. He still leads Romney by 3 points.

Babies who grow up with dogs and cats in the home are healthier, a new study finds.

Four years after the financial crisis tanked the global economy, bankers still put their interests above those of their customers, even to the extent of skirting the law.