Outside the Beltway

The ground troops that United States has not sent into Iraq to fight ISIL are reportedly in Iraq fighting ISIL.

There’s not a whole lot the United States can do to respond effectively and proportionally to North Korea’s hacking attack against Sony.

NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot dead while sitting in their patrol car In Brooklyn. And those suggesting that anyone other than the killer has “blood on their hands” are being absurd.

Talk about your second- and third-order effects.

President Obama believes the North Korean attack on Sony was “an act of cyber vandalism” rather than “an act of war.”

Two potential candidates for the Republican nomination in 2016 traded barbs this week over the President’s new policy toward Cuba.

More interesting developments from the Supreme Court on what has been one of the biggest legal stories of 2014.

Not surprisingly, the F.C.C. has rejected a petition to ban the word “Redskins” from the airwaves.

President Obama criticized Sony for backing down, and said that the U.S. would respond to North Korea’s cyber attack “at a place and time we choose,”

In the wake of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on C.I.A. torture, some have suggested that eight years of Jack Bauer helped make torture more acceptable to the American public.

The U.S. Government has formally charged North Korea with responsibility for the hacking attack on Sony. How to respond to that attack is a more complicated question.

A little round of Qs and As on US-Cuban policy.

Nebraska and Oklahoma are suing Colorado over the Centennial State’s decision to legalize marijuana, but they don’t seem to have much of a case.

Rand Paul is one of the few Republicans who seems to be evaluating the new policy toward Cuba through something other than an outdated Cold War perspective.

A Federal Judge has issued a ruling that sort of says that President Obama’s Immigration action is unconstitutional. Except it’s poorly reasoned, and apparently not legally binding on anyone.

The costs of more than a decade of war are far higher than many ever thought, and we’re still paying the price for the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration while they were being fought.

Should a professor who says she “hates Republicans” keep her job?

With major theater chains having pulled out, Sony bowed to the inevitable, but now there appears to be proof that a foreign power is behind the Sony hacking attacks and threats of violence.

The fate of Cuba policy in Congress is far from certain, but what is certain is that following through on President Obama’s historic and necessary changes will face resistance.

The resumption of diplomatic relations between U.S. and Cuba, and expansion of some commercial trade ties, is historic but it’s only the first step toward the goal of ending an outdated embargo.

The families of many of the Sandy Hook victims are seeking to have the manufacturer of the AR-15 held legally responsible for what happened. While understandable, their lawsuit is misplaced and largely without legal merit.

An American freed from captivity, and potentially huge changes in America’s diplomatic and trade relationship with Cuba.

Also: charting the rightward shift in the GOP.

Hackers who have divulged embarrassing secrets from deep within Sony Pictures are now threatening violence if a film about a plot to kill Kim Jong Un is released.

For a year that started out with regaining long-lost territory in Ukraine, 2014 is not ending so well for Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The Supreme Court says that police who have a “reasonable” misunderstanding of the law can still pull you over.

An Oberlin College student makes it clear just why she needs an education.

The former Florida Governor announced that he’s taking the first step towards running for president in 2016.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is not running for President, and she is unlikely to change her mind on that. Nonetheless, the speculation that she is will continue for some time to come because it suits her interests and the interests of others.

A day of terror at a school in Pakistan.

Was Man Haron Monis a terrorist, or just a lone nut who had latched on to the rhetoric of ISIS to justify his own delusions? In the end, it hardly matters.

The “ticking time bomb scenario” is a TV trope and, therefore, is a terrible guide for making policy.