Outside the Beltway

There’s a declared winner in Afghanistan’s Presidential Election, but a cloud hangs over the results.

All you have to do is make up unique password for each site based on randomly chosen details of an incredibly complex story associated with the first letter of the site.

Political irony, perhaps, but probably less than meets the eye.

There are legitimate issues regarding Presidential overreach and separation of powers that President Obama’s actions while in office have raised. But none of that will be discussed in our hyperpartisan political culture.

Hobby Lobby Is an important decision, but it’s one that the Supreme Court handed down a week earlier that will have the widest impact.

Ed Klein says he has “Democrat sources” who Obama wants Warren to continue his mission to “transform America into a European-style democratic-socialist state.”

More on instiutional design.

A piece at Foreign Policy provides a chance to give some thought to institutions.

Another area where the law has not caught up with technology.

A new poll shows that Americans don’t buy into the idea of “American exceptionalism” as much as they used to. That’s a positive development rather than a negative one.

Modern devices are more fragile, frustrating, and resource intensive than those of a decade ago.

More than any other language, English words are being adopted, and transformed, by other languages.

The first episode of “Seinfeld” aired 25 years ago yesterday.

A US-EU free trade zone is a no-brainer. But the devil is in the details.

Bill Gates is working to raise awareness of the world’s deadliest animal: the mosquito.

In previewing a story about an Arkansas town fighting to keep phone booths, The New York Times explains what those are.

Republican overreach could end up helping the President and his party.

Ukrainian forces have recaptured the city of Slovyansk from pro-Russian separatists.

Americans disapprove of how the President is handling Iraq, but they don’t like what his critics are proposing either.

Discussions about immigration policy are, unfortunately, very much like Groundhog Day.

Emil Henry makes “The Case for Mitt Romney in 2016.”

Some surveys suggest that younger Americans are less patriotic than older generations.

Reflections on a story making the rounds this Independence Day.

A new app allows customers to cut the restaurant reservation line. What could go wrong?

The First World War played an intriguing role in the birth of the radical Islam we are dealing with today.

1776 was a really, really long time ago.

The Supreme Court’s next term doesn’t start for three months, but it’s becoming clear that the Justices will have to deal with marriage equality when it does.

Coming across as uncaring doesn’t help advance your political arguments.

As the medium matures, something important is being lost.

The votes have been counted, the result is clear, but the battle between Senator Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel continues to get stranger by the day.

The June Jobs Report is basically good news.

Could a transcription error be changing our understanding of America’s founding document?

Target is the latest business to ask customers to leave the guns at home when they go shopping.

The sad truth is that the bipartisanship that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 no longer exists today.

Only two 2013 college football games attracted more viewers that Tuesday’s World Cup match vs. Belgium.

Obama is the worst President since FDR died? Only if you believe a mostly worthless poll.

Public faith in government institutions is at all all time low.