Outside the Beltway

What the hell was Leon Panetta thinking when he got dressed? He’s surrounded by fit Marines in battle dress and he’s wearing a poorly fitted blue short-sleeved “dress” shirt,* pleated slacks, and perhaps the most askew gig line ever, calling attention to his pot belly.

George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin met on the night of February 27th. Martin died, and a firestorm has erupted.

Good Journalism?

Joe Biden got a little braggadocious last night.

An attack on Iran is likely to unleash consequences that we are unprepared to deal with.

Tebow on the block.

Russia may be getting more involved in the Syrian conflict.

Dharun Ravi was convicted of bias intimidation toward Tyler Clementi. It’s not at all clear that he should have been.

“Can Domestic Policy Affect Income Distribution?” Why, yes, yes it can.

The odds are against anyone who challenges an incumbent President. So, how do you do it?

“Asian” has an entirely different connotation in the UK than it does in the US.

My latest for The National Interest, “Ending the Afghan Slog,” has posted.

No, the Obama Administration is not plotting to nationalize the economy in the name of some “national emergency.”

Can Wall Street predict the outcome of Presidential elections? Not really.

Dear Bill Maher and Alexandra Pelosi: The plural of anecdote is not data.

Peter Singer argues that heavy people ought to pay more to fly.

Despite how it many have seemed in January, Ron Paul’s 2012 Presidential effort is ending just about the same way his 2008 effort did.

The argument over contraceptive coverage mandates has not gone well for conservatives.

There will be no more GOP candidate debates. That’s not necessarily a good thing.

It looks like we’ll have Newt Gingrich to kick around for awhile.

The cause of the pain you’re feeling at the pump has little to do with domestic energy policy.

The massacre of civilians in Afghanistan was foreseen.

Rick Santorum has bigger General Election problems than Mitt Romney it seems.

Seven of the top ten and fifteen of the top twenty universities on the planet are American.

Sure, he routinely uses gender-specific slurs against conservative women. But he’s not a misogynist!

It is a curious thing, sometimes, to look at how different people interpret events.

The voter ID issue goes on the road.

One Goldman Sachs employee decided to quit his job in a very public manner.

Is the rhetoric in the war of words between the U. S. and Iran ratcheting up?