Outside the Beltway

Thoughts on the election and on the electoral rules used.

The media, the academy, and the courts, are all in the crosshairs.

They have a preference but may not vote.

More data shows a more complicated picture.

Good news is seldom news.

Repeated academic integrity violations led to her forced ouster.

Take this job and shove it. I ain’t workin’ here no more.

And, not surprisingly, about parties.

You can’t fire me, I quit!

Localities are consolidating local elections to coincide with national ones. Some don’t like that.

Some of our citizens are at greater risk under relaxed mask guidelines.

The Commonwealth’s undemocratic political system is, shockingly, unrepresentative of the will of its people.

Apple is resisting a Federal Court order that it assist the F.B.I. in decryption of the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

The military’s finance and accounting system has been dysfunctional for decades and is getting worse.

One law school grad seems to think the solution to her employment problems is to sue her law school.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

While Gerrymandering Congressional districts to benefit incumbents and the dominant party in the state legislature is an old game, they play it with especial intensity in Illinois.

The jobs market has been weak for much longer than just the past two years.

After several months where it seemed like things were turning around, the May jobs report was depressingly bad.

Unemployment was high when Barack Obama took office and it’s gotten substantially higher. Does that mean he won’t get re-elected?

And even more bad news.

All in all, not looking like it will be a fun summer.

Real Estate prices continue to fall, but where are the buyers? Maybe they’re acting sane this time.

And the KosKids have the proof!

A majority of Americans think homosexuals account for at least a fifth of the population.

It’s just one Congressional District out of 435, but that won’t stop everyone from trying to turn the results in NY-26 into a national referendum on Medicare reform.

Voters in New York State may help move the budget debate on Capitol Hill.

Business Week has a fascinating profile of Dietrich Mateschitz, whom they dub “Red Bull’s Billionaire Maniac.”

Has technology robbed us of more than it’s given in return?

With co-frontrunner Mike Huckabee out, Mitt Romney looks stronger than ever.

You know those creepy running shoes that look like fluorescent feet? They’re going mainstream.

Did a deal between the U.S. and Pakistan during the infancy of the war against al Qaeda play a role in the raid against Osama bin Laden?

Three years later, there are no signs that the real estate market is anywhere close to recovering.

Apple isn’t the only company collecting data off their smartphones.

Why, yes, my iPhone has indeed been tracking me since last summer.

Demographic information about TV viewers is worthless to advertisers.

Australia is the only major country with lower tax rates than the USA.

A Huffington Post contributor who had no expectation of being paid for his contributions is suing HuffPo for $105 million.

The Japan nuclear meltdown has now topped the scale used to measure such things, reaching the same level as the Chernobyl disaster. It’s a stupid scale.

The Obama Administration is resisting efforts to expand Fourth Amendment protections to services like Gmail. That’s unfortunate.

Why did then-Governor Mike Huckabee’s office destroy all its office hard drives shortly before leaving office?