Outside the Beltway

Senator Al Franken called Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery a liar in yesterday’s hearing on DOMA. Franken was the one being dishonest.

It won’t go anywhere this year, but after 15 years someone is finally trying to repeal a bad law.

A video of the New York Times website from September 2010 to July 2011.

WSJ has a blistering editorial seeking to put the NewsCorp hacking scandal in perspective.

I must confess to having only paid peripheral attention at first, but it is clear that there is a major story here that requires attention.

A majority of Americans want to ban smoking in public; a fifth want to ban it even in private.

A mistrial has been ruled in the Roger Clemens perjury trial and the judge may rule that a retrial would constitute double jeopardy.

It’s still politics as usual in Washington.

The result in the Casey Anthony case is leading, inevitably, to a host of new proposed laws.

The White House has apparently rejected using a tortured interpretation of the 14th Amendment to deal with the debt ceiling debate.

The US Supreme Court declined to stay the execution of a child raping murderer over a technical violation of a treaty.

Not surprisingly, people still order that big juicy cheeseburger even after being told it contains over 1,000 calories.

There’s apparently a new proposal on the table at the debt negotiations, and it looks very interesting.

The biggest news story of the past six weeks was something completely trivial.

More people are chasing careers in film than there are careers in film. And not just in front of the camera.

Will Joe Biden be on the podium with Barack Obama at the 2012 Democratic convention, or will there be a new running mate?

A rider in a protest against motorcycle helmet laws crashed his motorcycle and died from head injuries he would have survived had he been wearing a helmet.

A few liberal law professors say Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should resign now so President Obama can pick her successor.

The New York Times keeps digging up new facts about yesterday’s shocking reversal in the Dominque Strauss-Kahn case.

Further thoughts on Dominique Strauss-Kahn and our justice system.

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the arrogant French aristocrat whose career was ended by a courageous chambermaid, shedding light on a corrupt social system? A funny thing happened on the way to the slammer.

Not exactly an example of moral leadership.

Barack Obama’s leadership style may be his undoing.

Tim Pawlenty’s foreign policy speech shows him siding with the hawks, and joining in the neocon distortion of Reagan’s legacy.

Alabama youth choir gets hand slapped for impromptu rendition of the national anthem.

One foreign policy analyst argues that President Obama should look to Nixon’s Vietnam withdrawal strategy for ideas on Afghanistan.

The odds of history are against Michele Bachmann.

A former opponent of same-sex marriage admits he was wrong.

Another major campaign finance case from the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court struck down a ban on the sale of violent video games to children, a victory for the First Amendment and parental authority.

160 million girls are “missing” owing to selective abortion and cultural preferences for male children.

The venerable Brooks Brothers is getting into the college apparel business, selling sweaters and polos for Boston College; the U.S. Naval Academy, Auburn, Cornell, Harvard, New York, Ohio State, Princeton, Stanford, and Vanderbilt Universities and the Universities of Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame and Virginia.