Outside the Beltway

The federal government’s newest dietary guidelines have finally stated that which has long been between the lines: Americans eat too damn much food.

The coverage of Egypt shows an over-reliance on pundits and an under-reliance on actual experts.

The post-Sputnik innovation wave was sparked by government investment, not the entrepreneurial spirit.

Was the 2011 SOTU a blatant rip-off of past speeches? Or simply banal?

In chapter three of Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin applies his typical standards of logic and evidence to matters of faith.

A new study casts new light on the importance of testing students to reinforce their grasp of information.

A new study suggests college students aren’t learning the critical thinking skills they’re supposed to learn, but that isn’t necessary the fault of the university they’re attending.

The relationships between inflammatory rhetoric and political violence is complicated.

The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology.

We’re producing more PhDs and JDs than there are full time openings for professors and lawyers.

Republicans are renaming three House committees, including bring back Ethics and taking out Labor.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who may end up running for President in 2012, has reopened wounds that finally seemed like they were closed.

150 years ago today a group of men gathered in Charleston, South Carolina and made one of the gravest mistakes in American history. They should not be honored for it.

The institutions charged with solving our Information Age social problems are stuck in the Industrial Age.

A woman in California has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s because she is apparently unable to resist her child’s incessant demands for a Happy Meal.

Hinckley, California — the town that Erin Brockovich made famous — has slightly less cancer than we’d expect.

A new study seems to show that student evaluations of teachers are something other than a popularity contest.

Columbia political science professor David Epstein has been charged with a 3-year incestuous relationship with his adult daughter.

Gustavus Adolphus College librarian Barbara Fister explains why she loves getting rid of books.

Mike Brown, who discovered Xena, decided he could not in good conscience allow it to be made a planet. And killed off an old favorite in so doing.

Let’s keep our eye on the ball, people.

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner plans a radical overhaul of how Congress spends our money.

Meghan McCain doesn’t know what a “blue blood” is but doesn’t want to be called one.

Economist Bryan Caplan argues that our educational system does not prepare our children for the modern economy.

Within the first few months of 2011, Congress will be required to take another unpalatable vote to raise the debt ceiling. Already, some incoming Republicans are talking about waging an effort to block the vote. That would be politically, and financially, stupid.

A ten year old case out of Texas raises yet more doubts about the justice of the death penalty.

NYT columnist Nick Kristoff says America’s income inequality makes us a banana republic.

Rasmussen polls were biased toward Republicans by 3 to 4 points. Rigged results? Or screening error?

In yet another move designed to take the fun out of being a kid, San Francisco has banned the Happy Meal.

Isn’t that a strange goal? Shouldn’t college prepare students to have better lives later on?

Neither Law Schools nor law students are admitting the fact that the legal market has changed significantly.

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party aren’t as clueless as their detractors think.

Politico says 99 Democratic House seats are “in play.” They’re not. But dozens are.

Reason’s Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie have a pretty amusing rejoinder to the Obama administration’s attempts to smear the anonymous funding of television ads opposed to their agenda in a video titled “Who is Publius? or, Who’s Afraid of Anonymous Political Speech?”

The coalition of voters that propelled Barack Obama to an historic victory in 2008 is seemingly falling apart, and the President is reacting by blaming the voters.

“Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement.”