Outside the Beltway

Yes, it ended slavery. But at a huge cost.

If one is going to be in government, one ought to take governing seriously.

My latest for The Atlantic, “Why Should Congress and the Courts Care About Snooping If Citizens Don’t?” has posted.

Do bad habits make bad people?

Have we all been fooled by a 75 year old marketing campaign?

Tax analyst Martin A. Sullivan finds that 1/3rd of “potentially political applications” approved by the IRS were from non-conservative groups.

Facebook billionaire Sean Parker wanted an elaborate wedding based on the Lord of the Rings and wasn’t going to let little things like the law or some environmental damage stop him.

President Obama threw down a gauntlet today in the form of a trio of Judicial nominations.

Chris Beck spent 20 years as a Navy SEAL. Kristen Beck has written a book about her experiences.

The government is changing the way it calculates Gross Domestic Product.

Apparently, some people don’t want to let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

The US Senate wants to know why Apple and other big technology companies are paying so little into the US Treasury.

The economics of higher education is increasing the gap between rich and poor.

John McCain is taking a break from advocating yet another war in the Middle East to make war against cable television companies.

Last night, the Atlantic Council honored Hillary Rodham Clinton, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, John S. Watson, Tony Bennett, and Juanes.

There’s simply no question that a person born abroad to a US citizen is a ‘natural-born Citizen.’

A sensational story, little solid information, and instant analysis are a bad combination

The filibuster is now so commonplace that it’s baked into the expectations.

We shouldn’t overreact. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves either: We’re not safe.

Tragedy in Boston.

Jerry Brown tells the US Supreme Court to go to hell.

Examining SECDEF’s call for radical overhaul of our defense structure against the fate of similar calls past.

Apparently, today’s youth no longer know how to have good sex on account of they’re having too much sex.

The “social web” was with us long before the rise of Facebook, Twitter and its kind and that the old style sharing is actually much more important than the new.

Apparently, some significant number of people are starving themselves to “save calories” for getting drunk.

A new Chrome extension will close all of your tabs and give you a linked list of all your previously open pages.

The head men of the three most prestigious US national laboratories say the sequester will devastate scientific research in this country for decades to come.

There’s no money in wri

A baby born with AIDS eighteen months ago has reportedly been cured.

Do we ask too much of our leaders?

The government of Malaysia paid a lot of money to get some blogs placed at various outlets.

The Hagel confirmation, like Obama’s election, was big news to some avid news consumers.

t’s been more than two-and-a half years since the United States passed major legislation.

How he went from Juicebox Mafia member to the most important young journalist in DC.

The smear campaign against defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has taken a bizarre turn.

Ross Wilson, former US ambassador to Turkey, says yesterday’s suicide attack on our embassy in Ankara “was no Benghazi.”

My latest for The National Interest, “Ignoring the Hagel Hearing Farce,” has posted.

I have over the years been both editor and edited; currently, I’m both, often in the same day. Some thoughts on the relationship.

Plus some thoughts on prohibitionist policies (because sometimes a Quick Pick grows in the making).

Monday, The Atlantic published and took down a sponsored article from the church of Scientology. Yesterday, it admitted it had “screwed up.”

Republican opposition to defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel reveals just how far the party’s thinking has drifted on foreign policy.

The House GOP is moving in an ever more dangerous direction.

The world’s most prolific blogger is leaving corporate media and opening the tip jar.