Outside the Beltway

In advance of tomorrow’s ruling, some pundits on the left are displaying some very odd views on the role of the law in American politics.

After years of calls for a College Football playoff, we’ll finally get one. Let the criticism begin.

I’ve joined The Atlantic’s debate over a thought-provoking cover story by Anne-Marie Slaughter.

The Veepstakes doesn’t matter nearly as much as the media tells you it does.

While the news media is focused on sixteen battleground states, the professionals running the Obama and Romney campaigns are focused on a much narrower list.

NASA was in need of new telescopes and got a helping hand from their good pals at the DoD.

A man named Carlos killed a woman named Wanda Lopez. Texas executed a different man named Carlos for the crime.

The New Yorker’s John Cassidy sees “Good and Bad News for Obama” in Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat.

The blind Chinese activist who daring escape from house arrest set off a diplomatic brouhaha that grabbed the world’s attention is about to get his wish to come to America.

My latest for The National Interest,Insurmountable Obstacles in Afghanistan, has been posted.

The Atlantic’s Max Fisher reflects on “What America Can Learn From Norway’s Anders Breivik Trial.”

At the apex of the last economic boom, we were spending far less as a percentage of our income on food, clothing, and transportation than our predecessors of half a century before, with the surplus going mostly to education and health care.

Through a stroke of bad luck, the Atlantic Council server was down during a critical Google update

A new book would classify most of us who consume alcohol as “almost alcoholics.”

Megan McArdle is taking a break of unspecified length from blogging to “work on another project.” Said project, she hastens to add, is not a baby.

A pattern that never ends: Perceived insults lead to mayhem and murder.

Once again, the culture wars intrude into yet another area of life.

Everything the critics say about the decision is right–and so is the decision.

My latest for The Atlantic explains, “Why We Should Be Glad the Haditha Massacre Marine Got No Jail Time.”

Philip Hammond addressed the Atlantic Council this morning in advance of a meeting with Leon Panetta.

President Obama’s Pentagon is planning for an unlikely war with China rather than the small wars America will inevitably fight.

R.I.P.

America’s greatest statesmen fear America’s political paralysis endangers our ability to lead the world.

The Postal Service announced another round of service cutbacks today that are likely to just make the rapidity of its decline increase

“The debt crisis is burrowing ever deeper, like a worm, and is now reaching Germany.”

We’re hearing the howls of a wounded bear.

Why we shouldn’t be surprised that police are using tools of violence against protestors.

From Europe, a case of regulation gone nuts.

So, how did we get to the point where a fat, condescending, serial adulterer who left office in disgrace twelve years ago is the latest challenger for the conservative mantle?

We’re running out of excuses.

My latest for The Atlantic: “Some Reasons Not to Worry About Republican Foreign Policy Craziness”

Polls are starting to show signs that the sexual harassment allegations are starting to hurt Herman Cain.

My latest for The Atlantic: “For Europe, Some Fear a Conflict Between Union and Democracy”

Why does wine get so much more written treatment than beer?

The Feds fired Monster and now USAJobs is a disaster

President Obama’s surprise announcement Friday that all U.S. forces would leave Iraq in time to be home for the holidays has been roundly condemned. While there are real concerns about what happens next, there was no better alternative.

Google+ was supposed to be a Facebook killer. If their social media icons are any indication, it’s not happening.

Obama is trying to get into Guinness under “US President with Most Simultaneous Wars”

Rush Limbaugh, who three years ago said Mitt Romney embodied all three legs of the conservative stool today declared that Romney is not a conservative. He was right both times.

What’s the logic behind Iran’s alleged plot to commit terrorist attacks inside the United States?

A computer virus has infected America’s fleet of Predator and Reaper drones.

My latest for The Atlantic, “Romney’s Realist Foreign Policy Is a Lot Like Obama’s,” has been posted.

September’s jobs report was better than expected, but still not very good.