Outside the Beltway

The “open and free” Internet is an ideal type, not a myth.

The situation in Ferguson, Missouri isn’t calming down.

The chattering class is chattering about the President’s vacation again. It really is quite tiresome.

A man who brought joy and laughter to millions has ended his own life because he was too depressed to go on.

Our laws and social norms have not caught up to modern life.

Ticket collectors at Southwest Airlines are our first line of defense.

Basically, the answer is that nobody really thought there was much of a risk that a plane could be shot down.

Someone took down a Boeing 777 over Ukraine today.

Another incident involving a Malaysia Airlines 777, but this one could be far more serious.

A Silicon Valley businessman says he has enough signatures to get it on the ballot, but the plan to break California up into six states is most assuredly going nowhere.

An effort yesterday to bring about a cease fire in Gaza came to naught when Hamas rejected the proposal.

Just some things to consider about Common Core standards.

My latest for The Hill, “America Comes to Soccer,” has posted.

‘The Decision’ is undecided.

Things look to be going from bad to worse in Gaza.

Another area where the law has not caught up with technology.

Modern devices are more fragile, frustrating, and resource intensive than those of a decade ago.

1776 was a really, really long time ago.

The votes have been counted, the result is clear, but the battle between Senator Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel continues to get stranger by the day.

My latest for The National Interest, “Neoconservatives, the Iraq Debate and Ad Hominem Attacks,” has posted.

Chris McDaniel and his Tea Party supporters are being very sore losers.

Too regularly engage in “bedtime procrastination,” creating a vicious cycle.

Leaving aside his emotionalism and frustration, his core argument has merit.

When everything’s an outrage, is anything outrageous?

Not every soldier is a hero. Not even every POW.

It’s good that Bowe Bergdahl is free, but questions remain about how he went missing that need to be answered.

The latest chapter in an all too familiar story.

Shutting down rational debate one meme at a time.

The Associated Press doesn’t want its reporters to get too wordy.

Once again, Rand Paul is challenging conservative orthodoxy.

Today’s oral argument before the Supreme Court on the issue of police searches of cell phones and smartphones left much up in the air.

The anti-vaccination movement has earned a dubious achievement, the return of a disease that was effectively eradicated 15 years ago.

Continuing the discussion from earlier this week on hate crimes.

Who watches Sunday morning talk shows anymore?

Wisconsin recently became the third state to criminalize revenge porn. Why is it still legal in the other 47?

Interactions between consumers and businesses online are starting to have an impact on the legal system.