Outside the Beltway

Andrew Sullivan has figured out the solution to all that ails us: “If we could end all loop-holes (and I mean all), and have three or so effective rates, can you imagine how cleaner our politics would be? And how much more efficient our economy?”

The Silent Majority Wants a Dictatorship Run by Thomas Friedman

Would non-violence really have failed against the Nazis? History suggests maybe not….

The Eagle Has Landed Edition OTB Caption Contest^TM is now over.

In his farewell speech on Friday, Rahm Emanuel said that the Obama Administration had faced tougher times than any previous President. That is a fundamentally absurd idea.

Ken Levine has some advice for aspiring writers: Forget about slaving over plots and character development. Instead, sleep your way around campus and write about it.

Just a tip to fellow bloggers who are still running their blogrolls using the old blogrolling.com widget: Your sites have been banned for some time because of malware issues.

If Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t invented Facebook someone else would have. Probably within a month or two of his invention.

Bill Jacobson and Glenn Reynolds seem to be overly amused that Conor Friedersdorf has the title of “senior editor” over at Andrew Sullivan’s blog.

Thirty-two years after the first “Test Tube Baby” was born, the doctor who pioneered the procedure that created her has been recognized with a Nobel Prize.

The State Department’s terrorism threat warning for Europe is probably meaningless. If it isn’t, it’ll be perceived that way.

Time for the Monday OTB Caption Contest^TM

Thomas Friedman engages in some early speculation about a serious third party presidential run. As usual, such speculation ignores the basic structures of American politics.

Stephen J. Cannel, the man behind “The Rockford Files” and “The A-Team,” had died at 69.

If the Bush TARP initiative saved the economy at no cost to taxpayers, we have the odd situation of Republicans nonetheless angry it happened and Democrats who thought it a good idea annoyed that it worked.

Mohandas Ghandi pioneered the idea of non-violent resistance, but there are times and places where non-violence is little more than a ticket to a death camp.

Governor Schwarzenegger has signed a bill making pot possession (at certain levels) the equivalent of a traffic ticket.

Eugene Volokh explains why he’s not writing on a controversial subject recently in the news: He doesn’t know enough about it and doesn’t want to be wrong.

It’s worth reminding ourselves, in a country where so many are trying to figure out the best way to keep excess fat off our bodies, how recently abject poverty was widespread here

Western athletes who’ve complained about the conditions at the Commonwealth Games are coming in for a firestorm of criticism.

Robert Lane Greene investigates the rise of acronyms, initialisms, and other informal shortenings of speech.

Once again, CNN’s Rick Sanchez discovers that opening his mouth probably wasn’t a good idea.

No Senate candidate with a lead of more than 5.5 points in the polling average, with 30 days to go in the race, has lost his race since 1998: these candidates are 68-0.

Pakistan yesterday blocked NATO’s primary supply line into Afghanistan in retaliation for an air strike that killed three Pakistani paramilitaries. Are the two countries truly allies?

They might not be able to fix the economy or the healthcare system or agree on an efficient tax policy but Congress has managed to reach accord on one of the most serious problems facing America: loud television commercials.

Craig Newmark thinks NPR’s membership model will overtake advertising-supported news over the next decade.