Outside the Beltway

Rand Paul used word-for-word excerpts from Wikipedia in two speeches in Virginia.

One of the nation’s papers of record is changing owners for the first time in 80 years.

There is either a military government or an Islamist one in Egypt’s future.

A generation of kids with massive student loans and no prospects is bad news for the status quo.

Critics are assailing Disney for turning “Brave” protagonist Merida into just another princess.

We’re actually not speculating about who might be running any more than we used to.

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

Many of our cabinet secretaries are independently wealthy.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul won a completely meaningless straw poll.

Today is the anniversary of a significant turning point in the Civil War.

The real story of Bain Capital is impressive. Mitt Romney chose instead to present an origin story that’s utter horseshit.

Charges that the Obama administration leaked classified information about the Osama bin Laden raid for political gain are bunk.

Nicholas Kristoff figures that, if we can’t ban guns, we can at least make them safer.

Farhad Manjoo is trying the demo version of Microsoft Word 2013—which he likes—but notices something out of place.

Rush Limbaugh made perhaps one of the dumber comments I’ve seen from the right about the entire Bain Capital story, and managed to display an apparent inability to use Google to look things up.

Looking back on the GOP nomination fight, it’s rather obvious that the media overplayed the idea that there was ever a real race going on.

Gas prices are falling nationwide but that’s mostly because the economy kind of stinks.

The heady days of revolution in Egypt have been replaced with the cold light of political reality.

In March, Janet Wolfenbarger became the first female four-star general in Air Force history. Now, she’s assumed command of all Air Force weapons programs.

Alan Dershowitz thinls the charges against George Zimmerman should be dropped. With due apologies to the good Professor, he’s wrong.

Private college degree mills have come under intense scrutiny. But many public institutions have similar statistics.

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin denies that his motivation for renouncing his US citizenship was tax avoidance.

With Facebook’s huge IPO in the news, Megan Garber takes a look at how much the Internet has evolved since Thefacebook came on the scene.

Mitt Romney is proposing one of the biggest peacetime increases in military spending in U.S. history.

Animal’s Joel Johnson declares “Comments are Bad Business for Online Media.”

Why should lying about having served in combat or been awarded a medal for valor should be legally different from lying about athletic prowess in high school, the number of sexual partners you’ve had, or the size of one’s sex organs?

We can feel that we “know” athletes, entertainers, politicians, and others that we’ve followed, rooted for, or whatnot over a period of time and feel a genuine sense of loss when they’re gone.

The backlash against the backlash is baffling.

Members of Congress are responding to the protests against SOPA and PIPA by withdrawing their support for the bills.

Wikipedia’s English language site will be offline for 24 hours tomorrow to protest two controversial online piracy bills.

A Washington Post fact check calls this “true but false.”

The former pizza executive is a smart guy. But he’s not fit to run the country.

Herman Cain’s initial response to the allegations made yesterday leaves much to be desired.

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

Rick Santorum is tired of “filth” atop Google searches for his name and wants the company to do something about it.

The decision to split Netflix into two companies makes no sense. Unless you look behind the scenes.

Let’s see if there is evidence to support the assertion.

Tim Cook is succeeding Steve Jobs as head of the world’s biggest technology company. Does it matter that he’s gay?