Outside the Beltway

What we don’t know might hurt us.

Is China’s drought caused by human action?

Business Week’s cover story examines the coming implosion of the US Postal Service as we know it.

The GOP doesn’t have a charismatic superstar waiting in the wings. That’s okay.

The selection process for the Joint Chiefs has been most odd.

Save water: Grow a beard.

Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has come to regret the direction he took the network after the 2008 election.

Mitch Daniels, the candidate of George Will and a host of mainstream Republicans hoping for something better in 2012, has announced he will not be running for president in 2012.

Canada is much friendlier than the United States with regard to immigration.

A loud woman who was yapping loudly for hours on an AmTrak quiet car has been arrested after getting belligerent.

Has technology robbed us of more than it’s given in return?

Stein’s elitism actually obscured a very sound point hinted at in the title: “Presumed Innocent, Anyone?”

Video calling is becoming widely available. Will it become as common as talking on the phone?

Requiring people with ethical conflicts to disclose them leads to more bad behavior, not less, a new study finds.

With co-frontrunner Mike Huckabee out, Mitt Romney looks stronger than ever.

Newt Gingrich says the coming presidential election will be the most important since the Civil War.

You know those creepy running shoes that look like fluorescent feet? They’re going mainstream.

If former President George W. Bush has any bitterness that Osama bin Laden was finally killed under his successor, he’s not showing it.

Elias Isquith proclaims my Atlantic essay “How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology” to be “a total disaster.”

So, what’s up with Donald Trump’s bizarre hairdo? He insists it’s not a comb-over.

Matt Eckel’s takeaway from my Atlantic piece on How Perpetual War Became U.S. Ideology is that we need a peer competitor.

Christopher Hitchens is losing his voice. He misses it.

Babies “R” Us sells defective, dangerous products. Do not shop there.

And when did it know it?

A comedian-turned-Senator makes some strong points about how America goes to war.

A respected liberal blogger thinks Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are the most appalling Americans of our time.

Why are many of the top Republicans are sitting out the race despite a seemingly vulnerable incumbent?

The NYT says it’s time for U. S. advisers and military air traffic controllers on the ground in Libya.

Barack Obama dressed as a pirate

One can almost hear the pitter-patter of American boots in the distance.

Mobile homes account for nearly half of all tornado deaths in the United States.

Dave Schuler’s a hard man to rile. But stay away from him on tax day.

Public disclosure of campaign contributions makes it easier for incumbents to pressure backers of their opponent.

Agency heads are pleading President Obama’s case in advance of a shutdown.

Another bizarre case from the annals of rogue judges and runaway sentencing.

The re-emergence of Obama foreign policy advisor Samantha Power to prominence has brought critics to the forefront

Modern life requires us to put a high degree of trust in those to whom we delegate responsibility

The experiences of two well-known academics denied tenure at Chicago provide some clues.

Todays’ horrific attack on the UN complex in Mazar-i Sharif may well the the Tet Offensive of Afghanistan: a relatively minor event that permanently changed the American public’s view of the war.

Cruise lines are the latest to create separate enclaves for customers willing to pay more to escape the riffraff.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has told prosecutors that they can get away with withholding evidence that clears an innocent defendant and never have to face the consequences of their action. That is an outrage.

Presenting photo identification is not an onerous requirement for voting. But there’s next to zero evidence that fraud is a problem.

Tom Ricks doesn’t understand why we need an exit strategy in Libya.

The Supreme Court will decide whether states may jail parents who fail to make child support payments without providing them an attorney.

Michelle Malkin is unhappy about being part of joke on Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me.

The last chapter of nonfiction books is almost always lousy. Here’s why.

Apparently, being named after the sitting president wasn’t enough to keep Ashbury Park, New Jersey’s Barack H. Obama Elementary School open.

They’re letting anyone into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame these days.