Outside the Beltway

Wondering why CATO doesn’t rail against big business is like demanding to know why NARAL doesn’t spend more time advocating for the plight of stray cats or why PETA doesn’t seem to care about the homeless.

Are we in the year twenty eleven or the year two thousand eleven.

While our politics are seldom violent, our violence is often politicized.

While I support a college playoff, there’s an argument to be made for the integrity of the regular season.

We’re producing more PhDs and JDs than there are full time openings for professors and lawyers.

House Republicans want to do away with the increasing number of “czars” in the White House.

New research shows that “across the world the main social groups which practice polygyny do not consume alcohol” and, conversely, “a positive correlation between monogamy and alcohol consumption (and especially between monogamy and drunkenness) across societies.”

Why is the press gushing over routine movement in White House team?

President Obama is likely to issue a signing statement in order to keep his Gitmo options open.

Getting an American passport will set you back around $230. Is that reasonable?

Will the Tea Party Movement grow up?

Does NATO membership serve a strategic purpose?

Iraq’s PM re-affirms Iraq’s commitment to the U. S. withdrawal date in the Status of Forces Agreement.

What is the proper conservative response to Santa Claus?

A Merry Christmas to all.

Is calling Côte d’Ivoire “Ivory Coast” linguistic colonialism? Where do we draw the line when English names for countries go out of vogue?

President Obama is supporting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Is this the end of America?

Sarah Palin’s reality show as as popular as the critically acclaimed drama everyone’s talking about. And that’s just half the story.

Red States should gain 10 seats while Blue States should lose eight.

The institutions charged with solving our Information Age social problems are stuck in the Industrial Age.

You can log in any time you like. But can you ever leave?

Is “ObamaCare” a slur or a breezy and descriptive nickname?

Sarah Deming has a longish column “Against Mixology,” decrying both the use of that title by barkeeps and, more importantly, the snootiness which often attends those who do.

Tonight’s topics: the Republican effort to run out the clock on the 111th Congress, various reform proposals that are floating around, and goodness knows what else.

WikiLeaker Bradley Manning has been held “under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture” for seven months and counting.

Did you know that the iPhone is made in China for a mere $6.50? It’s false but true!

The most walkable cities in America are also the most successful.

While the amount of wealth controlled by the top 1% is at record highs, real inequality is smaller than ever.

Silver tequila is being marketed as an upscale super premium when, in fact, it’s the lowest form of tequila.

Complaints from Rush Limbaugh tthat the ACLU is ignoring the intrusions into America’s civil liberties by the TSA are completely unfounded.

There are milestones in life that show how old you are.

A new study seems to show that student evaluations of teachers are something other than a popularity contest.

Have credit cards and ATMs eliminated the value of large currency zones?

Peter Orszag, President Obama’s first budget director, is headed to Citigroup and a multimillion dollar salary.

Why not just give poor people money rather than start up big charities?

“If you can’t afford to hire a bartender, you shouldn’t be having a party.” That’s the mantra of New York hipsters.

Gustavus Adolphus College librarian Barbara Fister explains why she loves getting rid of books.

Did Obama’s tax cut deal demolish the Republican charge that he’s a radical? Not hardly.

Tonight’s topics: The tax cut deal, Obama’s primary challengers, and whether politicians should care about the unemployed.

Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever?

President Obama’s press conference yesterday, bitterly railing against Democrats in the Congress for being “purist” and “sanctimonious,” is brilliant triangulation.

The namesake of “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” is no hunter, no matter what she might pretend.

The unemployed are predominately poorly educated non-voters. Some argue that they are therefore getting far too little attention from the political class.

The latest Wikileaks leak is a list of foreign infrastructure sites deemed vital to U. S. security.

Are American diplomats lying to reporters because they figure our citizens can’t handle the truth?

Iowa Republicans are targeting professor sabbaticals, thus demonstrating that they understand neither higher ed nor economics.

Despite recurring predictions that the Internet and mass communications would allow people to work from anywhere, talent continues to cluster in big cities.

Why would anyone buy Johnnie Walker Blue, when amazing single malts can be had for less?

Tonight’s topics: The fallout from the latest WikiLeaks dump and the Pentagon’s report on gays in the military.