Outside the Beltway

The execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric has led to a rapid deterioration of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Merry Christmas!

Marine Le Pen suffered setbacks in the second round of regional voting on Sunday, but the party still seems likely to become more popular in the coming years.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Don’t forget to start a political fight with your family!

It’s Election Day in Louisiana again, and voters have the same crappy choices they usually end up with.

Legislators in Spain’s Catalonia region took a step toward independence, but Madrid apparently wants nothing to do with it.

For the first time since Chang Kai-Shek escaped across the Taiwan Strait, the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China will meet this weekend.

Republican Matt Bevin picked up what comes as a surprise win to many observers, and that sets up a big fight over what had been a PPACA program that the White House has touted.

Republicans have apparently gone insane.

Because that’s what White Houseses do.

Rand Paul is promising to filibuster the budget deal when it gets to the Senate, but it’s extremely unlikely he’ll be able to do anything but delay the inevitable.

A political earthquake north of the border.

If pre-election polling is to be believed, Stephan Harper and Canada’s Conservative Party seem likely to lose power after Monday’s elections, but there are several reasons why this may not end up being the case.

California has become the second state to provide for automatic voter registration for all eligible voters when they obtain or renew a driver’s license.

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide, making California the fifth state to legalize the practice and possibly giving real political momentum to the Right To Die movement.

NASA had a potentially significant announcement today.

The final GDP revision for the second quarter showed the economy grew at a nearly four percent rate.

Britain’s Labour Party has taken a hard tilt left with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader.

A teenager in North Carolina is facing serious criminal charges in another absurd overreaction to teenager “sexting.”

The POLITICO gang report that a “Joe Biden strategy for [a] White House run [is] taking shape.”

Connecticut eliminated the death penalty several years ago, and now the state’s Supreme Court has ruled that the men remaining on death row cannot be executed.

A company you probably thought had died off years ago filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday.

Kimba Wood has finally found a teacher exam she likes.

Last night reinforced what I thought about some candidates and changed what I think about others.

Jason Kottke points me to Stan Carey’s summary of Jack Grieve’s study of regional variations in swearing patterns across the United States.

Gravity announced a minimum annual salary of $70,000. Almost everyone is unhappy.

The economy rebounded from it’s winter shock, but it still doesn’t seem strong enough to justify the Federal Reserve’s plan to raise interest rates.

The problem goes beyond the War on Drugs.

Hillary Clinton’s two biggest challengers were ambushed at a progressive political convention over the weekend.

Trips to the airport will now be even more fun.

New Horizons got within just a few thousand miles of Pluto’s surface today, and the data it sends back promises to be amazing.

The events of the past two weeks could allow the Republican Party to move forward.

Debating the proper role of the judiciary.

Andrew Sullivan, perhaps the man most responsible for putting the notion of marriage equality into the national debate, has come out of his blogging retirement to weigh in on yesterday’s historic ruling.

Things that make you go hmmmm…..

Pete Rose’s efforts at rehabilitation may have just been fatally injured.

The nine-year-old ‘Army Strong’ ad campaign is ended.

My latest for The National Interest, “America’s Military Needs a New Retirement Plan,” has posted.

The president is getting flack for holding a private party at his house.

This should be the end of this story, but it probably won’t be.

The Iowa Supreme Court strikes a blow for liberty.

Turkey’s governing party suffered big setbacks at the ballot box yesterday.

Humans have been getting progressively bigger, faster, and stronger. Not so horses.