Outside the Beltway

David Blight recounts the story of the first Memorial Day.

A profile of George Mason economist and blogger Tyler Cowen offers this amusing description: “Cowen, 49, has round features, a hesitant posture, and an unconcerned haircut.”

Rand Paul has borrowed a bad idea from the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Drinking large amounts of coffee may ward off prostate cancer.

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

Most good government jobs require a college degree–but they don’t care much whether it’s a real one.

The birthers are dead (kinda), so long live the transcripters!

Trump continues his antics: pulling out 2008 campaign memes and doing his best to paint Obama as a mysterious “other.”

While elite schools confer many advantages on their graduates, they also wall them off from normal people and create an entitled, out-of-touch elite.

An increasing number of bright observers are questioning the notion that everyone needs to go to college.

Stephen Walt doesn’t expect Obama’s foreign policy to change along with the names on the org chart.

It took Andrew Sullivan 18 years to get his request for Permanent Resident status approved. That’s just absurd.

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

A handful of young male bloggers have launched themselves to the head of the line, leapfrogging those who’ve spent years playing the game by the old rules.juice

While complaints that there’s too much information for intellectuals to sort through, much less read, are constant, they’re not new. Harvard historian Ann Blair argues in her new book Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Modern Age that this stress goes back at least to Seneca’s time.

There’s still time for Sarah Palin to burnish her political reputation. But she probably won’t.

Philippa Thomas has a fascinating take on how she broke the news of (now former) State Department P.J. Crowley’s condemnation of the Obama administration’s treatment of Bradley Manning.

79% do not think Ivy League students make better workers. 18% are undecided.

Scientists have discovered that the Internet could be a useful collaborate tool.

Mitt Romney starts his 2012 run as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. But, in reinventing himself yet again, the “authenticity” issue that troubled many of us in 2008 looms again.

James Franco is a film director, screenwriter, painter, author, performance artist and actor. And working on a PhD at Yale.

Facebook has come up with new settings to meet the needs of users in same-sex relationships.

Predicting (after a fashion) what the SCOTUS will do with the PPACA and a return to the Commerce Clause and the activity/inactivity disucssion.

Yet another study finds conservatives wildly underrepresented in higher education.

The coverage of Egypt shows an over-reliance on pundits and an under-reliance on actual experts.

The events in Egypt have led some to ask if the mere act of cutting off access to the Internet is, in itself, an human rights violation.

A new study casts new light on the importance of testing students to reinforce their grasp of information.

The Republicans are increasingly the party of white America. That’s short term good but long term bad for the GOP.

President Obama was correct to commend the Eagles for giving Michael Vick a chance to redeem himself.

The repeal of DADT may open the doors for ROTC to return to many elite institutions, if cost doesn’t get in the way.

UCSD grad student Mark Farrales is a good example of why something like the DREAM Act has merit.

Columbia political science professor David Epstein has been charged with a 3-year incestuous relationship with his adult daughter.

Does that degree you get at the end of your four years of college really mean anything anymore, and is it worth the money you paid for it?

President Obama is already taking heat from the left for his compromise on tax cut extensions, but will it actually hurt him in the end?

Bridget Terry Long, a professor of education and economics at Harvard, argues that we should give prospective college students and their families better information on such matters as loan burdens, graduation rates, average class size, average aid package, salaries earned and positions held by recent graduates, and alumni satisfaction.

Harvard’s Jack Hamilton extols “Robert Plant’s Second Act” for the Atlantic. In so doing, he gives us an interesting look at the more important First Act.

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg thinks a President independent of either political party would be a good idea. Is he right?

Charles Murray argues that the Tea Party is right to complain about out-of-touch elites.

While the displacement of poor blacks from their neighborhoods by affluent whites may be lamentable, it’s better than the alternatives.

The skyrocketing cost of tuition makes it harder for students to justify getting a liberal arts education rather than training for a high paying job.

More on Greg Mankiw’s thought experiment on taxes and incentives to work.

Greg Mankiw argues that, the more of his money the government takes, the less incentive he has to earn more. That’s debatable.

A third of the Forbes 50 were born billionaires. Does that mean the game is fixed?