Outside the Beltway

After five days of nonsense, President Obama’s address in Tucson last night struck exactly the right tone.

The political firestorm that has erupted in the wake of the shootings in Arizona is drifting, inevitably, into calls for more government control over the content of speech.

The cost/benefit ratio of tablet computers seems to be a bit…. lacking.

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

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

Roughly 150 years ago, the CSA was born. Is this something worthy of celebration?

The American copyright system is broken. Cory Doctorow offers some useful suggestions for fixing it.

In an effort to combat illegal file sharing, the US Department of Homeland Security is seizing domain names.

The People In Charge telling us that something is Necessary For Our Own Good makes a large number of people accepting of the inconvenience, no matter how asinine or unsupported by evidence.

Economist Bryan Caplan argues that our educational system does not prepare our children for the modern economy.

The Atlantic’s Dave Thier laments that, “The Beatles on iTunes Means Your Kids May Never Hear ‘Her Majesty’

An imaginary letter from Mick Jagger to “the journalist Bill Wyman” in reference to Keith Richards’ new autobiography has been making the rounds. Oddly, everyone seems to think Jagger actually wrote the piece.

In my former home state of Alabama, Republicans won every major contest, save the one House seat specifically drawn to ensure a Democratic victory.

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.

Once the province of science fiction, a car that can drive itself is now a reality, thanks to Google and DARPA. The implications are mind boggling.

The man best known for staging the “Acorn Pimp” videos is back in the news with an even more bizarre story.

Business is booming for box sets of 1960s acts remastered into the original mono.

A Vanity Fair piece imagines what John Lennon’s life would have been like had he survived an assassin’s bullet.

Apparently, Katy Perry’s dress was deemed too revealing for public television.

Beloved comedian and character actor Andy Griffith’s popularity in his home state has plummeted since making commercials endorsing ObamaCare and some Democratic candidates.

Has the digitization of entertainment — DVRs, iPods, iPods, digital cameras, Netflix, and so forth — transformed it from fun into work?

Should black people quit using the N-word to set an example for white folk?

Electronic books outsold paper books on Amazon over the past three months, but the death of the hardcover is greatly exaggerated.

Oakland’s police chief, miffed at recent budget cuts, has listed 44 crimes that his officers will no longer respond to.

Thanks to JaMarcus Russell, I have learned a new term.

Magazines routinely run great pieces by highly biased writers. Why can’t newspapers do the same?

Stanley McChrystal is being called to face Obama’s national security team this morning. They should take the opportunity to come up with coherent Afghanistan policy.

Is there a double standard in play when generals criticize Democratic versus Republican presidents?