Outside the Beltway

NYT Magazine asks “Can the Republicans be Saved From Obsolescence?”

Olympic paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius has been arrested after the fatal shooting of his girlfriend.

Pope Benedict XVI explains that he’s just too sick and tired to stay on as pontiff.

John Karlin, an industrial psychologist for Bell Labs that you’ve probably never heard of, has died aged 94.

A 5-year-old Alabama boy is safe after authorities killed his kidnapper.

Conservatives complaining about biased coverage from the liberal media should instead look in the mirror.

At nearly $4 million for a 30 second spot, advertising on the Super Bowl is a bargain.

Ed Koch, former mayor of New York City and one of America’s most colorful politicians, has died at 88.

Applications to America’s Law Schools are down, because the nature of the legal profession is changing.

The New York Times breaks the shocking story (“That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think”) that cats kill birds and small mammals.

President Obama has unveiled a set of restrictions that wouldn’t have stopped the Sandy Hook Massacre. Some are nonetheless be good policy.

The ultimate impact of the Newtown tragedy on the nation’s gun laws is likely to be very limited.

Welcome to the latest crazy scheme to avoid reality.

President Obama is taking some heat over the fact that his Second Term cabinet selections have been very white and very male.

Could a coin like this solve the looming debt ceiling crisis?

Arab news giant Al-Jazeera is buying Al Gore’s failing Current TV network, hoping to get a bigger presence in the US cable market.

The world’s most prolific blogger is leaving corporate media and opening the tip jar.

Our politicians have averted an artificial crisis of their own making. The next one’s in two months.

Automatic tax hikes and spending cuts took effect at midnight. A deal involving the executive and half of the legislative branch could largely reverse them.

For the New Year, how about challenging your ideas just a little bit?

A rich child is 45 percent more likely to earn a four-year college degree than a poor one.

Alex Pareene’s annual hack list omits an obvious candidate: Alex Pareene.

Jake Tapper is moving to CNN, where he’ll host a daily show and run their political coverage.

Robert Bork, the controversial jurist whose failed Supreme Court bid ushered in a new climate in American politics, has died at 85.

Obsessive media coverage makes us believe mass shootings are far more common than they actually are.

Will the massacre of twenty children in a Connecticut elementary school mark a turning point in America’s gun culture? Don’t count on it.

It’s okay to criticize military veterans–even if you never served in the military.

George Zimmerman’s attorneys have filed a defamation lawsuit against NBC News.

My first piece for the New York Daily News, “A Drone Strike on Democracy,” has posted.

Ross Douthat says American women should stop being decadent and have more babies, explaining that raising children is easier than it used to be, so there’s really no excuse for women to be so selfish.

The New York Post splashed the photo of a man pushed in front of a train on their cover.

A photograph of a New York cop putting boots on a homeless man went viral. The man remains bootless, however.

Vilifying Thomas Jefferson is as much as mistake as placing him on a pedestal.

In a NYT op-ed titled “The Monster of Monticello” Paul Finkelman expresses his befuddlement that people play down Thomas Jefferson’s legacy as a slave owner.

Ronald Reagan won the tax fight. The debate now centers on whether to continue cutting taxes or slightly reverse the trend.

With just about a month to go before we hit the “Fiscal Cliff.” things don’t look good at all.

There aren’t enough readers who want political reporting that’s “more substantive than POLITICO and much more sophisticated than C.Q.” and willing to pay for it.

They are playing the game without rules in Egypt.

Seems that the answer continues to be “no.”

Dean “Unskewed Polls” Chambers is back, and he’s as deluded as ever.