Outside the Beltway

Why do dictators feel the need to pretend that they have the consent of the people over whom they rule?

Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter.

Kim Jong Un seems to share his father’s taste for alcohol.

The North Koreans are back to their old tricks.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Hey Uncle, you’re fired.

Signs of some progress in the talks over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

:Like his predecessors, President Obama’s speech last night exaggerated the threat that Syria poses in order to sell his plan to American voters.

“No More Baby Steps,” my first piece for Defense News, has posted.

Why are chemical weapons a “red line” in a war where so many have been killed?

In response to North Korean saber rattling and the rise of China, Japan is reassessing it’s military posture

North Korea’s nuclear weapons aren’t going anywhere.

Outrage over leaks like those that Edward Snowden makes doesn’t exist when its politicians doing the leaking.

Denied her chance at being Secretary of State, Susan Rice will be moving to a position that is arguably just as important in shaping American foreign policy.

Eric Holder’s testimony before Congress is leading to accusations of perjury, but the argument that he did so seem pretty weak.

The Obama Administration’s aggressive pursuit of leaks is threatening freedom of the press.

The sequestration cuts are two months old, and it seems pretty clear that the claims of doom we heard before they went into effect were heavily exaggerated.

After many attempts to manufacture grand scandals out of very little, Republicans may finally have a legitimate outrage on their hands.

Keynes and uncertainty about the the future: about childlessness or philosophical assumptions?

A new poll shows that 62% of Americans oppose American military intervention in Syria’s civil war.

The wacko fringe of the GOP is increasingly finding room in the mainstream of the party.

President Obama may regret drawing a line in the sand over Syrian chemical weapons.

Has Bashar al-Assad crossed the red line drawn by President Obama? And does it matter?

There seems to be an effort underway to reassess the legacy of our 43rd President.

In a chaotic week, one source of chaos was remarkably quiet.

The odds that any of the Senators who voted no on Manchin/Toomey will pay a political price for doing so is low.

A preventative strike against North Korea is a bad idea.

Whether in the blogosphere or on television, people are increasingly only accessing sources of news and opinion that confirm their pre-conceived ideas.