Outside the Beltway

The Atlantic’s Max Fisher reflects on “What America Can Learn From Norway’s Anders Breivik Trial.”

At the apex of the last economic boom, we were spending far less as a percentage of our income on food, clothing, and transportation than our predecessors of half a century before, with the surplus going mostly to education and health care.

Through a stroke of bad luck, the Atlantic Council server was down during a critical Google update

A new book would classify most of us who consume alcohol as “almost alcoholics.”

Megan McArdle is taking a break of unspecified length from blogging to “work on another project.” Said project, she hastens to add, is not a baby.

A pattern that never ends: Perceived insults lead to mayhem and murder.

Once again, the culture wars intrude into yet another area of life.

Everything the critics say about the decision is right–and so is the decision.

My latest for The Atlantic explains, “Why We Should Be Glad the Haditha Massacre Marine Got No Jail Time.”

Philip Hammond addressed the Atlantic Council this morning in advance of a meeting with Leon Panetta.

President Obama’s Pentagon is planning for an unlikely war with China rather than the small wars America will inevitably fight.

R.I.P.

America’s greatest statesmen fear America’s political paralysis endangers our ability to lead the world.

The Postal Service announced another round of service cutbacks today that are likely to just make the rapidity of its decline increase

“The debt crisis is burrowing ever deeper, like a worm, and is now reaching Germany.”

We’re hearing the howls of a wounded bear.

Why we shouldn’t be surprised that police are using tools of violence against protestors.

From Europe, a case of regulation gone nuts.

So, how did we get to the point where a fat, condescending, serial adulterer who left office in disgrace twelve years ago is the latest challenger for the conservative mantle?

We’re running out of excuses.

My latest for The Atlantic: “Some Reasons Not to Worry About Republican Foreign Policy Craziness”

Polls are starting to show signs that the sexual harassment allegations are starting to hurt Herman Cain.

My latest for The Atlantic: “For Europe, Some Fear a Conflict Between Union and Democracy”

Why does wine get so much more written treatment than beer?

The Feds fired Monster and now USAJobs is a disaster

President Obama’s surprise announcement Friday that all U.S. forces would leave Iraq in time to be home for the holidays has been roundly condemned. While there are real concerns about what happens next, there was no better alternative.

Google+ was supposed to be a Facebook killer. If their social media icons are any indication, it’s not happening.

Obama is trying to get into Guinness under “US President with Most Simultaneous Wars”

Rush Limbaugh, who three years ago said Mitt Romney embodied all three legs of the conservative stool today declared that Romney is not a conservative. He was right both times.

What’s the logic behind Iran’s alleged plot to commit terrorist attacks inside the United States?

A computer virus has infected America’s fleet of Predator and Reaper drones.

My latest for The Atlantic, “Romney’s Realist Foreign Policy Is a Lot Like Obama’s,” has been posted.

September’s jobs report was better than expected, but still not very good.

The story of Perry’s hunting lodge probably doesn’t tell us that much about Perry, but it is still telling.

Giving the President the unchecked power to kill American citizens raises some serious red flags.

My latest for The Atlantic, “The Thorniest Question: When Can a President Order an American Killed?” has been posted.

62 percent of 21-year-olds aren’t in college.

During last night’s debate, Mitt Romney repeated a charge that has become part of the conservative zeitgeist. But is it true?

NATO is still seen as essential by 62 percent of both EU and U.S. respondents, demonstrating that the transatlantic military bond is still, despite a rough decade, firmly entrenched in American and European views of the world.

A mustachioed German has once again sent the world into panic. This time, it involves euros not tanks.