United States

Bob Woodward has a new book about the Obama administration, and it seems that the “big reveal” of it is that there have been some big disagreements among the top-level staffers and military leaders. This barely deserves comment, but it appears to be the “story of the day,” so I’ll let Andrew take take this one: I have only read the excerpts, but I have to say that the notion that there was serious debate, some rancor, plenty of disagreements, occasional bursts of temper (have you ever met Holbrooke, arguably the most arrogant asshole in DC?), an...

Well, David Boaz at Cato and I may share very few opinions, but I always appreciate a good smack-down: Social conservatives talk about real problems but offer irrelevant solutions. They act like the man who searched for his keys under the streetlight because the light was better there. Social conservatives tend to talk about issues like abortion and gay rights, stem-cell research and the role of religion “in the public square”: “Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life, marriage and religious liberty have forgotten the lessons of history,”said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.)...

So, we’ve been paying a lot of attention lately to Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle, the Neo-Palinists (a cursory Google search leads me to hope that I coined that term), but Michael Gross at Vanity Fair brings us something pretty spectacular from the Original Gangster herself that is pretty incredible. It comes in the form of an e-mail sent by pastor and right-wing political activist (pre-tea party) Lou Engle (no relation to Friedrich Engels) to Sarah right before her vice presidential debate with then-Sen. Joe Biden:* The e-mail was written by Lou Engle, a right-wing pastor and...

Good grief.  So, Republican nominee for Senate Christine O’Donnell claimed back in (maybe) 1999 on Bill Maher\’s infamous Politically Incorrect to have dabbled in witchcraft (but never joined a coven), and had one her first dates on a Satanic altar (after seeing a movie, of course). May be a cliché, but this is seriously some shit that you really just can’t make up.

The National Review cover story, “The Case for Marriage,” draws an argument against same-sex marriage solely founded on the idea that marriage is for sexual relations, and that sexual intercourse between men and women makes babies. It is true that marriage is, in part, an emotional union, and it is also true that spouses often take care of each other and thereby reduce the caregiving burden on other people. But neither of these truths is the fundamental reason for marriage. The reason marriage exists is that the sexual intercourse of men and women regularly produces children. If...

This chart is pretty staggering, and gives a little more credence to the call to keep expanding unemployment insurance, even if Sharron Angle thinks it “spoils” the unemployed. This chart comes from Arloc Sherman from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who writes: The headline story in today’s Census Bureau report is the large jump in the poverty rate in 2009. But an exclusive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of the new survey data shows that unemployment insurance benefits — which expanded substantially last year in response to the increased need — kept 3.3 million people...

One of many 1990s-era videos featuring Christine O’Donnell, the newly-minted Republican nominee for Senate from Delaware, spouting crazy nonsense. Did you know that condoms actually facilitate HIV transmission? Also, Politico has some stories from former staffers from her failed 2008 senate attempt: Kristin Murray, who left her position in the state party to serve as one of several campaign managers for O’Donnell during that race, said warning bells went off in June 2008 when the two were discussing cell phone plans. ‘She told me that she thought Joe Biden tapped her phone line,’ she said. Alan Moore,...