US politics
If Republicans Want Young Voters, Maybe They Should Just Stop Being Bigots
The difficulty the Republicans have, see, in attracting young people is that the GOP tends to hate gays and young people see that for the vile bigotry it is. It's not the GOP's phrasing, it's what it's saying that makes young voters so turned off.
America’s Not-So-Secret Paranoid Underbelly
Free-floating fear and half-baked ideas about what’s REALLY going on have been a more significant part of American history than is generally accepted, according to Jesse Walker’s thorough, meticulously researched book The United States of Paranoia...
Road-Tripping with Rand Paul
I followed the guy who's probably running for president in 2016 as he gave speeches to evangelical Christians, hobnobbed with rich Silicon Valley techno-libertarians, and continued his effort to form a voting coalition of black conservatives...
After Michele Bachmann, America Needs Another Outrage Machine
Michele Bachmann made a career out of saying "crazy" and "controversial" things and pissing off Democrats while giving a symbol for Republicans to rally around. She raised money for Republicans and Democrats by energizing both sides. If she didn't...
How Are We Supposed to Know What the Government Does?
The most important reason that the media exists is to tell the public what’s happening and what the people in power are doing about it. That’s increasingly difficult when the decisions that matter are shrouded in multiple levels of secrecy.
Big Money's Obama
Once upon a time, Obama was apparently devoted to reining in the influence of money in politics, but after a couple of elections and some time inside the machine, he doesn’t seem to care about it at all. Instead of fighting against casual corruption...
I Guess We Need to Say It Again: George W. Bush Was the Worst
The important things he did and didn’t do when he was the most powerful elected official in the world were all pretty much uniformly awful. He had a chance to change the world in a real way and he made in demonstrably worse. Fuck him and his library.
Forget Gun Control, Let’s Ban the Senate
The failure of the gun control bill isn’t an example of cowardice on the part of senators who didn’t vote for it, or some fatal flaw on behalf of its sponsors. It’s just another case of the Senate being cripplingly, pathetically gridlocked and unable...
The AP Style Guide Finally Deported 'Illegal Immigrant'
Yesterday, the Associated Press declared that the phrase 'illegal immigrant' was no longer kosher, which is a big deal, since when the AP changes its style guide, newspapers around the country go along with it. Naturally, many people (mostly...
After Gay Marriage, Why Not Polygamy?
The idea that after gay marriage is legalized, polygamy will be next—and then bestiality and legal unions between lawn mowers and volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica and so on—is one of the main arguments that social conservatives trot out to...
Why Does Sarah Palin Want Your Money?
Sarah Palin isn't running for office, she doesn't have a TV show anymore, and she's less and less politically relevant. But she really, really wants people to pay attention to her, so she made a video all about how great she is. What a likable woman!
Reasons to Love the Sequester’s Massive Budget Cuts
Many ordinary working folk will suffer needlessly as a result of furloughs and pay cuts, but the sequester also slashes the budget for the DEA and the FBI, which is probably a good thing.