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Your Future President/Governor/Senator Is Having a Small New Hampshire Problem

Jim Newell

December 23, 2013

How different can Massachusetts and New Hampshire possibly be? They’re both dinky little states in New England that vote for Barack Obama and root for Satan’s baseball team and talk weird. The GOPs in both states aren’t rich with True Conservatives who hunt ...

Have You Heard About This Real America? It’s Just Beyond the Borders of Washington, D.C.

Jim Newell

December 20, 2013

This week, we celebrate a hero. Sam Youngman was a reporter in Washington, D.C., covering the White House and basking in all the perks of his high profile gig for several years. Then, after years of partying and a stint in rehab, he decided he was living an out-of-touch, morally ...

A&E Shocked, Absolutely Shocked, to Learn Some Born-Again Christians Don’t Like Gay People

Lisa Weidenfeld

December 19, 2013

Are you one of the many millions of people who watch Duck Dynasty on A&E? I confess, I am not. But I think I get the idea: look at those funny men with their big beards, and their back-country ways! You know, the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo model. But where Honey Boo Boo’s ...

2013: The Year of the Great Footie Pajama Debate Over the Fate of Millennials

Jim Newell

December 18, 2013

The future of American politics now rests on the ability of healthy people in their twenties to purchase health insurance. If not enough of the “invincibles,” as they’re now being called, enroll in the health insurance exchanges, the risk pools required to make ...

Enjoy Your G-Rated College Learning Experience

Chris Bray

December 17, 2013

I’m going to dress you up like a “whore,” and then we’re going to do it in front of an audience—wait, no, you misunderstand. It’s educational. The strange case of Patricia Adler, a respected and widely published sociologist who teaches at the ...

New Obstacle in Gun Control Discussion: Lack of Interest in Enforcement

Jim Newell

December 16, 2013

In the wake of the Aurora movie theater shooting last summer, Colorado was able to pass certain gun restrictions, including mandatory background checks for private sales or transfers of magazines with more than fifteen rounds of ammunition. Gun control activists across the ...

“Selfie” Non Scandal Proves Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Jim Newell

December 13, 2013

In an event that was not at all controversial this week, and barely, maybe for a hot second or two while cruising through Twitter, counts as interesting, President Obama was photographed taken a “selfie” of himself and the British and Danish prime ministers at Nelson ...

Rest Easy: World of Warcraft Officially Not a Terrorism Breeding Ground

Chris Bray

December 12, 2013

Security and science are an old, natural couple, mutually reinforcing one another in the fight to extract resources and power from fearful societies. Shameful examples are easy enough: medicine and the emerging field of microbiology helped to explain that Filipinos were dirty ...

Democrats Enjoy Trolling Now, Will Not Enjoy Actual Troll in Senate

Jim Newell

December 11, 2013

Democrats and aligned Democratic groups right now are faced with one of those classic, difficult questions: should they go out of their way to screw someone over because it’s fun, even if there’s a chance it causes more damage down the road? Everything people are ...

Changes in Drone Policy Starting to Show Effects

Chris Bray

December 10, 2013

George W. Bush’s fourth term is going about as well as could be expected. The United States is finalizing an agreement — not without some obstacles — to keep troops and the federal checkbook in Afghanistan through at least 2024. The military tribunals at ...

For Their Next Trick, Democrats Will Attempt to Distract You from the Issues with Obamacare

Jim Newell

December 09, 2013

The only game that matters for the next 11 months is, how screwed will the Democrats be come November 2014? At least a little bit screwed. Control of the House isn’t in play. Control of the Senate is, however, and Democrats have to defend too many seats, due to ...

Temporary Amnesia Strikes Some upon Death of Nelson Mandela

Jim Newell

December 06, 2013

Our major publications were ready for the death of Nelson Mandela. When it came yesterday, at age 95—probably later than many, including Mandela himself, expected—we got to see the editorial plans they’d had for years in the making move into action. Time has ...