Let's start with a multiple-choice question: Which answer is correct?

1. Sarah Palin's resignation less than two/thirds of the way through her term as governor is a violation of her compact with the voters, a flaky act that destroys her credibility as a serious politician.
2. Her resignation was a brilliant...

One could say of George Will what James Russell Lowell wrote of Emerson: "His eye for a fine, telling phrase that will carry true is like that of a backwoodsman for a rifle." Which is to say, the guy can write. But anyone who reads Will's latest screed on...

Here's a small Michael Jackson story to place upon on the pile, one that illustrates the global reach and power of pop music.

Albania existed in totalitarian isolation from the rest of Europe for four decades. It broke with the Soviet Union during Kruschev's de-Stalinization reforms because its dictator,...

Some Westerners have been driving themselves into a narcissistic frenzy over events in Iran, blind to the contradictions in their own behavior. John McCain's outrage over the tragic death of "Neda," a young woman who might have died under American bombs in his alternate reality, is merely one case in...

Human Events is one of the oldest and most establishing conservative journals in the country. Newt Gingrich is a regular contributor. So are Pat Buchanan, Chuck Norris, and a number of the Right's other luminaries. In today's violence-laden atmosphere, why are they letting their...

Those of us who follow health care may be overlooking the big picture. Most of the profound (and sometimes disruptive) changes of the last half century -- computers, the Internet, social networks -- weren't initiated by the political process. They arose at the intersection of technology, economics, and mass social...

The opposition to a public health plan option seems to be imploding, victimized by logic which looks something like this:

1. A public health plan will be a nightmare. You won't get the doctor you want. Waiting times will be horrendous. Government pencil-pushers will stand between you...

It's on. The president's assuming direct ownership of the health debate. Draft bills are beginning to circulate on the Hill. Dozens of policy details are being debated. Universal coverage is one way to describe the objective, but here's one that might be better: We need a health care bailout...

Let's start with a thought experiment: Let's say you denounced someone in your neighborhood as a a corrupt and terrible person - a killer, even. Let's give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you believe your words to be true. Then let's say that somebody who might have...

Wait a second. First we couldn't get away from that swine flu story, although we were told that it had affected less than 100 people in Mexico and only a handful here in the US. It was getting round-the-clock high decibel coverage on all channels. Twitter, our new electronic...

"Attention, Virginia!" the ransom note begins. "I have your sh*t! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :( "

Guess what? Bob Dylan's moved on. His albums aren't transformational events anymore. Nowadays they're celebrations and echoes of the everyday working lives of a dying generation of American roadhouse musicians -- bluesmen and Tex-Mex balladeers, country singers, rockabilly madmen and crooning would-be paramours.

But if you've been listening to...

We can find out which medical treatments work best with "clinical effectiveness research" (CER). Newt and Hillary both love it - but some people are against it just because the President supports it. They say these measurements would be too "arbitrary." Well, speaking of arbitrary measurements ...

It's Day 100....

The ticking time bomb. We've been hearing about it for years, but it's never actually happened. Yet its constantly being brought up - to justify torture in thousands of situations where there is no ticking time bomb. What kind of sense does that make?

Here's an analogy: It's possible...

Mike Allen of The Politico has impeccable credentials as a mainstream journalist. So what are we to make of the statement he made the other day on Hugh Hewitt's show, after a DHS report said there was a risk of increased rightwing terrorism?

"... I think some bureaucrat...

Phil Spector was immortalized by Tom Wolfe as the "tycoon of teen" when he was 25. He'll turn 70 this year as a convicted murderer. Time, the great equalizer, has done more than bring Phil Spector down. It has sent him straight to hell.

Mick Brown described meeting Spector, who...

Who would have guessed that Leonard Cohen was a contender for James Brown's title as The Hardest Working Man in Show Business? Cohen's Friday night appearance at L.A.'s Nokia Theater was a riveting three-hour music marathon, complete with wit, charm, and snippets of poetry that mesmerized the crowd.

This was...

A couple of years ago some of us took Merle Haggard's rejection of the Bush Administration and the Iraq war as a sign that disaster was imminent for the GOP. A new country hit doesn't spell the same kind of doom for Obama and the Democrats - yet -...

In what may become a new Opening Day tradition, John McCain threw out the first cranky¹ when debate on Kathleen Sebelius's nomination began this week. That means the topic of health reform is about to heat up even more, and it's getting hard to tell the players without a...

Guess what? That volcano in Alaska just exploded again - twice, in fact. The Associated Press reports that "the larger burst (sent) an ash cloud 65,000 feet in the air." Oh ... and the ash was "razor-sharp."

No doubt critics will renew their carping about Bobby Jindal's use of...