Blogger Doug Mataconis points to some statistics indicating that residents of Washington DC may watch more porn films on the internet than residents of any US state. Some social conservatives will view this with alarm, saying it is one more sign that America is turning into Sodom and the day of wrath is coming. Others […]

With the fiscal cliff fading into the past, attention is now turning to the next DC-generated crisis: the debt ceiling. This dispatch from left-leaning Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent on his  Plum Line blog suggests that the search for a Democrats-only solution to raise the ceiling in the Senate may be tough, and reading between the […]

Could Iran finally be ready for serious talks on its uranium enrichment program? A recent announcement by its lead nuclear negotiator indicates that it might be. But as always with Iran, words and actions aren’t necessarily aligned and Russia is worried that the Iranians aren’t ready to move.Laura Rozen reports at the Back Channel: Western diplomats fear […]

In recent days we’ve been hearing a lot of hysterical chatter, from the NYT, the National Geographic, and other media outlets—about how 2012 was the hottest year ever for the continental United States. Obviously, this is evidence that global warming will soon destroy us all: Scientists said that natural variability almost certainly played a role in last year’s […]

We’re big fans of our colleague Peter Berger’s blog here at Via Meadia. His takes on religious issues of the day are always worth reading. His latest observation: The religiously unaffiliated in America supposedly make up as much as 20 percent of the population according to recent surveys. Yet at times of tragedy, the atheist/humanist […]

[UPDATE] France is at war in Mali, launching air strikes against jihadi forces threatening the country’s fragile (and not very impressive) government. Given the sharp limits on France’s ability to project power, French officials are in discussions with the Pentagon about possible American intelligence and logistics support.The conflict in Mali is France’s third military intervention […]

South Africa continues its slide. Last year Africa’s largest economy saw its sovereign debt rating downgraded by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s after widespread mining strikes undermined investor confidence. Yesterday Fitch followed suit, following a new outbreak of strikes by grape farmers. South Africa’s economy has now received a vote of no confidence from all three major […]

Is the momentum for new action on gun control slowly leaking away? That seems to be the message of this New York Times piece on Vice President Biden’s task force on gun control, which has tempered its expectation of a renewal of an assault weapon ban as Washington’s gun rights lobby flexes its muscle: [T]he White House has […]

The international intervention in Mali has finally begun: French troops are on the ground and warplanes in the sky, helping Malian soldiers fight Islamist militants who have taken over the northern part of the country. Just in the past few days the (loosely but dangerously) al Qaeda-linked militants advanced south toward the capital, panicking residents […]

Healthcare policy experts have long predicted that electronic medical records would allow us to streamline and modernize much of our healthcare system. But despite some encouraging signs, many of the promised benefits of the new technology have yet to materialize: The conversion to electronic health records has failed so far to produce the hoped-for savings in […]