Adam Serwer

Michael Gerson is basically right about Ayn Rand: If Objectivism seems familiar, it is because most people know it under another name: adolescence. Many of us experienced a few unfortunate years of invincible self-involvement, testing moral boundaries and prone to stormy egotism and hero worship. Usually one grows out of it, eventually discovering that the […]

Yesterday Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that the U.S. had deployed predator drones in operations in Libya, describing their involvement as a “modest contribution,” to a mission being carried out by NATO allies. Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. James Cartwright said the drones were “uniquely suited for areas — urban areas […]

Policing pregnancy. The 2012 is going to be a doozy. Politfact gets one wrong. Give em one, and they’ll all want one.

Chris Johnson reports that House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon is open to legislation that would delay the implementation of “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal: In December, President Obama signed legislation allowing for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal 60 days after he, the defense secretary and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff […]

So almost half the members in the Republican Party are birthers. Dave Weigel asks whether this paragraph from a profile of Obama‘s mother is going to be the new smoking gun: Benji Bennington, a friend of Ann’s from Hawaii, told me, “Sometimes when she talked about Barack, she’d say, ‘well, my son is so bright, […]

The Los Angeles Times has a somewhat tongue-in-cheek article about the boredom of Border Patrol agents now that apprehensions are down, having “dropped more than two-thirds from 2000 to 2010, from 1.6 million to 448,000.” Byerly finished the energy drinks and put the comedy into his DVD player. (Agents are prohibited from using personal electronic […]

Via Amanda Marcotte, Louis C.K. explains the difference between “girls” and “women.” I think what I like about Louis C.K. is that if you’re not actually thinking about what he’s really saying, then the joke isn’t as funny.

There are two results in the latest YouGov Egypt poll that should put some Americans’ anxieties at ease. The first is that only 25 percent of Egyptians want an Islamic state, while 57 percent want “a state where the constitution uses Islamic law as one source of several sources for the constitution.” The number that […]

Marcy Wheeler reminds us that the people who allegedly went beyond the OLC “legalized torture” guidelines are doing pretty well professionally: But I wonder whether the government is also, finally, going to charge the people who staged a mock execution using a power drill against al-Nashiri–basically doing the one thing even John Yoo said would […]

The Tyler Perry vs. Spike Lee beef continues. Anonymous political ads are one thing, but this is close to extortion. Jessica Stern on homegrown terrorism. The Uighurs Passover story.