christopher_hallam

I think this is the key point in Marc Ambinder‘s thoughtful piece on his struggle with obesity: Perhaps my own losing struggle with weight reflects a failure of willpower. That seems more plausible to me than the argument that I was a helpless victim of Arby’s. But most fat people aren’t like me: as an […]

The Obama administration’s continuation of Bush-era national security policies is, of course, a big disappointment. But if you’re looking for change, it’s always a good idea to take a look at what the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department is doing: The federal criminal investigation of the police shootings of civilians on Danziger Bridge […]

Given the administration’s public defense of the use of drone strikes to hit al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan, people might ask why putting extremist al-Qaeda affiliated cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is even a big deal. American missiles kill high profile terror targets all the time, and often kill innocent civilians in the process. If we’ve accepted that, […]

When I first read TBogg‘s summary of Ross Douthat‘s latest column, I really thought he was kidding: CNN should develop potentially “riveting” television programming that offers respectful and thoughtful debate that rises above petty and obvious partisanship. You know, like Glenn Beck… Then I read Ross Douthat’s latest column: Even the thrust-and-parry sessions of “The […]

Ezra Klein writes that the Republican strategy to stop health reform–elevating Democratic process maneuvers made necessary by Republican obstruction to the level of crimes–threatens to discredit the entire legislative process. The result of this constant assault on how a bill becomes a law — a process that has never before been subject to such 24/7 […]

During his interview with the president two days ago, Brett Baier pivots inexplicably from U.S.-Israeli relations and Iran getting nuclear weapons to the urgent topic of what Barack Obama thinks of philandering golfer Tiger Woods: Baier: One of our emailers asked to ask you what you think about Tiger returning to the Masters? Obama: Tiger […]

Alex Koppelman points out that Dennis Kucinich has absolutely nothing to show for his seven terms in Congress, and Nate Silver points out that he’s consistently voted against Democratic agenda items from the left, so much so that his voting record is actually less progressive than many Republicans.Now, Kucinich is saying he’s going to vote […]

The Associated Press reports: Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years. In fact, demographers say this year could be the “tipping point” when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers […]

Via Patrick Barry, this from Spencer Ackerman‘s review of Mitt Romney‘s new book is truly bizarre: The concept of diplomacy is completely foreign to Romney. He dismisses the State Department as “assistant secretaries and… bureaucrats” and proposes designating regional relations to “one individual” who would become a “presidential envoy or the ambassador from CENTCOM or […]

Spencer Ackerman notices this faulty observation from Michael Weingrad: So why don’t Jews write more fantasy literature? And a different, deeper but related question: why are there no works of modern fantasy that are profoundly Jewish in the way that, say, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is Christian? Why no Jewish Lewises, and […]