Category Archives: Current Events

Margaret Talbot looks into the world of sex education and/or abstinence in the "evangelical" community. As one might imagine, it's kinda screwed up…and not working for most kids.

If you're interested in what's going on with the Norm Coleman-Al Franken contest in Minnesota — where Coleman's paltry 571 vote lead has shrunk to 236 before the recount has even begun — read this.

Fred Kaplan on what Barack Obama oughta do about foreign policy. The first thing I'd do is hire Fred Kaplan as an advisor.

I always thought the whole radical association between Barack Obama and William Ayers was largely a fantasy cooked up by folks who couldn't figure out how else to attack Obama. In this article, Ayers comes out of hiding and says much the same thing. I don't suppose it will convince those who want to believe the demonized caricature of our president-elect but there it is.

Over at The Huffington Post, regular columnist Robert J. Elisberg has finally (finally!) started listening to someone who makes sense. It's about time.

Fred Kaplan on what's going on with Syria. You may find this hard to believe but the Bush Administration is killing innocent people overseas and damaging America's standing with the world.

All of a sudden, we're hearing that Barack Obama is an unabashed socialist. He apparently has always had this agenda but the McCain campaign didn't talk a lot about it until around the time they wrote off Michigan. Hendrik Hertzberg explains why the charge is nonsense.

Incidentally, I am well aware that there are some folks who like this site for its non-political posts and who wince that I don't share their views and write what I do believe. I'm sorry…but blogging is only fun for me when I can write whatever pops into my mind without anyone inhibiting me. The election, I'm sure, will be front and center in there for the next week or so. You might want to find another site to read until it's over.

Why are John McCain and the Republican National Committee spending money on McCain-Palin ads in Montana? If Obama has even a decent chance of winning Montana, doesn't that mean the election will be over before the polls even close there?

I wasn't going to link to any more articles bashing Governor Palin because I figured, "Well, what's the point?" But this piece by Christopher Hitchens is worth a read, not just with regard to her but on an important (to me) topic…the warping or denial of scientific reality to accommodate faith-based beliefs. Ignore Hitchens' usual bluster and follow his factual recital.

You probably wouldn't know it from most election coverage but there's still a war on in Iraq. People are still dying over there and we're still spending money we don't have over there. Joe Conason gives us a nice summary of the current state of play…which doesn't look like much more than us trying to get out with a minimum of damage and embarrassment.

Robert Draper offers a look inside the McCain campaign with the emphasis on where things went wrong. If this piece is correct — and one assumes we'll be seeing alternative views — then McCain's chief campaign strategist Steve Schmidt made a lot of really bad calls and McCain deferred way too much to him.

What's most interesting about this "inside the campaign" piece and a couple of others we've seen in the last week or so is that they're being written now. We usually see a lot of these articles after an election when everyone feels freer to talk and they want to get their version "out there" about how they deserve the credit for everything that went right and they warned everyone about the things that went wrong. Apparently, some folks in the McCain campaign feel it can't wait until after Election Day.

Several of my friends are concerned that Barack Obama may not win. Albert Brooks says we have nothing to worry about.

Fred Kaplan on what John McCain did during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Answer: Not as much as he's now suggesting.

I wish the election was over…not for me or my country but because it's driving Larry David crazy. Or maybe I should say "crazier."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast think the potential is there for a lot of people who should be allowed to vote to not be allowed to vote, or for their votes to be properly counted. Something to worry about.