Contrary to the sentiments behind today’s most overused clich

Writing in The Nation, David Corn (the mag’s Washington editor) uses his “Capital Games” column to evaluate Bush’s State of the Union Address, concluding that Bush and Co.’s rhetorical strategy left the, uh, Left, precious little wiggle room. The success of the speech, as Mr. Corn sees it, clearly chaps him (for instance, we’re still treated to phrases like “a so-called war on terrorism”), but once you wade through the

Here’s the problem with certain moralistic nutjobs on the right: they keep showin’ up on my teevee ’round about dinner time — tonight in the form of some shrieking prude who keeps bitchin’ and complainin’ that condoms, of all things, are being made clinically available (gasp!) to Olympic athletes. Break out the Jeremiads, God-fearers! Cue fire and brimstone! The idiotic thinking behind this Victorian-esque posture seems to be that by

Andrew Hofer has an interesting take on Dubya’s latest State of the Union Address, examining the President’s hardline rhetoric through the critical lens of Game Theory: Many pundits have been reacting to the State of the Union, particularly Bush’s singling out North Korea, Iran and Iraq for harsh criticism and referring to them using World War II terminology. Pundits debate whether this amounts to a “unilateral” declaration of war, and

“Drunks, liars and dropouts have been banned by Nasa from its space station,” Annanova reports. “The agency released its criteria for visitors to the International Space Station in a nine-page report.” The new rules were prompted by the growth in ‘space tourists’ wanting to go into orbit. Any visitors deemed undesirables will not be let in. The ruling from Nasa’s Cape Canaveral base states a candidate’s past and present conduct

Jonah Goldberg rehashes an old column (on “Black History Month”) and continues to deny NRO’s “The Corner” is a weblog. Why? Jonah strains to explain: There are no editors, no rules, and no master plan. Yes, as many, many, many readers have pointed out, it’s very much like a blog along the lines of AndrewSullivan.com or Instapundit.com. The difference, however, is significant. Those guys run one-man operations. If you can’t

From a story in The Christian Science Monitor, here’s the take of lexicographer Anne Soukhanov on the term “minority” — currently a hotly debated signifier in Boston, where this summer Boston City Council president Charles Yancey introduced an ordinance to strike the word from the official city lexicon: Where the term lingers despite all demographic evidence to the contrary, says lexicographer Anne Soukhanov, it’s not just out of laziness, but

Reason’s Jacob Sullum writes of a battle going on between the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Change the Climate, a drug policy reform group whose aim is to criticize current marijuana policies as excessively punitive and wasteful. Change the Climate wants to advertise on trains and buses in Boston. MBTA says no way. “As a government agency, forbidden by the First Amendment to pick and choose among viewpoints,” Sullum

Greg Easterbrook, writing for The New Republic,” examines the two options being considered by the Bush administration to address problems with the “new source” standard of the Clean Air Act. “The rule essentially exempts from regulation some refineries and a large group of antiquated, high-pollution power plants in the Midwest, as long as they don’t undertake any significant improvements,” Easterbrook notes. “If they do, they must immediately abide by stricter

“Secretary of State Colin Powell told King Abdullah II of Jordan on Thursday that the Bush administration intends to corner Yasser Arafat to make sure he curbs terror attacks on Israel,” AP Diplomatic Correspondent Barry Schweid reports. “A senior U.S. official said that was Powell’s overriding message to the king in their 45-minute session in Powell’s State Department office and that Abdullah accepted the tactic as a good idea. “In