Congrats to the Pats — the surprise AFC Champions. And condolences to Balloon Juice’s John Cole, whose beloved Steelers Kordell-ed themselves right out of a Superbowl appearance. Somewhere, Barbara Kingsolver rejoices…

“A growing number of black taxpayers are being misled by scams falsely claiming they can get tax credits or refunds as reparations for slavery,” FOXNews reports. “The Internal Revenue Service received about 80,000 tax returns last year claiming $2.7 billion in reparations refunds, up from 13,000 the year before. The majority of claims come from taxpayers in the South, but they have occurred in all parts of the country —

Matt Welch uses his new piece in Reason to…what, exactly? Cry poor, promote his wife’s career, and push his website…? How do I get a gig like this? Matt’s stuff is always enjoyable, but “Censorship on the Gravy Train” appears to be a cobbled-together retread of a lot of his weblog quippery, replete with links to lots of Welchaphernalia. Funny, sure. But Bill Maher bashing? Well, this is Reason, after

The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes looks at the incipient spin issuing from the brainpan of James Brosnahan, the soon-to-be famous chap retained by the Lindh family to act as Johnny bin Walker’s bleating advocate: Brosnahan […] praised America in defense of his client. He saluted the Constitution. He invoked the names of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. He described the jury system as a ‘great process’ and ‘the American way.’ But

“A suspected Palestinian suicide bomber — possibly a woman — detonated explosives in Jerusalem’s main shopping street on Sunday, killing one person and wounding dozens,” Reuters reports. “The blast on Jaffa Road, the third attack on an Israeli city center in less than a week, raised the specter of fresh Israeli retaliation.” Looks like the Palestinians are ahead of the Mid-East gender-equity curve on this one. Who says women are

“A judge has ordered the marketers behind television psychic Miss Cleo to stop calling customers who have asked not to be contacted and stop pressuring people to pay for calls they are disputing,” The Washington Post reports. “Cambria County Judge Gerard Long signed a preliminary injunction last week against Psychic Readers Network and its in-house billing agent, Access Resource Services, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. A message left

Under the title, “Frat House,” U.S. News and World Report ran this item in its “Washington Whispers” section this week: Women have top jobs in the White House and as network anchors, but CNN’s No. 3 White House correspondent, Kelly Wallace, says guys still rule. ‘I still feel like I am sometimes fighting against the boys’ club attitude,’ she tells Front and Center, a new show from the University of

“Newly elected New York City Council member Charles Barron has started off his term with a bang, decrying Founding Father Thomas Jefferson as a ‘pedophile’ whose portrait should be removed from City Hall,” according to a story in Monday’s Newsmax. The former Black Panther called for Jefferson’s image to be replaced with portraits of prominent African-Americans moments after his swearing-in two weeks ago, in an inauguration speech that received little

Here’s what happens when you offer Helen Thomas a forum in which to wax nostalgic: In this piece in The Lincoln Journal Star, she presents herself as a kind of world-weary love child of Yoda and Obi-wan Kenobe; the force — so strong within her — is a burden she bears with nobility and patience, even (alas, ’tis her curse!) as she’s able to recognize all-too readily the unfortunate flaws

Not content to let her recent Common Dreams essay correct the, uh … misperception, Barbara Kingsolver is contemplating legal action against the The National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and the The Weekly Standard for taking her infamous anti-flag screed “out of context,” The Boston Globe reports [link via A Dog’s Life and Balloon Juice]. Kingsolver has been pressing The Wall Street Journal for a correction, but a Journal spokesman,