People — queer or straight — who support social equality for sexual and gender minorities tend to consider the subjects of their advocacy as whole people. For instance, one might think of a married couple of gay men as two goofy dudes who listen to Heavy Metal and play video games, like Brian and Steve [...]

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Roger Cohen observes that “the current accountability void for U.S. targeted killing is unacceptable.” Where to begin? For one thing, the “accountability void” for U.S. violence in general is pretty unacceptable, too. Like, say, Gitmo. Or torture. Or illegal wars. Or the hiring of mercenaries. The mercenaries themselves. I could go on… So really, Roger [...]

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…but Congresscritters do not see inherent conflicts of interest or bribery in the close connections between campaign contributions and contract awards to their donors. “Simply because a member sponsors an earmark for an entity that also happens to be a campaign contributor does not, on these two facts alone, support a claim that a member’s [...]

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Last night I experimented with drawing caricature from digital scratch. I think it looks okay — as in, it looks like him and it’s cartoony — but it doesn’t grab me the way pen on paper does. I am less comfortable drawing digitally than I am using traditional tools. That can always change, given that [...]

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From your “liberal” New York Times: But haven’t I read economists saying that a bill that small will make almost no dent in unemployment? Is that sort of thing the only hope for bipartisanship? It depends on what you mean by bipartisanship. Nothing is stopping Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats from adding more Republican ideas [...]

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