I am mortified and embarrassed that my excellent colleague Justin Fox calls Young Ezra “the Good Klein” because he links to Justin occasionally and I don’t. Shame on me. Sorry. I’m just obsessed with foreign policy these days. But this post from yesterday is smart and funny, as usual–and a reminder that progressivity should be [...]

Our blogging cousin Justin Fox at the Curious Capitalist, visiting from New York, finds the bureau chief in a typical posture.

Now I know how those paper targets at the gun range feel. Responding to Jay’s post below, commenter correctionrequest asks for a correction of something I wrote yesterday after having read the following in Media Matters: In an April 17 post on the magazine’s Swampland weblog, Time’s Tumulty described as “radical” a policy position — [...]

I’m struck by the stark difference in the ways Democratic and Republican candidates have reacted to two events this week that at least potentially play to each party’s base voters. In the aftermath of the horrific killings at Virginia Tech, for which a mentally unstable 23-year-old was able to purchase two handguns, legally and easily, [...]

Matt Yglesias usually has a lot of smart things to say about foreign policy, but his takedown of David Ignatius’s column on the Kurds isn’t as acute as usual. It isn’t even accurate. Matt claims that Ignatius doesn’t mention the looming crisis in Kirkuk, but he does: A flash point is Kirkuk, an oil-rich city [...]

Please keep your “have the same amount of experience” jokes to yourself and revel in the possibilities: A Hibatchi Hibachi in every pot! High altitude tents covered by Medicare! Supreme Court justices determined by three-pointer contests! At the very least, I like to think they’d avoid stupid wars. UPDATE: Thanks to Chris R. for the [...]

As always when the unimaginable happens, we struggle to find the lesson here: Could it have been prevented by more gun control? Tighter campus security? Better law enforcement? But the more we learn about this tragedy and its perpetrator, the more it seems to defy any big answer. I was struck by this wise essay [...]