Politics & Current Affairs

The practice of treating the Catholic Church as a sovereign nation gives it outsize political influence and is damaging to women’s equality, gay rights and reproductive freedom, write Kal Raustiala and Lara Stemple.

So week one of the British General Election campaign ended, with round one to the Tories. That Cameron was able to launch his right hook over Labour’s plans to increase […]

Following some high-level diplomacy, Secretary of State Clinton says Cuba refuses to cooperate with the U.S. to preserve it as a scapegoat for Cuba’s failures.

Gail Collins of the New York Times will support boring politicians now that those leading the national conversation are “all wow and no substance”.

Iran has announced its development of faster centrifuges for enriching uranium but the advance, while scientifically significant, may not alter the political landscape.

In her short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Ursula Le Guin imagines an almost utopian society whose existence depends on a dark secret. The inhabitants of this […]

Imagine no waiting room at the doctor’s office. Scratch that. Now picture no doctor’s office at all. In this practice, you make appointments via text, video chat or email, and […]

More important than the size of government is the kind of authority it wields over its people — and the degree to which it exercises arbitrary power, writes David Boaz.

Vice President Joe Biden writes that the country’s new nuclear stance “leaves Cold War thinking behind” and recognizes that nuclear terrorism and proliferation are the biggest dangers to global security.

Like many kids in the 80s, I was convinced I would die in a nuclear war. Dialogue between the United States and the Soviet Union had broken down after the […]

Some of the most arch realists and high-ranking Cold warriors in the US foreign-policy establishment are supporting the idea of a nuclear-free world. But is it actually attainable?

Comcast can decide which of its customers can do what on the Internet. A federal court ruled on Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the authority to […]

At the New York Review of Books Blog, controversial Catholic theologian Hans Küng blames the celibate priesthood for the epidemic of child rape in the Catholic Church. (The term “rape” […]

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous was thrilled (though not surprised) to see Barack Obama elected in 2008. And he’s willing to give Obama “wide latitude” during this first phase of his […]

The Guardian examines the incoherences in Tea Party politics and spelling as demonstrators continue to modify (misspell) the English language in amusing ways.

Eugene Terreblanche, leader of the neo-Nazi party in South Africa, has been cut down by one of his own farmhands ending a career of political extremism, terrorism and violence.

Greg Sargent yesterday highlighted a story that deserves more attention. Speaking at Fordham University, Michael Sulick, Director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, said that the prohibition on waterboarding hasn’t […]

My story in AlterNet about the Republican National Committee’s creative expense accounting got picked up by Rachel Maddow last night. Watch the video: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, […]

When I read that Republican National Committee staffers had expensed nearly $2000 worth of “meals” at bondage-themed Hollywood nightclub specializing in simulated lesbian sex, I knew it couldn’t be an […]

President Obama announced Wednesday that he will open up huge new coastal areas to offshore drilling. The plan would make new areas off the coasts of Virginia and Alaska and […]

Now that we’ve established that attractive people earn more money, apparently it’s not just academics who are beginning to notice a difference in lifestyle. With state and federal governments looking […]

As many of its activists depend on unemployment for inspiration and government benefits, can the Tea Party movement survive an economy on the rebound?

President Obama will take advantage of the Congress’ recess to fill 15 economic posts allowing him to circumvent the Senate’s confirmation process.

How do you get people in a democratic society to change their way of life? The theme has come up a lot at gatherings of climate scientists and environmentalists I’ve […]

In negotiating an arms control treaty with Russia to reduce nuclear weapon stockpiles, Obama picks up where Kennedy and Reagan left off.

A new Bloomberg survey finds that Tea Party activists who criticize Obama for his ‘socialist’ policies also support government regulation of Wall Street and a job creation programs.

Determined bloggers and Google’s experts have the means to defeat China’s Internet censors, and the government can’t do anything to stop it, writes The Guardian’s Xia Qiang.

As he entered the Capitol building to vote on the health care bill, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) was spit on. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a prominent civil rights leader, was […]

As the rich get richer in New York public services are meanwhile bracing themselves for “draconian” cuts. To save New York, tax Wall Street, writes The Guardian’s Sadhbh Walshe.

The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait observes that one of the most baffling complaints about health care reform is that the financing is phoney because it doesn’t cover wage increases.