Why is it that Charlie Sheen has not been suspended from his job on a CBS sitcom? And why hasn’t he been required both to get help and to face whatever unconscionably-delayed judicial charges may be pending from his December 25 altercation with his wife? Hanes, the undewear people, have already dropped Sheen for fear that his inveterate abuse of women is bad for their company’s image. I realize that...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech yesterday to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the first International Conference on Population and Development. That gathering included a total of thousands of delegates from 179 countries. You can watch the entire presentation here on CSPAN-2 (and it includes remarks by the first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer...

Paul Krugman responds to arguably the biggest canard put out by opponents of health care reform: that Democrats could have had it with no argument from Republicans and total support from the American people if only they had written a bill that barred insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of preexisting conditions.

When will public figures espousing particular positions on political issues ever learn to disclose actual or perceived conflicts of interest?

Eric Allie, Caglecartoons.com This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized repoduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

True, there’s no silver bullet for terrorists to be closed off ever and always, Mr. President. True, there’s no foolproof method of surveillance, even though many of us feel strength and honor in those who run security for our government. But in the systems you oversee, there are issues you barely covered or omitted entirely today in your speech on tightening down on terrorists. The following core...

WASHINGTON — A politically shrewd Senate Democratic staff member chatting about the future of health care negotiations stopped in midsentence late Tuesday afternoon as news flashed across his computer screen. “My God,” he said. “Byron Dorgan is retiring.” It was a thunderclap moment in the politics of 2010, an unfortunate twist for Democrats already looking at a difficult election...

After nearly 30 years of on and off coolness, the Obama administration is resetting relations with the United Nations because no other organization offers access to dialogue with so many countries. Among other things, Barack Obama wants to be remembered as the President willing to talk sincerely to America’s enemies before imposing sanctions or picking up the gun. In 2010, the UN could be a useful facilitator...

Michael Pollan’s latest, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, aims to distill all the food activist and author has learned into 64 simple rules: The idea for this book came from a doctor–a couple of them, as a matter of fact. They had read my last book, “In Defense of Food”, which ended with a handful of tips for eating well: simple ways to navigate the treacherous landscape of modern...

Hello, Dr. E. here. What follows below is Part Two of an earlier Guest Voice interview on Veganism, conducted by Mr. Elijah Sweete. In the follow-up interview, Mr. Sweete took previous commenters’ thoughts posted to the earlier interview ….back to the interviewee to gather additional commentary… Modern discourse about animals and humans and their relationships with each other, is an ancient exploration...

In the history of pointless ideas in politics, this one should not come as any surprise, except in terms of how pointless it seems. MSNBC is reporting that Congressional Democrats will seek to skip the normal conference committee process to combine the House and Senate versions of the health care bill and try to get one identical bill passed in each chamber which both can agree on. Bill pong: All the attention...

WASHINGTON — As they enter this difficult election year, Democrats seem ready to engage yet again in a debate they never seem to tire of: whether winning demands “moving to the center” or “mobilizing the base.” If they get stuck on this one, they’re in for a very bad time. The simple truth is that in midterm elections, no party can win without its base because turnout...

Sen. Orrin Hatch and two lawyer friends of his take to the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal to tell us that the requirement to purchase insurance in the health care bill is unconstitutional:

So Rush Limbaugh’s heart is fine (for which I am glad), but unfortunately his doctors could do nothing about the stupid, which he flaunted immediately upon his release from the hospital in Honolulu:

Friendships are typically developed on the ground of common experience and perspective. It should thus be no surprise that — as a Republican until 2006 — I count among my friendships a fair number of Republican and Republican-inclined individuals. Granted, those friendships are based on much more than politics, which is a key reason why these individuals are still my friends. One of those friends,...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

After noting on TMV that Mr. Limbaugh was taken to hospital suddenly, I see across the blogosphere that there are in various hamlets, outbreaks of some kind of madness regarding Rush Limbaugh, with some issuing the equivalent of “armchair fatwahs” against the man. I think that’s wrong-hearted. I know Mr. Limbaugh from prior associations through our books being neck and neck on the NYT bestseller list...

I’m glad TMV co-blogger and editor Jerry Remmers recently posted and wrote about America’s overall stupidity with respect to Mathematics. The reader comments were excellent as well and got me thinking (and now ranting). I would like to mention a few more items in this vein before turning to other posts and subjects. Since I am an authorized TMV blogger with over 2 regular fans, I am free to go ad nauseum...

WASHINGTON — Certain decades shape the country’s political life for generations by leaving behind an era to embrace or, at least as often, to scorn. The 1960s were definitely such a decade. The 1930s qualify, and so do the 1980s. But as important as all these periods have been, their significance may be dwarfed by the reckless and squandered decade that is, mercifully, ending. I’m...

Yesterday, Jonathan Gruper had an enthusiastic endorsement of the Senate bill’s excise tax on high-cost health care plans, known as the “Cadillac” tax:

The Dutch press has been quite busy with reports and opinions on the failed attack on Northwest flight 253. Some have been published or commented on here. This was to be expected as the flight originated in the Netherlands; Schiphol airport’s security—or lack of it—played a key role; and “the hero of flight 253” was Dutch. A lot of the discussion on, and even justification for, the failure...

WASHINGTON — Punditry in the nation’s capital has its own rhythms, and one common practice involves almost everyone beating up on the same politician at the same time. Such assaults are rarely about ideology, though I have found that liberals or Democrats are often the object of these sustained attacks, perhaps because journalists are overly sensitive to charges of liberal bias. There’s...

My life-partner, Doug, hails from Athens, GA, 70 miles up the road from where we live now. On Christmas day Doug was shocked and saddened by the death of Athens’ folk singer and songwriter Vic Chesnutt. Death by suicide ends Chesnutt’s heroic and tragic life story: Vic Chesnutt, 45, a singer-songwriter of spare, idiosyncratic folk tunes tinged with melancholy, died Christmas day in Athens, Ga.,...

Who knew that Harry Reid had the kind of steel in his spine that it took to get health care reform through the Senate? If anyone had told me a year ago that he would have the fortitude, perseverance, toughness, and sheer guts that it took to pass this legislation against the implacable, uncompromising opposition and nihilistic obstructionism of Senate Republicans, I would have fallen on the floor laughing. In...

“Hiccups,” says the Mayo Clinic, “may result from a large meal, alcoholic beverages or sudden excitement,” which makes this the perfect-storm day for being afflicted. Fortunately, there is a sure-fire cure, passed on to me by (brace yourself for major name-drop) John F. Kennedy’s White House doctor, Janet Travell, an expert on muscle spasms who put him in a rocking chair and kept...