Current events

Buck up, ladies:

Men have long claimed that their pain threshold is higher than women’s, while women cite childbirth as proof the opposite is true.

There was a line we always knew they'd cross eventually, and now they're starting to sneak over it. It's the line between how we must conform our public behavior and how free we are to live in peace in private:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The Fort Wayne Housing Authority has approved a policy change that will prohibit smoking in all public housing units beginning Jan. 1, 2013.

Man, this stuff is getting waaaay beyond tiresome:

BELLINGHAM - A fragmented nation and a fragmented audience for news is making the country more difficult to govern, PBS News Hour co-anchor Jeffrey Brown said during a weekend talk at Western Washington University.

"Happiness is a warm gun" update:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The senior executive of the county that includes Chicago dropped a proposed tax on bullets on Wednesday but kept a plan to tax firearms to help defray healthcare expenses associated with the high rate of gun.

Finally, a campaign ad that doesn't make me want to run from the room screaming or throw the nearest cat at the TV screen:

My goodness, if even Bono is educable, maybe there's hope for making common sense the norm:

It should not be a partisan issue to ask that our civil liberties be safeguard even in a time when threats to the nation increase. Warrantless wiretaps and promiscuous email snooping were worrisome under President Bush and remain so under President Obama. We must continue to be vigilant no matter who wins the election next week:

The Benghazi scandal is getting riper by the minute, a third of the country is dealing with the storm of the century, the economy is still on the verge of collapse and the debt is still unsustainable and growing, but let's not let any of those minor concers distract us from the really important issues:

Leave it to The New York Times to use a Big Storm as one more excuse to call for Big Government:

This is scary and infuriating, but it's not really all that surpising, is it?

The notion of a "fiscal cliff" suggests the country is approaching a calamitous drop-off at the end of the year — and it would be tantamount to suicide to jump off.