This was originally intended to be a listicle of heads of state behaving or posing in a manner suggestive of bad-ass-ery, but as we went down our list of current and former heads of states, Vladimir Putin turned out to be his own self-sufficient epic action movie. That is why we revised our plan to [...]

Presumably you saw that especially ridiculous recent campaign ad, the one from Californian Senate seat-seeker Carly Fiorina, but as crazy as that TV spot seemed, it is only the latest in a (relatively) long tradition of crazy campaign ads deployed by American politicos. The good folks at mental_floss have assembled an all-too entertaining listicle of [...]

Yesterday we read the sad news that the Obama administration has approved an $8 billion loan for the construction of two new power plants in Georgia, which is by far the worst violation of our trust the White House has pulled in the last year or so. Being staunchly anti-nuclear, we’re seriously contemplating moving to [...]

We love a good protest sign, but for various reasons (mostly to do with laziness) we have never brought one of our own to a protest. That said, nothing alleviates the tension of thousands of outraged people amassed on the streets like a little humor, which is why we encourage funny signs at every opportunity. [...]

On this date 85 years ago Nellie Ross (pictured) was inaugurated the governor of Wyoming, the first woman to ever hold the office in any state. To this date she’s still the only woman to be elected governor in that state, and among other distinguishing causes she was a staunch supporter of prohibition.
Of course, many [...]

In their capacity as more or less official leaders of the quote-unquote free world, U.S. Presidents get lots of love (and hate) abroad–Obama is huge in the Japanese town of Obama. In some places where they’ve done something especially noteworthy–like overthrowing a dictator, stopping a genocide, occupying a nation or brokering a peace treaty–Presidents of [...]

Former Prime Minister of the U.K., Margaret Thatcher, turns 84 today, and though we by no means espouse her political stances on, well, just about anything, we can’t deny that she was instrumental in establishing the terms of modern politics in Europe and around the world. Of course, now that she’s a frail old British [...]

In case you didn’t know it (or hear about it over at our big brother The L Magazine) we’re currently celebrating Banned Book Week here in the U.S., which means reading up on the rich tradition of literary censorship in America. One way you might familiarize yourself with popular targets is by reading Banned Book [...]

Among the many things that the United Nations Security Council worked on yesterday during their dealings in New York was the decision to move forward on measures to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We applaud the move (and urge the French president to stop being a wuss and show his support), and hope that [...]

Yesterday, we read in the New York Times that China has imposed a new Visa system on Tibet that makes it impossible for foreigners to visit the occupied mountain nation. This is worrisome for many reasons, none more so than the fact that whatever political and religious oppression takes place there will now be even [...]