Poll Shows Americans Balance Budget Better When They’re Actually Given A Budget To Balance

As a March 4 deadline looms for approval of a new budget (as well as the humiliating process of raising the debt ceiling), the propositions emerging from both sides of the aisle are shamefully typical. The…

Nobody loves a despot when he’s down and out. Or when there are thousands of rioters outside of his opulent palace.

The recent ousting of Tunisian “President” Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and the current (as of this column’s filing) instability of the Egyptian “President” Hosni Mubarak regime have put the…

God, all this work is killing me. Ever feel like you should quit your job and raise llamas in South America for a living? Even if you don’t have one right now? I get that all the time, although I’ve no knowledge of llama-raising. I don’t know if I’ve ever…

Patton Oswalt may be known to the wider world as the voice of Remy the Rat from Ratatouille or Spencer Olchin from the long-running sitcom King Of Queens, but fans of clever standup have known him primarily as the introspective geek culture philosopher-comedian behind the comedy albums/specials Feelin’ Kinda Patton,…

As Chris Rock once said (over and over again, as is his style), “I’m not talking ’bout rich, I’m talking ‘bout wealthy.” Everyday Americans have a different perspective about who’s rich and who isn’t. Are you rich? Odds are you’re not. And even if you were, you might not admit…

The substantive details of state department cables released by the “roguish” website Wikileaks and the context thereof have almost eclipsed every other news story this week, even as unemployment benefits are running out for 2 million Americans, Bush tax cuts are due to expire, the Pentagon released a report suggesting…

One look into Jimmy Wales’ creepy eyes on any page of the Wikipedia and an overlooked side effect of the world’s pursestrings’ drawing becomes painfully clear.

You’re not donating as much as you used to.

Well, maybe you are. Jimmy’s not trying to single anyone out. But it could be…

Interestingly, the bitter pill of smaller government that Tea Party-leaning Americans shoved down the ballot box not two weeks ago came into the public discourse this week not from the newly elected House Of Representatives but the Democrat-led executive branch, with a laundry list of recommendations by the White House…

This week’s election is being monitored with rapt fascination by pundits and talking heads for the national temperature, but one truth stands tall about mid-term elections that all the Tea Party would-be revolutionaries and Rally For Sanity would-be marchers can’t change.

They’re just not sexy. And this year, they’re downright…

Long the punching bag of conservative United States commentators, Europe’s moves over the last few weeks toward an “age of austerity” (a term which not-yet UK Prime Minister David Cameron popularized) makes the budget handwringing of the Tea Party movement appear all talk and no trousers.

Or as Americans call…