Media Creates New Palin Scandal!  Sarah Accused of Bringing Hairdresser on Haiti Trip  —  Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin traveled to Haiti this weekend as a guest of the Rev. Franklin Graham and Samaritan's Purse to spotlight the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the earthquake and cholera-stricken Caribbean (half an) island nation.

Sweden suicide bomber: Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly was living in Britain  —  An Islamic suicide bomber who attacked Christmas shoppers in Sweden at the weekend is a British university graduate and was living in this country until two weeks ago.  —  The suicide bomb in Stockholm is thought …

What Progressives Don't Understand About Obama  —  NOT all of my white teachers viewed me as a discipline problem.  To the annoyance of my fellow students, one teacher selected me regularly to lead assembly programs.  A high school teacher insisted that I learn about the theater.

Commenting Accounts Compromised — Change Your Passwords  —  Our user databases appear to have been compromised.  The passwords were encrypted.  But simple ones may be vulnerable to a brute-force attack.  You should change your Gawker password and on any other sites on which you've used the same passwords.

John Boehner: Obama disrespectful to me  —  John Boehner thinks President Barack Obama is engaging, smart and brilliant but also remains smarted by the president accusing him of taking taxpayers hostage to secure a tax break for the rich.  —  In an interview with Leslie Stahl of “60 Minutes” …

Next Week in Politics  —  Last week was an extraordinary week in politics.  Fairly ordinary business led to high-school levels of angst and drama, including the Democratic civil war, a presidential abdication, and an honest-to-Buddha filibuster.  One of my coworkers sagely observed …

Arsonist Strikes on Cape Cod, Leaves Calling Card: ‘F—k the Rich’  —  I blame the class warfare rhetoric of the Democrats for these incidents of arson.  Maybe if the left didn't demonize wealthy people so much they wouldn't stoke such hatred in their supporters.

Holbrooke still in critical condition, ‘fighting through it’  —  One of President Obama's top foreign policy advisers was still in critical condition Sunday after 20 hours of emergency surgery that began Friday to repair a torn aorta.  —  Richard Holbrooke, the president's special envoy …

Reality Check  —  The failed attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft — if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would simply agree to a 90-day settlements freeze to resume talks with the Palestinians — has been enormously clarifying.

Web Focus Helps Revitalize Atlantic  —  WASHINGTON — How did a 153-year-old magazine — one that first published the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and gave voice to the abolitionist and transcendentalist movements — reinvent itself for the 21st century?  —  By pretending it was a Silicon Valley start …

Gay Bashing at the Smithsonian  —  EACH Aug. 4, my wife Alex and I visit a church to light candles for two people we loved who both died tragically on that day two years apart — my mother, killed at 64 in a car crash, and Alex's closest friend from graduate school, killed by AIDS at half that age.

Bomb attack in Sweden: The Cartoon Jihad never ends  —  When I last wrote in May about Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilk, targeted by the Religion of Perpetual Outrage for drawing Mohammed as a dog, I reminded you: … They're at it again.  Cartoon jihadists hit Stockholm yesterday in a suicide bombing.