Palin: ‘I am not going to shut up’  —  (CNN) - In her first interview since the Arizona shootings, Sarah Palin Monday sharply beat back critics who have suggested her at-times charged political rhetoric and use of a graphic featuring crosshairs may have contributed to the shooter's motivations.

CNN Poll: Blame game in Arizona shootings  —  Washington (CNN) - Americans feel sadness, anger and shock in the wake of the tragic events in Tucson, Arizona, according to a new national poll.  A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday also indicates there's plenty of blame …

Arizona statute could endanger Gabrielle Giffords's hold on seat  —  TUCSON - Even as Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows signs of a near-miraculous recovery, with doctors on Sunday upgrading her condition from critical to serious, a little-known statutory provision in Arizona state law could endanger …

Cheney: Obama has learned that Bush policies were right  —  President Obama has “learned from experience” that some of the Bush administration's decisions on terrorism issues were necessary, according to former Vice President Dick Cheney.  —  In his first interview since undergoing major heart surgery …

Lugar pushes to renew assault weapons ban  —  Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) this weekend called on Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.  —  Lugar is the first GOP senator to call for increased gun control following the Tucson tragedy that killed six people and wounded 13 others …

Scenes From a Marriage  —  In every twisted, wretched, ruinous relationship, there are moments so grim, flare-ups so appalling, that they offer both parties a chance to step back, take inventory, and realize that it's time — far past time, in fact — to go their separate ways.

Shooting victim apologizes for ‘misplaced outrage’ at Tea Party leader  —  Tucson, Arizona (CNN) — Arizona shooting victim James Eric Fuller sent his apologies Monday for telling a Tea Party leader, “you are dead.”  —  Dorothy DeRuyter, a companion of Fuller's, provided CNN with a statement.

A left-wing blog plays the race card  —  Last week The Post ran an article describing efforts in Wake County, N.C. to end a school desegregation plan.  The article explained that while Democratic and Republican school boards had supported different variations of school integration, parents became fed up:

House GOP schedule slips on spending cuts  —  House Republicans are falling behind in their aggressive schedule and are unlikely to consider a major spending-cut bill this month.  —  The GOP had hoped to hold a floor vote by late January on legislation rescinding already appropriated funds …

Chris Matthews Slams ‘Older White People’ for Still Having a ‘Problem’ With Obama  —  Appearing on MSNBC, Monday, to promote his new special on Barack Obama, Chris Matthews attacked “older white people” for still holding bigoted feelings against the first African American President.

Ricky Gervais Gives Hollywood a Taste of Their Own Sucker Punch-Medicine  —  Dare I say, God bless Ricky Gervais?  —  How many times have those of us in Middle America gotten all settled in for an expected evening of relaxing entertainment, be it at the movies, in front of the television …

Macon Bacon  —  This about ErickErickErickErickson just showed up in my email from the excellently named David Davidson (I kid you not): … I can see why there is no hurry to get his replacement in place.  It's not like he was showing up for work anyway:

Killings of newborn babies on the rise in Pakistan  —  KARACHI (AFP) - The lifeless bodies of two tiny babies are being given their final bath before burial in Karachi, after they were left to die in the southern Pakistani city's garbage dumps.  —  “They can only have been one or two days old …

Obama Lauded on Response to Tucson; More See Chance of Political Conciliation  —  78 Percent Approve of Obama's Response to the Arizona Shooting  —  Americans divide on the risks posed by the tone of the country's political discourse but approve overwhelmingly of President Obama's attempt to redirect it.

Love, Actually  —  A dog, ‘Leao’, sits for a second consecutive day, next to the grave of her owner, Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in the week's catastrophic landslides in Brazil, at the cemetery in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janiero, on January 15, 2011.  By Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty.

‘Germany Abolishes Itself’ - the publishing sensation that challenges Europe's diversity consensus  —  The great Christopher Caldwell (regular readers will remember he wrote a book, which I might have mentioned only 185 or 186 times, called Reflections on the Revolution in Europe) …

Caligula's tomb raider arrested  —  Police arrest tomb raider loading part of 2.5 metre statue into lorry near Lake Nemi, south of Rome, where Caligula had a villa  —  The lost tomb of Caligula has been found, according to Italian police, after the arrest of a man trying to smuggle abroad …

Amy Chua, a Yale law professor and the woman who has quickly become the infamous “Chinese Tiger mother,” seems to be a taskmaster and a bully.  I don't know her personally, but after reading the episodes she chose to put in her book, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” those are the nicest things …

NYT: Say, maybe we should have waited for the facts before blaming the Right  —  Don't worry, though, because the New York Times' public editor (their term for ombudsman) “shares the view to an extent” (emphasis mine) that the Times and the media rushed to put the Tucson shootings in a political context.

Are We Sure ‘Civility’ Will Help the Democrats?  —  During the debate over welfare reform that consumed much of 1995 and 1996 in Congress, those who generally supported the Republican approach (ending the welfare “entitlement,” imposing work requirements) had a very strong hand.

On Martin Luther King Day, remembering the first draft of ‘I Have a Dream’  —  It was the late spring of 1963, and my friend Martin was exhausted.  The campaign to integrate the public facilities in Birmingham had been successful but also tremendously taxing.