Perfecting Our Union  —  The president of the United States reflects on what Abraham Lincoln means to him, and to America.  —  Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Alexander Gardner on February 5, 1865, in Washington, D.C. While Gardner was processing the image, the photographic plate broke.

In Which Greg Mankiw Pretends to Be Puzzled...  But I don't think that he is.  —  I think Greg Mankiw knows why people think that helping George W. Bush create long-term structural deficits in 2003 was a bad thing to do.  —  I think Greg Mankiw knows perfectly well why people think that now …

Websites Vary Prices, Deals Based on Users' Information  —  It was the same Swingline stapler, on the same Staples.com website.  But for Kim Wamble, the price was $15.79, while the price on Trude Frizzell's screen, just a few miles away, was $14.29.  —  A key difference: where Staples seemed to think they were located.

Georgia abortion law blocked  —  A state judge has suspended a Georgia law banning abortions for women who are more than 20 weeks pregnant.  —  Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs suspended the law Friday; it was set to take effect Jan. 1.  —  The law bans doctors …

Instagram furor triggers first class action lawsuit  —  (Reuters) - Facebook's Instagram photo sharing service has been hit with what appears to be the first civil lawsuit to result from changed service terms that prompted howls of protest last week.  —  In a proposed class action lawsuit filed …

The Baby Boom and Financial Doom  —  The American left has trained its sights on a new enemy: Pete Peterson.  The banker and private-equity billionaire is, at first glance, an obvious target—rich and Republican.  He stands accused of being the evil genius behind all the forces urging Washington …

Blues Cruise  —  Steaming past Guantánamo, en route to the Cayman Islands, a boatload of Republicans ponder the plight of a party at sea.  —  The whole thing was white, and broken, that much was clear.  A week after the presidential election, when the dreams of Republicans were dashed …

Bond Vigilantes and the Power of Three  —  Matthew Yglesias picks up on a point I've tried to make at some length recently: the popular story about how an attack by bond vigilantes can cause an interest rate spike and turn America into Greece, Greece I tell you, is incoherent.

Baghdad Christians attend mass at attacked church  —  AFP - Behind blast walls and with police nearby, 200 worshippers attended Christmas mass Monday at Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation Church, which officially reopened this month after a massacre in 2010.  —  Sat in wooden pews with a two-metre …

Celebrating the Prince of Peace in the Land of Guns … Gun Control , Michael Moore , National Rifle Association , Newtown Elementary School Shooting , Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting , Gun Violence , Guns , Michael Moore Newtown , Nra , Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting , Politics News

Petition to Deport Piers Morgan Gains Internet Fame  —  A petition asking President Obama to deport CNN anchor Piers Morgan gathered more than 33,000 signatures in just three days.  —  The petition on the White House's “We the People” website posted Friday has crossed the 25,000 threshold needed …

When Prophecy Fails  —  Back in the 1950s three social psychologists joined a cult that was predicting the imminent end of the world.  Their purpose was to observe the cultists' response when the world did not, in fact, end on schedule.  What they discovered, and described in their classic book …

The importance of prosecuting David Gregory if he violated D.C.'s gun law  —  I doubt David Gregory intended to violate D.C.'s ban on the possession or transfer of high capacity ammunition magazines when he waved around such a magazine during his interview of Wayne LaPierre yesterday.