Holding Firm  —  The same question keeps popping up: why doesn't Speaker John Boehner just pass a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government?  It's a ubiquitous query at the Capitol, and it was asked many times this afternoon as House Republicans left their closed-door conference meeting.

Shutdown overreach: More guards at WWII memorial than Benghazi; Park Service closes park it doesn't run  —  WASHINGTON SECRETS BENGHAZI GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN  —  The National Park Service is sending so many officials out to shut down federal parks from visiting Americans that at this rate …

Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Novelist of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66  —  Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels made him one of the world's best-selling and best-known authors, died on Tuesday in a hospital in Baltimore.  He was 66.  —  Ivan Held, the president …

Exclusive: Mia Farrow and Eight of Her Children Speak Out on Their Lives, Frank Sinatra, and the Scandals They've Endured  —  See a slide show of Mia's children and quotes from Orth's piece.  —  Twenty years after Vanity Fair special correspondent Maureen Orth reported on the sexual-abuse …

The Sad and Predictable Death of the “Fund Our Veterans” Republican Gambit  —  Ideally, as of this morning, Republicans were hoping that Democrats would come to Jesus and agree to form a conference committee to hammer out the continuing resolution.  As of this afternoon …

Rand Paul: ‘Goons’ blocked WWII Memorial  —  Sen. Rand Paul blasted the federal government for trying to block World War II vets from visiting their memorial, saying “some idiot in government sent goons out there to set up barricades.”  —  “If Harry Reid and the President want to keep the parks closed …

What Happens to Conservatism When the Obamacare War Is Over?  —  When we look back decades from now, one of the keys to understanding this period in our political history will be the story of how a set of market-based health insurance reforms that started as a proposal from the Heritage Foundation …

President Obama Turns His Back on Veterans  —  The White House and congressional Democrats aren't satisfied with simply shutting the government down.  Today the president reiterated his threat to veto a simple, common-sense measure to stand with our nation's veterans and ensure that veterans' programs are funded during the shutdown.

The shutdown is the Constitution's fault  —  You made this happen, buster.  (National Archives)  —  The government is shut down.  Two million federal workers are having paychecks delayed, and 800,000 of them might never be repaid at all.  Food safety inspections are on hold.

The truth is, Americans love Obamacare  —  Among the many delusions guiding the Republican campaign against the Affordable Care Act, surely the most consistent is the idea that the public detests the law and is clamoring for repeal.  —  Here's the truth: The American public loves Obamacare …

Cockblocked by Redistribution: A Pick-up Artist in Denmark  —  Thirty-three-year-old Daryush Valizadeh, known to his predominantly heterosexual male fan base as Roosh, is a well-known pick-up artist within the worldwide “Seduction Community,” which relies on pop evolutionary psychology to teach the art of getting laid.