Weed: Been There.  Done That.  —  For a little while in my teenage years, my friends and I smoked marijuana.  It was fun.  I have some fond memories of us all being silly together.  I think those moments of uninhibited frolic deepened our friendships.  —  But then we all sort of moved away from it.

Oregon Mother: I Can't Afford Obamacare For Myself, 1-Year-Old Son  —  PORTLAND, Ore. (CBS Seattle/AP) — One Oregon mother says that she is unable to afford health insurance for her and her 18-month-old son because it's too expensive.  —  Kate Holly, 33, tells KOIN-TV that she originally …

Clay Aiken ‘actively considering’ run for Congress: sources  —  Clay Aiken is “actively considering” a run for Congress, sources say.  (Blade file photo by Michael Key)  —  Gay singer and “American Idol” runner-up Clay Aiken is actively considering a bid to represent North Carolina's 2nd …

Mayor de Blasio Looks Forward  —  Mayor Bill de Blasio took charge of New York City on Wednesday with a forceful Inaugural Address and pledged to begin the head-on attack on “the inequality crisis” as he had promised.  He repeated the bullet points from his campaign, but insisted …

Ezra Klein Is Said to Plan to Leave Washington Post  —  Ezra Klein, an analyst, columnist and television commentator who runs The Washington Post's Wonkblog, is making plans to leave the newspaper after failing to win support for a new website he wanted to create within the company …

A GOP Year  —  A White House official once noted that the problem with the national press corps is it can only keep one idea in its mind at a time.  And while that's often true, it's not at the moment in regard to Republicans.  —  Today's media line on the Republican party is it faces irreversible decline.

I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot  —  Hello.  My name is Chris Kluwe, and for eight years I was the punter for the Minnesota Vikings.  In May 2013, the Vikings released me from the team.  At the time, quite a few people asked me if I thought …

Liberals find comfort level in ‘NPR of gun clubs’  —  Marlene Hoeber is feisty, tattooed, transgender, a self-described feminist, a queer activist - and a crack shot with her favorite “toys,” guns of just about every kind.  —  One thing she's not - and proud of it - is a member of the National Rifle Association.

‘They had no idea if my insurance was active or not!’:  Obamacare confusion reigns as frustrated patients walk out of hospitals without treatment  — MailOnline spoke with patients who were told they would have to pay their bills in full if they couldn't prove they had insurance

The Closing of the Scientific Mind  —  The huge cultural authority science has acquired over the past century imposes large duties on every scientist.  Scientists have acquired the power to impress and intimidate every time they open their mouths, and it is their responsibility to keep this power in mind no matter what they say or do.

Climate to be 2014 battlefield  —  Climate change and energy will be a major policy battleground in the 2014 midterms, advocates on both sides of the issue promise.  —  Republicans like Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) plan to go on the attack against President Obama's climate action plan …

Hezbollah upgrades threat to Israel with guided missile systems  —  Some components of a powerful antiship missile system have already been moved to Lebanon, according to previously undisclosed intelligence, say current and former U.S. officials.

APNewsBreak: Adding a new baby to plan not easy  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — There's another quirk in the Obama administration's new health insurance system: It lacks a way for consumers to quickly and easily update their coverage for the birth of a baby and other common life changes.

Right Now, It's as Cold in Canada as Where Our Rover Is on Mars  —  Canada is having a cold snap at the moment.  This week, in Southern Manitoba, the temperature reached a blisteringly frigid -31 degrees Celsius, or nearly -24 Fahrenheit.  (Wind chill values in Winnipeg …

Democrats in 2014: The Party of John Edwards  —  In his inaugural address Wednesday, incoming New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to establish an intellectual pedigree for his focus on economic inequality.  He invoked Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt …

NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption  —  In room-size metal boxes ­secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical …

Eleven attorneys general slam Obama healthcare fixes as illegal  —  Eleven GOP attorneys general say the Obama administration is breaking the law by repeatedly making changes to ObamaCare without going through Congress.  —  The attorneys general specifically criticize President Obama's executive action …

Find Friends Abuse  —  When we first built Snapchat, we had a difficult time finding other friends that were using the service.  We wanted a way to find friends in our address book that were also using Snapchat - so we created Find Friends.  Find Friends is an optional service that asks Snapchatters …

No Burden on Religion  —  The Justice Department is expected to file a brief on Friday in opposition to Justice Sonia Sotomayor's perplexing decision to issue a temporary injunction against requiring an order of Colorado nuns to fill out paperwork required by the health care reform law's contraception mandate.

Bodyguard of Zombies, Counterattack by Cockroaches  —  The bit about the WSJ's continuing denialism on rising inequality brings to mind a point I think I've made before, but which seems especially appropriate for recent debates.  It is this: Today's right wing never gives …

6 Reasons This Could Be Obama's Best Year as President  —  With the economy improving and Obamacare working, the president has a lot to be optimistic about.  —  “Obama is done!  He's a lame duck.  It's over for the president.”  —  These are the type of the comments we saw in the media as 2013 came to a close.