people always say, no one has the right to out anyone.  that coming out is a private matter.  i disagree.  as you can imagine, not a very popular opinion.  but bear with me.  —  here's a hypothetical: what if you know a certain GOP congressman, let's just say from Illinois, is gay …

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry Makes Tearful Televised Apology To The Romney Family  —  “My intention was not malicious, but I broke the ground rule that families are off-limits.  For that I am sorry.”  —  MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry opened her Saturday morning show with an apology …

Phil Everly, Half of a Pioneer Rock Duo That Inspired Generations, Dies at 74  —  Phil Everly, whose hits with his older brother, Don, as the Everly Brothers carried the close fraternal harmonies of country tradition into pioneering rock ‘n’ roll, died on Friday in Burbank, Calif. He was 74.

Strategists to GOP: Restrain yourselves on debt ceiling  —  GOP strategists are urging restraint in the upcoming debt-ceiling fight.  —  They are excited by the prospect of reclaiming the Senate in November's midterms elections but anxious about the party's capacity to snatch defeat …

Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off  —  For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn't Worth It … In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody.  A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, “30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education.”

Five Economic Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For  —  Guaranteed jobs, universal basic incomes, public finance and more  —  It's a new year, but one thing hasn't changed: The economy still blows.  Five years after Wall Street crashed, America's banker-gamblers have only gotten richer …

Tulsa man arrested on religion-based hate-crime complaint  —  A Tulsa man was arrested Thursday on a complaint alleging that he committed a hate crime against a woman he assumed to be a Muslim.  —  Stuart D. Manning, 43, is accused of hitting the woman in the forehead and sticking a knife …

Isaac Asimov's Predictions For 2014 From 50 Years Ago Are Eerily Accurate  —  Fifty years ago, American scientist and author Isaac Asimov published a story in The New York Times that listed his predictions for what the world would be like in 2014.  —  Asimov wrote more than 500 books in his lifetime …

Teens in Muslim garb try, fail to rob gun shop  —  MOST TEENAGERS do dumb things.  But not trying-to-rob-Joe-Galiano dumb.  —  Galiano is the owner of Suburban Armory, the gun shop on MacDade Boulevard in Collingdale, Delaware County.  There is a giant gun-shaped sign on the roof.

The Congressman Who Went Off the Grid  —  Roscoe Bartlett spent 20 years on Capitol Hill.  Now he lives in a remote cabin in the woods, prepping for doomsday.  —  Bartlett bought the 153-acre property in the early 1980s for $80,000 and built the five cabins himself, wiring the solar panels …

The Social-Minded Pope Francis Is a Very Different Kind of Pontiff  —  Pope Francis, the first Pope from a developing nation, sees the world through the eyes of the poor and dispossessed.  —  Add my name to the long list of souls who have leapt aboard the Pope Francis bandwagon.

School Experiment That Burned Boy Was Focus of Federal Warning  —  Only weeks before a chemistry experiment sent a plume of fire across a Manhattan high school science lab, engulfing two students and leaving one with life-threatening burns, a federal safety agency issued a video warning …