Lucky for Obama, batting .333 is still a great average.

One of the more entertaining things this week has been watching Republican Matt Dean, current Majority Leader of the Minnesota House, shoot himself in the foot whilst trying to use poor Neil Gaiman as a gun against fellow House Republican Dean Urdahl, who has often been suspected by the more rabid wing of the Republican caucus of being a closet Democrat as he’s been known on occasion to make sense.

When I think of heroes, or in my case, heroines, I think of the women who’ve inspired me with their writings. Historically, women have been less advantaged than men when it came to education, and especially in being able to tell their own stories. So, when I think of these heroines, I think of Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton and Willa Cather, among others. And I love Dorothy Sayers’ mysteries… she is so darned literate. They’ve each influenced so much of my everyday world.

Dudley Moore and M.A.M.M.A. — Mama Don’t Allow (without The Electric Mayhem), from episode 407 of The Muppet Show.

But with all due respect to EW’s ferocious logic, I think there’s a philosophical angle that she’s missing. The powers-that-be on the right understand the theoretical implications of their political stances — whether it’s the various rhetorical dog whistles to awaken their base’s tribal instincts, or their systematic, long-term assault on the societal safety net.

Jim DeMint’s position on the Mitt Romney/Barack Obama health care plan has, er, shifted a teeny tiny wee bit.

This week, voters in the United Kingdom went to the polls and decided strongly against a referendum on switching federal elections to alternative voting, or “AV,” also known as “instant-runoff voting” (IRV).

Corporations want to bring some money home from tax havens to the US, but in true Galtian fashion, refuse to pay taxes on it. They got what they wanted under the Republicans in 2004, but the Democrats stopped them in 2009. Fool me once… surely Congress won’t get fooled again. Will it?

The Justice Department has been enforcing the laws on abortion access with more frequency in recent years than its predecessors. The shift from an anti-choice to a pro-choice executive branch should make this obvious, but nonetheless it’s welcome news.

The torture apologists staked their reputation on a certain approach to terrorism. That’s their legacy. It’s all they got.