Here's Why the U.S. Missile Defense System Is Utterly Broken

Last month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a scathing report: the system to defend the U.S. from ballistic missiles doesn't work, and probably never will. But it gets worse. Congress then voted to expand the broken system, allocating money for a new, sub-par missile defense site. How did this happen? » 5/09/14 11:18am 5/09/14 11:18am

​Relax, the United States Will Not Dismantle Our Perpetual War Machine

The front page of today's New York Times has astonishing news for a nation accustomed to life on an eternal war footing: Defense secretary Chuck Hagel has proposed shrinking the United States military to a size, as the subheadline puts it, "Equal to That of 1940." Online, where the subheads are more expansive, the… » 2/24/14 5:59pm 2/24/14 5:59pm



Calculating Extreme Suck: What Would Your Stats Look Like If You Played…

Backup catcher Gerald Laird is a blessed man. In 2011 he won a World Series with the Cardinals, and in 2012 he'll get a chance for a second with the Tigers. (What beats glory and a full playoff share?) Laird is also the prototypical "replacement-level" player, producing 0.0 wins above replacement (WAR) this year… » 10/24/12 6:00pm 10/24/12 6:00pm

Gore Vidal's First Love: The Baseball Star Turned War Hero


Ryan Howard's RBI Total Does Not Make Him The Greatest Baseball Player…

Bill Conlin wrote something dumb today. In other news, the sun rose in the east. But we're not going to go after Bill Conlin, because it's been done. Instead we're going to try and put in the simplest terms possible why he and anyone else rejecting advanced statistics out of hand are being willfully ignorant. » 7/13/11 2:05pm 7/13/11 2:05pm