In the World

The House of Representatives is voting today on a bill that would prevent public radio stations from paying their NPR dues with federal money. This follows the video that brought down NPR head Vivian Schiller and senior VP Ron Schiller (no relation to each other).

It's the most wonderful time of the year for fans of collegiate (men's) sports. I'm not one, but I can appreciate the thrill of a single-elimination tournament. I also enjoy the creative ways people use March Madness to bring attention to other subjects.

Amid the apocalyptic to-do about Rob Bell possibly considering an idea that other Christians have considered for centuries, Rachel Held Evans had a fun idea: an interview with another Rob Bell, a web designer in the U.K.

With a government shutdown looming due to federal-budget deadlock, House Republicans are proposing a stopgap measure--not a compromise but a short-term enactment of the massive budget cuts passed last week by the House but dismissed by the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House.

The fight Wisconsin's governor picked with state workers isn't about balancing the budget, and it isn't about making them pay for more of their benefits. It's about destroying unions.

In a post introducing Arts & Faith's list of the top 25 horror films of all time, Jeffrey Overstreet rightly observes that not all horror is created equal.

Friday Night Lights, which ends tonight, portrays a small town and the relationships within it. The show is steadfastly conventional, commercially unsuccessful and the best thing on television.

I've said before that celebrating communion via Twitter (to make "a statement that we're prepared to embrace the technological revolution") seems like an especially poor use of technology. But Lisa Nichols Hickman brings up a techno-sacramental innovation that's at least somewhat more compelling.

It's hard to know what to say about State of the Union, since the speech Tuesday was long on examples of the results of good policy but short on the policy itself. ("As I understand it," offers Matt Yglesias, "gay soldiers will win the future by riding high speed trains to salmon farms.") Here are a few assorted thoughts.

Today, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Rep. John Boehner (R.-Ohio) as the Speaker of the House. That's a routine gig for a Supreme Court chief justice, but yesterday's was unprecedented: on Boehner's request, Roberts also swore in the new Speaker's staff.