In a world where there's never enough time and energy, is to focus on the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician -- or political philosophy -- is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center.

It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

Under-30 voters are “the only age group in which a majority said the government should do more to fix problems,” the nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported in November. In a Pew survey a year earlier, more than 8 in 10 said they believed that Social Security and Medicare had been good for the country, and they were especially supportive of seeing the programs overhauled so they would be intact when they retire. (Young people were also more open than their elders to privatizing the programs.)

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 8 great fictional nonviolent superheroes:

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate a rare beast in fiction: nonviolent heroes.

Not confronted with the stench of rotting bodies, the wail of fathers who lost their children, the cry of children who lost their mothers, the silence when whole families are shredded and burned by our freedom, the American liberal is free to imagine Barack Obama as both a grand leader and something of a friend. Thanks to an award-winning ad campaign, Obama the product - not the man, because who knows that? - is smart, hip and sophisticated, or everything George W Bush was not. But here's the thing with that, friend. Barack Obama is the US President, which is to say: A bad person. A murderer.

Why shouldn't three people get married?

As three Brazilians are legally joined as a 'thruple' it starts to look illiberal to insist that marriage must be between two people