The Boston bombings were two days ago, and, just like always, some folks can't help but be stupid. The New York Post said police had detained a Saudi citizen despite citing exactly zero sources, and various right-wing Useful Idiots dutifully ran with it. Later, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said we should delay any talk of immigration reform, given that "some of the speculation" pointed to foreigner-on-student-visa involvement. Could they maybe just shut up until they actually know stuff?

FAIR wonders how Mr. Obama's plan to cut Social Security benefits became the "middle" of the political debate. Am I so mistaken to think of "the middle" as a place where most people are, rather than some imaginary statistical median between cowardly Democrats and nihilistic Republicans?

Study finds that hospitals make more money when they screw up -- through all the extra care they have to give, of course, which private insurers generally cover. No one thinks hospitals do this on purpose, but it is a rather perverse disincentive to doing things better -- if all anyone cares about is money, that is.

If your Tea Party Uncle comes at you with that study "showing" that countries whose debt equals 90% of their GDP have worse economies, you can always counter with this. Long story short: said study excludes entire years of high-debt growth in a way that works in favor of its thesis, weighs the data it does use in a way that works in favor its thesis, and makes a big Excel error that works in favor of its thesis. I'm not kidding about that last one.

A pair of analysts, one from the left and one from the right, label Kansas's right-wing tax "reform" plan the worst in the nation. The lefty finds the plan "beneficial to high-income earners and harmful to low" and hampers state investment in education and infrastructure, while the righty pans the plan because it encourages businesses to make decisions on the basis of what tax advantages they could get, rather than what's actually good for their business. Sounds like they found an actual conservative, which is always a good thing.