Rodney King, the black man whose 1991 beating by police officers sparked deadly riots in Los Angeles was found dead in the swimming pool of his home in Rialto, Calif. King’s fiancée, Cynthia Kelly, reportedly discovered his body and called 911 at 5:25 a.m., reports CNN. Police attempted to revive King at his home located around 50 miles east of Los Angeles but he was pronounced dead at at a local hospital.]]> Last week, Josh Weed and his wife, Lolly, marked their 10-year anniversary by announcing together on Josh’s blog that he is gay. Josh works as a marriage and family therapist in Auburn, Wash. He and Lolly have three daughters, and claim to have a very successful marriage—one that includes, in their opinion, “a better sex life” than most heterosexual couples.]]> Up is down, left is right. One week after Bill Clinton had some kind words to say about Mitt Romney's time in the private sector, Jeb Bush on Thursday had something nice to say about President Obama's time in office.]]> With the names of the dead etched in stone behind him, President Barack Obama on Monday marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War by calling the treatment of the conflict’s veterans a “national shame, a disgrace” and pledging that future soldiers will return home to better treatment.]]> Miami police are trying to figure out exactly why a naked man would attempt to chew off the face of another man. As if straight out of a zombie movie, police shot dead a naked man Saturday who had mauled up to 80 percent of another man’s face, according to the local NBC 6 station. “Seventy-five to 80 percent of his face was missing, and he was actually swallowing pieces of the man's face,” a law enforcement official said. Sources tell the Miami Herald the attacker also tried to gouge out his victim’s eyes.]]> Europe’s Greek tragedy has now entered its final act, with potentially fateful consequences for the global economy—and for Barack Obama, whose reelection may hinge on the decisions of Germany in the coming weeks. The 2012 election will pivot on the public’s evaluation of the president’s economic stewardship, and a perceptible decline in the U.S. growth rate—which a badly handled Greek exit from the Eurozone would cause—could easily spell the difference between victory and defeat. Obama’s fate, then, may well lie in Angela Merkel’s hands. That doesn’t mean, though, that there’s nothing he can do about it.]]> Think of it like an iceberg: The top lies in plain sight, but a lot more hides beneath the surface. In its annual appraisal of the Chinese military published last week, the U.S. Department of Defense seems to be describing an object it finds both familiar and mysterious. The report certainly answers many of the important issues concerning China's military, including its attempts to develop an anti-ship ballistic missile and its continuing fixation on Taiwan.]]> In a must-read piece today, the Washington Post’s Jason Horowitz reports that Mitt Romney was a prep school meanie. The story, which Horowitz got independently from five of Romney’s former classmates, is that after spring break in 1965, Romney came back to Cranbrook, his all-male private school in Michigan, and noticed that John Lauber, a new student a year younger than him, was wearing his hair bleached blond and hanging down over one eye. Lauber generally got teased for looking different and seeming gay, though he was not out. Romney’s friend at the time, Matthew Friedemann, recalls that Romney said of Lauber, “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” Romney kept complaining, and a few days later led a “prep school posse” that “came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground.”]]> Four TSA agents at Los Angeles International Airport have been helping drug smugglers pass through security with large amounts cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs, according to a 22-count federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.]]> Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith has hovered over his 20-year political career like a thick layer of incense at Easter Mass. Negative perceptions of the religion so worried his 2008 presidential team that the dilemma had its own acronym in campaign power point presentations: TMT (That Mormon Thing).]]> National Democrats are banking on a long-shot strategy to shield President Barack Obama from an expected onslaught of outside GOP spending in the 2012 election: nuking the messengers.]]> Kirk Cameron doesn’t speak in sound bites. He’s in New York on Monday afternoon to promote his new documentary, Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure, except his flight was delayed and he missed almost all of his interviews. He’s sitting in a plush leather sofa in a Times Square hotel, looking tired as he sips a Starbucks coffee (his hoodie, which says “Do Justice,” makes him look much younger than his age, which is 41).]]> Another shot was fired in the war over which political party's tenuously-aligned commentators are more disrespectful toward women, and it's a big one.]]> As of Monday morning, the half-hour Kony 2012 video that took the online world by storm last week had over 73 million Youtube views. And with anything that rises to popularity that quickly comes its fair share of criticism.]]> Speaking to a powerful pro-Israel lobby group, President Obama emphasized he is prepared to pursue a “military effort” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But on the eve of a widely anticipated meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama also warned against “too much loose talk of war,” saying that actually helps Tehran by increasing energy prices, reports the Associated Press.]]> SB 1467, newly introduced in the Arizona State Senate, would force schools and universities to suspend, fine, and ultimately fire any teacher or professor who “engage[d] in speech or conduct that would violate the standards adopted by the federal communications commission concerning obscenity, indecency and profanity if that speech or conduct were broadcast on television or radio.”]]> Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe teed off on a Maryland state delegate in a big way Sept. 7, in an open letter posted on Deadspin.]]> Many more wars have resulted from miscalculation than deliberate planning, and mounting blunders in recent weeks have significantly raised the likelihood that violence in Syria will continue to escalate, drawing the United States and its allies ever closer to direct involvement in another bloody conflict. The crisis is already careening toward the one red-line that could make direct outside intervention all but inevitable: an all-out civil war that ignites in the heart of the Middle East, and threatens to spread along the region's already smoldering ethnic and sectarian divides.]]> Basketball legend Charles Barkley once told a story about his mother confronting him about supporting Republicans.]]>