Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi says that the decision to kill Yemeni-American imam Anwar al-Awlaki, rather than capture him alive, was motivated by a desire to avoid the complications of a trial.

[T]he question of a military tribunal or a civilian court would be debated in Congress and the media. The evidence against al-Awlaki included considerable classified information that might reveal intelligence community sources and methods; if this material were excluded, the remaining evidence might not be sufficient to convince a jury or tribunal that he was guilty of anything other than exercising his First Amendment rights.

Daniel Larison parses Paul Ryan’s comments on social mobility in the U.S. Ryan, Larison says, gets it wrong. Not only are there more barriers in the U.S., but several countries in Europe might even have it better.

Nowhere in the speech does he consider the possibility that increasing economic and social stratification is the thing that is corroding society rather than “divisive” rhetoric. Ryan does say that we should “lower the hurdles to upward mobility,” which is something, but there is nothing behind it.

Herman Cain’s awkward campaign video is rushing through the arteries of the internet, quickly becoming a web meme that’s amassed over 380,000 views on YouTube since Tuesday. It was parodied last night by both Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien.

Of course all that media attention is something of a sideshow, which is exactly how some feel about the current GOP race. Rod Dreher discusses the Confederacy of GOP Dunces.

Paul Beston reviews Jeff Pearlman’s Walter Peyton biography, Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton. Beston says that while Peyton was a magnificent athlete, he was like the rest of us — human — and for depicting him that way, Peyton’s fans and friends have expressed hostility toward Pearlman.