In a Q&A I held yesterday at The Hive (sub req), a reader asked (in so many words), What is it about CPAC? Every year it totally takes over the political news space. There's wall to wall coverage. Netroots Nation, which is also held every year, and other progressive/Democratic oriented events just don't get anywhere near the attention. So why is that?

Woman dies when a gun falls out of one of the socks she's sorting at a thrift store and shoots her.

This is believed to be the first map of Africa, as a continent. "Africa" was originally a Roman term for the region of modern Tunisia and the western portion of Libya. The Arabs later adopted a similar definition. But this is the first known map of the new concept of Africa as a continent stretching from North Africa down to a southern tip that could be rounded and from which you could then sail on to India and Asia.

Princeton University, Historic Maps Collection.

How did Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) end up in softcore porn movie?

CPACer says it's a "liberal lie" that any states ban gay marriage.

Candidate challenging Rep. Martha Robey (R-AL) explains video of himself discussing politics while sitting on the toilet: It was outreach to millennials!

When you're ballsy and stupid enough to accuse a prominent African-American lawyer with a history of Civil Rights activism (Eric Holder) of "standing in the school house door" like George Wallace (perhaps the most iconic defense of racial segregation in American history), you always run the risk that that guy's sister-in-law might actually have been the young woman Wallace was blocking on that famous day in 1963.

Jon Stewart sees it too. Why do so many conservatives and Republicans have such a crush on Vladimir Putin? "The weirdest thing about this isn't Putin invading Ukraine—you expect a crazy guy to act crazy. The weirdest thing is seeing conservatives in our country point at the crazy guy and go, 'Yeah, I'll have what they're having!'" Watch.

You're a conservative walking down a street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. It's a quarter to 1 on a Saturday night. A group of hipsters are keeping up not far behind you. You're alone. They've got their swarthy 'staches and flannels, laughing, with a penumbra of menace rising over you. Monocles. This is why they have conceal carry laws. But you're not packing.

Alaska pol says expanded access to birth control means taxpayer funded sexual "recreation."