So I'm coming home from the gym tonight, and as I am walking into my house I see the police helicopter overhead. Then I see two cop cars zoom down the street and I think to myself, "I should probably lock the door."

I go in the house, lock up, and two minutes later my housemate, Claire, and I see 12 or more cop cars speed down our street and completely block the intersection. Every single one of the cops gets out of the car donning bullet-proof vests, draw their guns, and run down the street. Here's what it looked like:

We heard that it was a "hostage situation" from people outside. The police evacuated the residents on the street adjacent to mine during the "standoff." Firetrucks eventually arrived, too.

Real news was slow to come, but it turned out that it wasn't actually a "hostage situation." The guy the police were chasing had apparently robbed someone. By some fluke of nature, the DC police were actually able to pursue him. It was probably a first for the department. Doing what few rational people would do, the man being chased decided it would be a good idea to shoot at the cops. He then jumped in his car and started speeding home. On his way, he hit a cyclist, who is now in critical condition. The guy kept driving home, which turned out to be a block away from my house. He ran into his house, and all of the other people living there ran out. He holed himself up in the house for close three hours. We just got word that police were moving in on him and he gave up. What a pansy.

The most ridiculous part about this is that I drove right past the house where all of it went down literally five minutes before it did. I could have totally been in the middle of it all. Ah, DC. How I love thee.

See the local Fox video here.

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I saw this at the grocery store and had to buy it. Nobody else will find this funny besides maybe Ian and Lindsay. Whatever. It's also delicious.

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Click here if you can't see the player.

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When I moved to Mississippi, I had a strange predicament where everybody thought I was getting married because there was another Ryan Hughes in Greenville who was. What made it worse was that people looked the other guy up in the phone directory, found my address, and sent me a ton of wedding congratulations and cards.

I was back down in Mississippi this past weekend and sorted through the stack of mail that was addressed to me and found a few Christmas cards that were for the other Ryan Hughes. This was the best one:

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I was admittedly skeptical of The Economist's podcast when I first downloaded it. First and foremost, I'm partial to Marketplace podcasts.

More importantly, I'm not a huge fan of The Economist print edition. Save the occasional awesome article, The Economist kind of makes me want to gouge my eyes out with an ice pick. Despite the depth and quality of The Economist's objective content, its advocacy journalism is really annoying sometimes. It's pretty similar to Fox News' reporting style in many ways.

On top of that, they refuse to print the authors of articles, claiming:

"It is written anonymously, because it is a paper whose collective voice and personality matter more than the identities of individual journalists."

Any paper will get its character from the content of articles with or without the authors' names printed. But when the authors are printed, someone can be held accountable!

So, you can see why I didn't have high hopes for the podcast. But -- I actually ended up really liking it. They basically take their best articles/opinions and condense them down to a seven minute podcast each week. It's great because all I have to endure is seven minutes of the haughty Economist attitude to get much of the depth of their objective reporting. Granted, they certainly can't cram everything into seven minutes, but they do make mention of the other articles not on the podcast. If one of them really piques my interest, like "In Praise of Mess", I go grab it online.

So, if you're looking for a way to stomach The Economist, definitely check out this podcast.

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Barack Obama announced a so-called "exploratory committee" today to run for president. The formal announcement comes February 10th. Make way for the Obama Express.

The video is here if you can't see it below for some reason.

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Thanks to Matt Starr for this gem...

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I can finally walk past the Capitol without shuddering in disgust each morning.

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