A combination of early presidential maneuvering and internal policy debate is feeding yet another iteration of that media perennial: the great Republican crackup. This time it’s tea party insurgents versus get-along establishment fogies fighting principally over two things: national security and Obamacare.

Pope Francis is rewriting the rules in his first year at the Vatican. Here are a few of Francis’ symbolic changes and statements:

Residents of South Portland needed 950 signatures to qualify an ordinance that would prohibit what they call “dirty tar-sands oil” from Canada to be pumped by petroleum-handling businesses in the city — and got 3,779.

House Republicans, in their final days at work before taking a five-week vacation, have come out with a new agenda: “Stop Government Abuse.”

Sitting at the table, writing this column, any sudden twist of the body sends a sharp pain from my lower left back up through my shoulder. We’re at camp, a long way from my chiropractor, so it’s grin-and-bear-it time.

Over two decades of covering politicians’ scandals, I’ve often been asked a version of this question: What makes them do such stupid things?

The debate over the U.S. government’s monitoring of digital communications suggests that Americans are willing to allow it as long as it is genuinely targeted at terrorists. What they fail to realize is that the surveillance systems are best suited for gathering information on law-abiding citizens.

This month my Princeton University Alumni magazine enclosed a supplement, Quest: Research News from PPPL. Its most interesting news was in the sections titled “New Paths to Fusion Energy” and “Advancing Fusion Theory.” As the PPPL director reminds us: “Fusion powers the sun and stars, and harnessing its power on Earth could provide a safe, clean, and virtually limitless way to meet global energy needs.”