“Secretary of State John Kerry offered a defense of freedom of speech, religion and thought in the United States on Tuesday telling German students that in America ‘you have a right to be stupid if you want to be.'” [Reuters]

“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) tore into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on Wednesday, saying that her planned departure indicates that she accepts ‘culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11.'” [TPM]

“Oh, you’re wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs tuque. You shouldn’t be wearing that, they suck.” —Toronto shopping-mall Santa, now unemployed, to three-year-old child. [Toronto Sun]

Our guest columnist is totally not running for President.

GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?

Marco Rubio: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.

All Eyez on Him [GQ, via TPM]

Our guest columnist has been phoning it in for twenty years.

Romney ends most rallies with his story of the Colorado scout troop that in 1986 had an American flag put in the space shuttle Challenger, saw the Challenger blow up as they watched on TV, and then found, through the persistence of their scoutmaster, that the flag had survived the explosion. It was returned to them by NASA officials. When Romney, afterward, was shown the flag, he touched it, and an electric jolt went up his arm. It’s a nice story. He doesn’t make its meaning fully clear. But maybe he means it as a metaphor for America: It can go through a terrible time, a catastrophe, as it has economically the past five years, and still emerge whole, intact, enduring.

Monday Morning [Peggy Noonan/WSJ]

As a Stinque Customer Service, we clicked all over the damn place to find the unbleeped version of Sam Jackson’s new “Wake the Fuck Up”. You’re welcome!

“Mitt Romney is promising to reduce taxes on middle-income Americans. But how does he define ‘middle-income’? The Republican presidential nominee defined it Friday as income of $200,000 to $250,000 a year and less.” Median household income is around $50,000. [AP, via Political Wire]