Job growth in 2012, according to revised estimates, was even stronger than analysts thought—although the unemployment rate also ticked back up by a whopping tenth of a percentage point. A reminder, again, every time these numbers come out: This post-recession recovery has been slowed not by the private sector, but by the government.

After releasing "brutal and painful" files on institutional child sex abuse and an equally institutional coverup, the priest in charge of the Los Angeles Archdiocese took the public step of shaming his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Y'all hear about the plane that landed at PDX last night after its pilot passed out in midflight?

Syria has decided, after Israel dropped some bombs on it this week, that its overtaxed military deserves the right to counterattack. Israel is gassing up its tanks and smiling.

Every day, 22 veterans commit suicide, according to a new veterans affairs study. That's a higher rate than the last time veteran suicide was looked at, and it's primarily been driven by deaths among older vets—not the kids coming home shattered from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Increasingly sad explosion news, part 1: Several people died and a highway overpass collapsed after a truck carrying fireworks for China's new year celebration went kaboom in a fury.

Increasingly sad explosion news, part 2: A suicide bomber killed two people outside the American Embassy in Turkey.

Increasingly sad explosion news, part 3: Another suicide bomber, in Pakistan, killed 22 people outside a mosque.

Increasingly sad explosion news, part 4: Investigators still aren't speculating on the cause of a massive blast that left 25 people dead inside a 14-story administrative building at the headquarters of Mexico's state-owned oil company.

Ed Koch, the mayor most associated with New York City's post-nadir 1980s malaise—and a People's Court judge!!!—is dead.

RING AROUND THE TOILET! FILTHY!