Liberals, hinted Waldman in a Monday American Prospect column, need to remember that the legislative journey of a thousand miles begins with a few steps. Waldman acknowledged that even if “modest gun control” measures such as expanded background checks were to pass, the U.S. would “still have more gun deaths than any other industrialized country,” but that’d be better than the status quo.

Waldman likened that prospect to what he said is the important (though hugely insufficient) improvement in our health-care system that’s resulted from Obamacare. He called the Affordable Care Act “a reform, not a revolution” (though plenty of conservatives might argue that “revolution” would be more fitting).

You never know what to expect on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, but last night's show included a guest saying something genuinely startling.

Former Democrat congressman Patrick Kennedy has been making the rounds to plug his new book, "A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction." Much of the media reaction to the book focuses on its unflattering revelations about the Kennedys, such as a failed family intervention in the early 1990s to stop Ted Kennedy from drinking.

Tuesday's All Things Considered on NPR followed the lead of CNN earlier in the day in spotlighting a pro-euthanasia activist's reaction to California Governor Jerry Brown signing the "End of Life Option Act." Host Kelly McEvers allowed only a brief mention of opponents calling the governor's move "a dark day for California." McEvers then gave guest Christy O'Donnell, who has terminal lung cancer, the kid glove treatment. O'Donnell appeared on CNN's At This Hour earlier on Tuesday, where anchor Kate Bolduan thanked her for her "strength" and "courage."

On the Thursday edition of MSNBC’s All In, liberal host Chris Hayes trumpeted the need for gun control measures after the deadly community college shooting in Roseburg, Oregon by comparing the impediment to enact such policies to the “scale of the response” the world deployed during the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus. 

In Congressional testimony on Monday and Tuesday, Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards twisted or failed to tell the truth in several instances.

As shown last night, one of them related to how many of its facilities are involved in the provision of fetal tissue for compensation. Her claim that it's "less than 1 percent" is only plausible if the organization has recently terminated such involvement at many facilities known to have participated in the practice in the recent past. A second more obviously untrue claim, whose falsehood has been completely ignored by the national establishment press, is her contention that "we've never stated" that Planned Parenthood performs mammograms at any of its facilities. Well, yes she has — and as will be seen later, an awful lot of people who you might think would know better still believe the lie.