Half-watched about a fourth of the Oscars last night (no Red Carpet, though), and thought Matthew McConaughey’s shout out to God and his own potential self was the most strangely spontaneous moment.

Here are some midday shout-outs:

* The Guardian is running a highly-useful live blog of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. TNR is also providing regularly updated reports.

* “Obama’s weakness on Syria emboldened Putin” fever jumps aisle and infects Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), speaking at AIPAC conference (h/t Dave Weigel).

* At The Atlantic, Jonathan Merritt rightly notes that conservative Christians could become victims of discrimination-immunity laws if they are as marginalized as they claim.

* At The Nation, Leslie Savan assesses the Baldwin and Maher critiques of MSNBC.

* Mitch McConnell discusses the wonderfully open, civil and productive Senate he hopes to run after November. Ugh.

And in non-political news:

* Celebrity seflie from Oscars “breaks” Twitter, far outpacing retweets of Obama “Four More Years” photo from 2012 election night.

As we break for lunch, those disgusted by Iron Maiden video this morning should be more pleased with another Russo-centric tune: The Beatles’ “Back in the USSR.”

Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.