The Olympics, like the world, is a complicated field of winners and losers. Some countries win often: the U.S. mens’ 400-meter swimming relay team has won thirteen straight times, a streak going back to 1960. Other countries are accustomed to losing: the Central African Republic has never won any medal. Still other countries win some […]

Via Meadia has already discussed the massive pension scam unfolding in Minnesota, but readers in Connecticut can stop gloating — an even bigger pension mess may be heading your way. A recent CBS story reported that Connecticut’s Governor has announced plans to deal with the funding of woefully underfunded state pension plans. The story should […]

This morning Via Meadia commented on China’s buildup of naval power. Anxious not to be left behind, India has just taken possession of a Russian nuclear submarine. According to the BBC, a second, Indian-built nuclear sub will be ocean-ready later this year.An important lesson for Asia-watchers in this new historical period: Despite warm relations with […]

Stock analysts shake their heads over CEOs with “edifice complexes,” building fancy headquarters despite their cost, but one financial observer thinks that a boom in large buildings could mean something worse than an out of control ego.Barclays analyst Andrew Lawrence theorizes that a skyscraper boom is very often followed closely by economic turmoil. He gives […]

Via Meadia has spilled a lot of virtual ink trying to reassure parts of the blogosphere that the “Christianists” aren’t coming in the middle of the night to lock us all up.  Whether responding to alarmism about supposed power surges by “dominionists” or Mormons, we keep pointing out that while there are all kinds of […]

Updating the Age of Apocalypse trend in 2012 seems fitting considering this is the year that believers in Nostradamus or the Mayan calendar doomsday scenario think will be our last. Of course, 2011 was also supposed to be our last, according to fringe Christian fundamentalist Harold Camping, whose creative Biblical tinkering yielded May 21, 2011 […]

If you have just entered the workforce in the last couple of years, the recession probably hit you hard. You’ve had a tough time finding jobs, and you’ve taken a hit in the wallet.  But that doesn’t mean that things are getting easier for your grandparents either. The WSJ reports that seniors are increasingly looking […]

The Turkish pot is calling the French kettle black, as AK Prime Minister Erdogan denounced France’s foolish and illiberal law criminalizing the denial of genocides, including the massacres of Armenians in modern Turkey during World War One.Somewhat hysterically, Erdogan warned of the “footsteps of fascism” in France over the bill.  In fact it was the […]

Regular Via Meadia readers will know that the new Great Game in Asia, in contrast to its land-locked 19th century predecessor, is largely a water sport. Nowhere is the dynamic relationship between the US and China more tense and more intimate than on the high seas, owing, as this WSJ article notes, to the amphibious […]

Between the travails of the U.S. Postal Service and the slower shrinkage of the public sector at the state and local level, the dependence of African Americans on government and quasi-government employment will create problems as both wages and employment in the public sector come under pressure.But there is also some good news from the […]