Nutrition scientists have made a shocking discovery, the paper of record records: we eat fatty foods because — we want to.  Apparently fatty foods spark chemical reactions in our brains that trigger the ‘want’ mechanism, and the next thing you know that whole bag of chips is just gone! The next step has already been […]

News that Michele Bachmann has ended her membership in a brand of Lutheranism that condemns the Papacy as Antichrist is a sign that the forces making America a tolerant country as well as a religious one are still at work.  In national politics, bigots can’t win.The Catholic vote isn’t large enough to elect a Catholic […]

The Washington Post reports that  the “grand bargain” option of $4 trillion in cuts over ten years is reviving as an option.Big deal.The brouhaha over the coming debt meltdown has obsessed the media for the last two weeks. Some of the most talented journalists in the country are trying to get the latest rumors and […]

Famed sociologist (and TAI blogger) Peter Berger is not only one of the best known sociologists of our time but one of the funniest men alive with an near-infinite supply of jokes.  His outsized personality and Truly Giant Brain are on full display in his new book out, called Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist. The […]

The story of rapid Christian growth in China is well known; since the end of the Cultural Revolution tens of millions of Chinese have converted to Christianity; TAI blogger Peter Berger accepts a middle range estimate of 65 million.What’s less known is that India, too, is experiencing a surge in Christian conversions, with some observers […]

The durian, aka the ‘stinky fruit’, is moving upmarket.  As durian season moves into high gear, Southeast Asian millionaires are sending private jets to get prime specimens fresh from the tree.  As a longtime fan of the pineapple sized, spike covered fruit that smells like a sewer and tastes like heaven, I sympathize.  Durian smoothies […]

China is spending more money and talking more trash around the neighborhood, but the American backed Asian security order is looking stronger by the day.  China’s problem in a nutshell: the more it tries to throw its weight around, the more its neighbors turn to the US, and try to bring India into the picture.Latest […]

Rarely does a piece of writing fall as flat as this travel piece that recently limped (it sure didn’t run) in the New York Times. HONOLULU has never been hotter, and not just because it’s July. The city’s “it” factor has been on the rise since President Obama announced, two years ago in Singapore, that […]

It is almost never good when the head of your central bank steps down in disgust.That seems to be happening on a regular basis in Pakistan where the second central banker in fifteen months has thrown up his hands in disgust.  Wasteful government expenditure, poor decision making and a general lack of commitment to any […]

The Quadriga prize, a coveted German honor awarded to those “whose courage tears down walls and whose commitment builds bridges” went to Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel.  This year’s announced winner?Freedom fighter extraordinaire, Vladimir Putin.An explosion of criticism cancelled the Putin party; no prize will be given this year, and Prime Minister Putin’s dedication to […]