As the FT reports: European governments are attempting to revive a stalled effort to beat Russia’s effort to bring central Asia’s vast natural gas reserves to Europe.A move to give Brussels the power to negotiate a pipeline deal with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan is expected to be agreed…The unprecedented ceding of power is the latest sign […]

As a story in the Wall Street Journal recently noted, homeschooling is adapting to new environments: The San Francisco Schoolhouse…started classes Tuesday in the Richmond district with an initial enrollment of four first-graders…Unlike most homeschooling, in which a child is primarily taught by his or her own parents, students in co-ops often share teachers and sometimes […]

Last week Germany’s constitutional court ruled in favor of the European financial adjustment facility. As the FT’s Wolfgang Munchau writes, at first glance many observers saw the decision as a victory for those who want a collective European response to the crisis, but on closer inspection it turns out to place sharp limits on what Germany can […]

When it comes to the war in Afghanistan – or any war, really – wanting it to be over does not help end it. Thankfully, Ambassador Ryan Crocker knows this, even if many pundits do not. As the Washington Post reports: …Crocker has two simple points to make. First: Wanting the war against al-Qaeda to […]

The decline of the USPS – one of America’s oldest and best-known institutions – is one of the most visible examples of the fall of the Blue Social Model. The financial collapse of the Postal Service has been one of the main stories of the past few weeks, generating a number of proposals to fix […]

There are three Christian journals that I peruse regularly—National Catholic Reporter (liberal Catholic), Christian Century (liberal Protestant) and Christianity Today (conservative Protestant). The adjective “liberal” in the first two journals refers both to their theological and political orientation; Christianity Today is theologically conservative, but has no single political line. The three journals usually appear in […]

Time has often seemed to stand still in the Middle East.  The Israeli-Palestinian conflict ground on at a glacial pace.  Kemalist Turkey, Mubarak’s Egypt, Assad’s Syria: little changed from year to year.This was a survival of the Cold War political system.  Since the French Revolution, world politics has been a combination of a roller coaster […]

The early morning news from the financial markets is even more alarming than usual.  Asian markets dove on fears of a European meltdown, the euro plunged, and European stock markets opened down as well.  US stock futures fell and the yield on ten year treasury notes was one basis point (one one hundredth of one […]

Hot religion is doing its worst in Somalia. The al Shabaab rebels – an extreme Salafi/Wahhabi sect – are doing everything they can to cripple the next generation by wrecking the schools.  Reuters reports: Somalia’s al Shabaab rebels have banned English from schools in the southern port city of Kismayu… In a statement posted on […]

On this tenth anniversary of 9/11, Via Meadia reflects on one the most painful unintended consequences of that day – the decimation of Iraq’s once significant minority religious groups. Before the invasion of Iraq – which, despite the changing rhetoric used to justify it, would not have happened without the 9/11 attacks – about 1.5 […]