The new U.S. sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank are already taking their toll on Iran, reports the Washington Post: Iran’s ailing currency took a steep slide Monday, losing 12 percent against foreign currencies after President Obama on Saturday signed a bill that places the Islamic republic’s central bank under unilateral sanctions…The Central Bank of Iran […]

The opening vignette in this New York Times piece describes the truly harrowing conditions of families living in the Congolese capital: The Berboks are practicing a Kinshasa family ritual almost as common here as corrugated metal roofs and dirt streets: the “power cut,” as residents in this capital of some 10 million have ironically christened […]

In this campaign season, a lot of Republican candidates, particularly Newt Gingrich, have been talking about American Exceptionalism. When Gingrich says that President Obama doesn’t understand how exceptional the United States is, he means this in only a positive sense: that we are freer, more entrepreneurial, or have been a greater force for good in […]

Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio made headlines in 2011 with their fights against unions in their states. Walker won but was weakened; Kasich lost. Scarcely three days into the new year, Indiana is carrying this tradition into the new year with a debate over a right-to-work law that may reach […]

Budgetary meltdowns in states and municipalities throughout 2011 have made one thing abundantly clear: the Blue Model is slowly bankrupting America at all levels of government. It isn’t just rust belt cities with public unions that are feeling the pain: not even the Pentagon is immune. From the New York Times: Many who are more […]

An interesting piece in the NYT this morning looks at what Chinese leaders see as a dangerous problem of cultural encirclement.  From the lead: President Hu Jintao of China has said that the West is trying to dominate China by spreading its culture and ideology and that China must strengthen its cultural production to defend […]

By now, the Three Kings are well on their way to Bethlehem, and the Christmas season is drawing to a close. But the Three Kings (actually, ‘wise men’ according to Matthew’s gospel) aren’t just bringing their famous three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They bring with them another set of questions that we have […]

The fanatical no-nothing pseudo-Islamic sect Boko Haram has issued an ultimatum to Nigerian Christians living in the mostly Muslim north of that country: get out within three days or face dire consequences.  The group’s spokesman, a Mr. Qaqa (who probably does not want to know why American schoolchildren snicker when they hear his name) has […]

In 1980, future famed environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben published an undergraduate piece in The Harvard Crimson detailing “Six Ways to Argue with a Libertarian.” The first? “Cede the Post Office.” Already three decades ago, even the most staunchly Blue writers could recognize the lost cause that was the United States Postal Service–an increasingly outmoded […]

Civil unrest continues apace in Russia, with a New Year’s Eve protest resulting in mass arrests. The Washington Post reports: About 200 people converged on Triumfalnaya Square in the early evening darkness, perhaps half of them journalists, for a rally organized by Eduard Limonov in support of freedom of assembly.Limonov, founder of the National Bolshevik […]