Sometimes, alarming facts can be concealed behind seemingly innocuous jargon. That is the case with the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s latest polling on the “migratory patterns” of religious groups. As it turns out, one particular group is consistently on the move: Of the seven groups examined in this report, Jews have by […]

The news about pink slime (a not particularly appetizing beef mélange) in school lunches reminds me of the elementary school song about school food that is known to every red-blooded American child:Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts Little dirty birdies’ feet Mutilated monkey meat Pale pink piles of petrified pelican poo That’s what […]

Brazil feels the jaws of a familiar trap closing on its leg — and it is determined to struggle. As its finance minister told the Financial Times in a recent interview (paywall alert): “We don’t want to lose our manufacturing sector. Brazil is not merely an exporter of commodities… We are not going to just […]

The Viennese still clap and stomp during the chorus of the Radetzkymarsch, the ebullient martial tune by Johann Strauss, from which the underappreciated author Joseph Roth took the title of his most-celebrated book. (Go here to watch Herbert von Karajan hamming it up as he conducts the March at the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s concert.) […]

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the Falkland War next month, Britain and Argentina’s war of words continues to heat up. Thus far, Argentina has opted for lawfare over warfare, vowing to bring domestic and international court cases against any company looking for oil in the vicinity of the islands. The FT quotes Argentina’s […]

Remember the Pirate Party in Germany? We blogged about them months ago after they were surprisingly successful in state elections in Berlin last year. In that election, long dominant parties like Angela Merkel’s coalition partners, the Free Democrats, crashed and burned, and the Pirate Party, seemingly a crew of scruffy, twenty-something internet activists, did so well that […]

Oil is the lifeblood of the Iranian economy. Oil exports provide half of Iran’s government revenues and account for 80 percent of the country’s total exports, according to the Financial Times. As oil from mature fields becomes harder to extract, new technology and management techniques are needed to slow the decline in output. Fellow hydrocarbon behemoths […]

Bo Xilai was fired as Chongqing chief of the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday. Thus ends his initially popular but eventually unstable reign in Chongqing and his quest for a seat at the most powerful table in China.Bo Xilai is a fascinating and scary figure. He is a demagogue in a non-democratic society, and he had […]

Every parent today knows that college will be one of the biggest expenses in their children’s lives—if not the biggest. And the expenses don’t begin and end with tuition, room, board, and books. Today, a profitable industry has sprung up around SAT prep courses, college counselors and the like. Yet the truly surprising thing about […]

Despite mounting political pressure and public discontent, President Obama—at least in public—is hanging tough on his raise and withdraw strategy in Afghanistan. The FT reports that the President ruled out any “sudden” troop pullouts and reaffirmed his commitment to the timetable in a joint address with British PM David Cameron.This is Obama’s call to make, […]