We at Via Meadia are always on the watch for tales of science fiction come true. Sometimes they’re cause for wonder and amazement—other times, they’re cause for alarm. A global black market for human body parts falls into the latter category.The NYT reports a story not for the faint of heart: Facing grinding poverty, some […]

In celebrating our independence today, one of the great blessings American can be thankful for is that we don’t have a royal family to revere and support.Not that the support of the royals is a huge burden, even though, as ITV reports, the annual tribute has just increased: The royal family cost taxpayers 52 pence […]

As part of our ongoing project to update and improve the core documents of American history, we present the opening sections of the Declaration of Independence as they ought to have been written, and indeed as it would have been written if the still primitive colonial political process had only been sophisticated enough to restrict […]

Mitt Romney recently drew applause from Republicans, and flak from Democrats, for his proclamation that Russia is America’s “number one geopolitical foe.” As The Washington Times reports, Romney’s foreign policy team (which includes American Interest board member Eliot A. Cohen) is looking to emphasize its candidate’s unwavering support for democratic friends like Israel and hard […]

Here’s some good news from across the pond that a lot of Americans will like. Ireland is once again preparing to return international debt markets for the first time since 2010. For the Irish government, the timing is good; as the FT notes, Ireland could use the money: Dublin has so far pumped €64bn into […]

In a wild goose chase for money, cash-strapped cities and states across the U.S. are turning to private companies that collect fees from citizens for misdemeanor crimes. Here’s what happens, as reported in yesterday’s NYT. Say you’re pulled over by a traffic cop for a driving violation and charged with a fine. If you can’t pay immediately, […]

Through the gloom of so much bad news for the world economic picture shines a ray of hope: the Chinese real estate market may be picking up. The most recent survey shows prices are rising in China’s 100 largest cities, the first increase in nine months. Real-estate investment and property sales are also on the rise.As […]

There’s tear gas in the air and violence in the streets. Could those be the first signs of spring in Khartoum?That might be good news. Combining economic stagnation, authoritarian oppression, and a history of genocide, Sudan is one of those rare places where a revolution could hardly make things worse.Sudan wasn’t exactly a bedrock of […]

A group of California high school students is demonstrating the future of education with an extracurricular club they call the Paly Entrepreneurs Club. This is the kind of thing we need to see more of in schools across the country. It shouldn’t just be entrepreneurial extracurricular clubs. It should be Entrepreneurship 101, at the high school or even […]

Anti-Semitism in America has, with some notable exceptions, been limited to the laughable fringe—witness the spectacle of “crazy anti-Semitic Elmo” being carted away from Central Park. In Iran, on the other hand, out-to-lunch, looney tunes Jew hatred is the basis for mainstream, respectable socio-political analysis, as revealed in the state-run Fars News Agency: Iranian First […]