Rarely does one story monopolize coverage in nearly all news media in Turkey—the downing of a Turkish jet by Syrian forces did just that this week (Anadolu Ajansı). Less than 24 hours after the incident, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President Abdullah Gül, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu expressed outrage at the attack, claiming that […]

The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) was founded in 1880 as an association of Biblical scholars with a Protestant theological commitment. Since then it has developed into the largest professional association concerned with Biblical and related studies; it is now strongly committed to a theologically neutral methodology of modern historical scholarship. The SBL has just […]

Reportedly, Chief Justice John Roberts was initially inclined to strike down the individual mandate in Obamacare but switched sides after something changed his mind. Speculation has been that it was concern over the Supreme Court’s prestige and susceptibility to public criticism. But I think there was an irresolvable dispute over a crucial question of constitutional […]

Has the Arab spring come to Khartoum? Since anti-regime protests began in Sudan on June 16, that question has been on the tip of everyone’s tongue, both Sudanese and outsider. The protesters have hopes that President Omar al Bashir will face the same fate as Tunisia’s ex-President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s ex-President […]

Wall Street as we know it may not be long for this world—though the movement that occupied its parks has little to do with it. The New York Times reports that, despite good years for America’s investment bankers, the number of mid-level financial positions on the Street is slowly dropping as banks escape the city’s regulations, […]

We’ve been reading about Germany, where Jews and Muslims could face legal consequences for circumcising their (male) children. In Saudi Arabia, witches are getting beheaded. In Nigeria and Kenya, fanatical “Islamic” groups are murdering Christians in batches, and in Mali, they are desecrating ancient Sufi tombs.So how bad are things here?Fortunately, our blog stablemate Peter […]

Decades after the decline of the local steel industry and other manufacturing industries in upstate New York, a renaissance is changing the face of this once downtrodden region. The Economist reports: [In Buffalo] long-abandoned buildings and unused grain elevators stand along Lake Erie’s shore. General Mills is one of the few companies that still use it—the smell of […]

The New York Times reports that the generation that came of age politically during the Obama administration (18 to 24 year-olds) are much less supportive of the president than their slightly older peers. Those voters with only a dim memory of the Bush years are trending more conservative and are more skeptical about what government can do. Given […]

India’s energy shortage is getting so severe and its ramifications for the country’s future development are so great that the failure of India’s energy policy could undermine America’s new Asia grand strategy. The WSJ reports: Shortages of coal, oil and natural gas will require India to import increasing amounts of high-cost fossil fuels, say energy experts, […]

At this point, the scenario is all-too familiar. A new European country—Greece, Spain, or Italy—gets in trouble. Markets swoon. European leaders spend weeks hashing out a new rescue plan. They meet, hopelessly deadlocked. The world holds its breath until, at the last minute, the new “solution” is announced. Hallelujahs and hosannas ring. Markets recover. As […]