The U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan, which began in 2009, ended this week. As the Times aptly notes, the conclusion of one of Obama’s biggest military endeavors has come and gone with little fanfare. The president is doubtless happy about this, as the mission has been far from an unqualified success: The milestone, which still leaves 68,000 American […]

“Many politicians are now thinking that taking hawkish positions toward China and South Korea will earn them votes,” Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a history professor at Chuo University, told the WSJ. “I am very concerned.”His worries are justified. In a recent poll, 31 percent of respondents said they support the opposition Liberal Democratic Party. That’s a huge increase from […]

German cars sell like hotcakes in China, partly because of the added prestige of the Communist Party’s fondness for luxury Audis. Still, we believe Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, when it says that a violent anti-Japanese sign at a Chinese Audi dealership doesn’t represent the company’s views: In the undated photo, dealership employees smiled at the […]

As we reported earlier today, California’s cities are going bankrupt left and right and are desperately awaiting help from the cash-strapped state government. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ll have to keep waiting: a new report from the State Budget Crisis Task Force shows that the state’s debts are much higher than originally thought. The New York Times has […]

California, America’s answer to Greece, is continuing to unravel. Via Meadia readers are already familiar with the state’s unaffordably lavish pensions and collapsing housing bubble, as well as the bankruptcies in Stockton, San Bernadino and Mammoth Lakes, but now even more cities are on the verge of bankruptcy.What may finally break the back of local […]

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s visit to China appears to have resulted in a minor diplomatic thaw between the two countries. China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, who earlier went AWOL during Hillary Clinton’s visit, re-emerged out of temporary obscurity to meet and chat with Panetta. As Voice of America reports, Panetta showed China’s military leadership […]

A lot has happened since I last reported on my surveillance drone. My fleet has grown to three drones: in addition to the DJI quadcopter, I have a Bixler Sky Surfer equipped with a GoPro camera that can send a live video feed back to a base station. This is what’s called FPV, or “first […]

My friend Nancy Okail, who’s written for us here on these pages, has penned a must-read essay over at Freedom House. Titled “‘Muslim Rage’ and the Politics of Distraction in Egypt”, it’s as good a summary as any as to what’s really behind the recent anti-American violence in Egypt. Hint: it’s not really about that execrable […]

The Chicago teachers’ strike and the coming pension crisis has even progressives worried that public-sector employee costs are bankrupting the city: Matt Yglesias is arguing that the teachers’ union’s proposal to raise taxes to pay for their pension programs may divert funds from more important programs: …[T]he city of Chicago most certainly can run out of […]

If you can make it in New York, you really can make it anywhere, because the Big Apple certainly doesn’t make it easy. New census information shows that the city’s poverty rate has reached its highest point in more than a decade. In the capital of Blue America, the rich are growing richer while the poor […]