My title, “Goodbye America!” is taken from a song in the super popular Russian flick Brother 2 (the 2000 sequel to the also popular post-Soviet crime film, Brother). The film’s protagonist, Danila, accompanies his brother to Chicago, where he tries to “do justice”, becoming involved in a series of encounters with different types of Americans, […]

Using the tax code to accomplish what the legislative process is supposed to do is bad for both.

Opponents of the "death tax" are really aiming at the idea of progressive taxation itself. Years of perfecting a deceptive pitch have brought them to the edge of victory.

Expect no grand political realignment this November. Neither party has the right diagnosis for what ails America, and much less a cure.

The usual grumblings attend the day on which we commemorate the most famous illegal immigrant in the history of the Americas, an undocumented wanderer from Spain who brought plagues, fire and the sword from the Old World to the New.Columbus Day is our most confused holiday celebration, one in which the public understanding of the […]

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his most significant public appearance since last week’s presidential debate. You can read the whole thing here. It was for the most part a frank and brave speech, but it defended some unpopular points of view even as it sharpened the contrast between the two men vying to lead […]

The border artillery battles between Syria and Turkey keep heating up, though Syria keeps making loud noises about wanting to end the violence. It’s not entirely clear whether this represents duplicity at the top or chaos on the ground; Syria’s central command may not be able to hold its local commanders on a tight leash.Turkey […]

The beautiful and shiny new democracy in Libya continues to experience teething troubles; today the designated prime minister has been forced to step aside after his second failure to get a slate of ministers approved by a fractious parliament.Mustafa Abu Shagur, who spent the last few years in the United States as an optical engineer […]

Speaking of Latin American democracies shooting themselves in the foot, Hugo Chavez was re-elected to the presidency of Venezuela for the third time yesterday with a solid margin of 10% of the vote in his favor. Whether there was significant fraud is not yet being discussed—Henrique Capriles made no mention of it in his concession […]

It’s the oldest trick in the book: when your polls are in the dumps, try to drum up nationalist fervor over a foreign conflict and watch the voters forget what a terrible job you’re doing domestically. With growth forecasts down to as low as 1.5% for this year after holding at almost 8% in 2011, […]