Having spun an artificial Afghan state into existence, we can’t leave without it crashing into the ground.

You can’t consume an education; you can only earn it.

When the IRS takes a budgetary and political beating, the entire country ultimately feels the pain.

Control the vocabulary of a public policy debate, and you control the debate.

Two polls show a California at odds with itself: voters look to be seriously souring on labor unions, but a majority might also be opposed to the state’s most promising effort to reform public pension plans. If the polls are accurate, there may be a certain logic to this: voters in the Golden State acknowledge the strain labor unions are putting on state and local finances, but don’t think union members should be the ones to suffer. Either way, a debate has finally begun in a blue state that desperately needs one.

Before voting began in Delhi’s state-assembly election earlier this month, one of the leaders of the Aam Aadmi (“Common Man”) Party, an upstart anti-corruption organization in India, told a journalist, off the record, that he didn’t expect much initial success. Ten percent of the vote would be enough, Yogendra Yadav said to Samanth Subramanian, who relates this story in the New Yorker. “I’ve seen too many vote-share tables in my life to expect miracles,” Yadav laughed. After the votes were counted in Delhi, it emerged that the AAP had won a stunning 28 seats, just three short of Narendra Modi’s BJP. Building on that spectacular success the AAP announced today that it would contest all 26 national parliament seats in Modi’s home state of Gujarat. Arvind Kejriwal, AAP’s outspoken leader, is now a man to watch in Indian politics.

Egypt’s state prosecutor today accused former president Mohamed Morsi and thirty four Islamists of a range of crimes including conspiring with foreign groups to commit terrorist acts inside Egypt and divulging military secrets to foreign regimes. The accused could be executed for these crimes. The prosecutor called it “the biggest case of conspiracy in the history of Egypt.”

An up-and-down year for MOOCs looks set to end on a down note. Earlier this week, San Jose State prepared to finally put an end end its partnership with Udacity after the failure of a trial program this spring. Meanwhile, edX announced the end of its plans to partner students with employers due to a lack of interest from employers.

The Japanese government set forth its latest National Security Strategy today, a comprehensive 10-year plan to build up its defense forces, invest in new weapons, ships, and aircraft, and prepare for conflict in an increasingly hostile neighborhood. The new strategy will focus on defending Japan’s far-flung islands, with new amphibious transport ships and surveillance technology high on the shopping list. North Korea, China, and Russia are named as possible threats to Japan’s security, and the strategy document calls on the US not to abandon its role as the provider of security and stability in the region.

It’s beginning to look like Detroit’s bankruptcy will come in with a pretty hefty price tag. Despite being effectively broke, the city has already spent an astonishing $28 million on fees for lawyers and consultants brought on to assist with the process, some of whom are earning nearly $200,000 per month. The lesson for other cities: Bankruptcy is expensive and should be avoided if at all possible.