A reader writes: I haven’t bothered your great minds since you decided to eliminate banal comments from your postings.  OK, maybe not all comments were banal but mine were.But now you’ve gone too far.  You’ve needlessly insulted my home of Kansas twice in the past two days.  First you insist on depressing me yesterday by […]

Are Tunisia’s governing majority wolves in sheep’s clothing? Mr. Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the moderate Islamist party Ennahda which triumphed in recent elections, had several taped conversations leaked where he appears to discuss alcohol bans and the imposition of religious law as a means to gradually Islamizing Tunisian society. Ennahda spokesmen have claimed the quotes were […]

Despite President Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech “A New Beginning”, the killing of Bin Laden, and the extensive drone program, Islamic radicalism appears to be on the rise in a number of places around the world. This is obviously a threat to America, but it’s especially threatening to Islamic minority sects, like the tolerant and pacifistic […]

On Monday, Germany announced that it is about to be hit by a huge hike in electricity prices. Under the new rates, German consumers can expect to pay nearly $26 billion in surcharges on their electric bills next year in order to promote renewable energy. The program wasn’t supposed to increase costs for the average consumer, […]

On Thursday Leon Panetta became the first-ever U.S. Secretary of Cyber Defense (unofficially, that is). At a New York conference attended by business leaders, Panetta directly acknowledged cyber security as a real threat to national security, ominously warning that the U.S. is at a “pre-9/11 moment” and that “the attackers are plotting.”As the WSJ reports, Panetta’s comments were designed to raise domestic awareness […]

Two court cases point out a disturbing loophole in one of the green movement’s signature policies: carbon trading. In both cases, the defendant is charged with selling millions of dollars’ worth of fake carbon credits—in one case $42 million. The NYT has the story: Under the E.P.A. program, initiated in 2009, a producer who makes […]

Pensions paid to public sector workers are killing President Obama’s hometown, and his former chief of staff is declaring an all-out war to fix this problem before Chicago dies.Mayor Rahm Emanuel can’t fight this war alone, however. Chicago taxpayers fund both city and state retirement costs, so any changes made to Chicago’s pension system will require […]

Is this Africa’s golden age? An age when dusty streets and tin-roofed houses are replaced by office blocks and beach resorts? Or is it just the next stage in the exploitation and corrupt mismanagement of African riches?Perhaps it’s both. Canada’s Globe and Mail takes a fascinating in-depth look at “Africa next”—an analysis of the continent’s economic boom […]

Move over, UNICEF. Make some room, Pugwash Conference, United Nations and IPCC. American Friends Service Committee, Doctors Without Borders, and International Committee of the Red Cross, you have a new colleague. The European Union is joining the ranks of organizations awarded the world’s most sententious and self-regarding accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize.After a period in […]

Iran’s oil output is at its lowest level in 23 years, the FT reports: Iranian oil production has plunged to its lowest level for more than two decades because of the impact of US and European sanctions, the International Energy Agency has said in a report that highlights the growing economic pain of the sanctions.Meanwhile, as […]