We’ve been tracking the slow-motion car crash that is the European Union for a while here at Via Meadia, and it gets to feel like we’re writing the same post over and over again. The buck-passing, the institutional paralysis and the general denial that anything is systemically wrong seems to be so ingrained in European […]

The bad economy has taken a toll on everyone . Americans are finding it extremely difficult to find a job, and those that have a job have seen wages and benefits frozen or cut. At one company, however, people are doing very well: The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is breaking the trend with […]

For Westerners who don’t happen to be Wiccans, witchcraft has become the stuff of entertaining novels and popular films–a charming fantastical diversion from the humdrum of everyday living.(That’s not quite true. Once when I was living in New Orleans and had an electrical wire that kept burning out for no discernible reason the electrician told […]

On the issue of nuclear Iran, those holding their breath for U.S.-Russian cooperation should be turning a rather lush purple at this point. Despite the Obama administration’s efforts since last November, there has been zero real support from the Kremlin. In The Diplomat, Mark N. Katz explains Moscow’s unhelpfulness by taking a look at its […]

Foreign Policy has released its eighth annual failed state index. The map alone is a staggering and disheartening sight:This is yet another blow to the MSM’s optimistic narrative on Africa: out of the top 20 failed states, 14 rest on the “problem continent.” Particularly dismal is data on Africa’s broken public services, uneven development, and […]

Despite the grisly death toll (50,000 dead since 2007) and horrifically public nature of the violence in Mexico’s drug war, business is good in Mexico. The city of Monterrey, situated a mere 40 miles from where 49 decapitated corpses were found on the side of a highway last month, is booming.  The Financial Times reports […]

This week’s essay took its inspiration from the anguished wails of George Monbiot, one of the world’s leading environmentalists and a writer for the left-leaning Guardian. Pointedly proclaiming that the latest round of the Rio Earth Summit is “rubbish”, he goes on to bemoan that militant activism has all but been extinguished. “So this is the great question […]

200 years ago today, Napoleon led the Grande Armee across the Nieman River into Russia.  Composed of troops from all over Europe, the Armee is believed to have been the largest military force ever assembled up to that time.800,000 went in; about 120,000 came out, of whom only 35,000 were French.The best eyewitness account: Philippe […]

With about 300,000 inhabitants, Stockton, California would be the largest city in the history of the United States to go belly up. This is likely to happen on Tuesday; the city has huge debts for white elephant development projects along with massive unfunded retirement and health care obligations, and its tax revenues have gone down […]

Philippine fishermen charged yesterday that a ship which “looked Chinese” rammed their fishing boat in waters near the disputed Scarborough Shoal. The boat sank; four of the crew are still missing and one died after being taken to a hospital on shore.The incident comes barely days after a standoff between the Philippine and Chinese fleets […]