In the February 24th Washington Post, in accompaniment to an article by Karen DeYoung and Elizabeth Sly entitled “In Syria, new influx of weapons to rebels tilts the battle against Assad”, there appeared a genuinely hilarious map. I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my morning bagel.Knowing a little bit about how newspapers operate, I […]

The surprising announcement by Benedict XVI that he will retire from the papacy in a few weeks’ time has naturally led to a flurry of media attention on the challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church (for once, mercifully, with a broader focus than the scandal of pedophile priests and their protective superiors). On February 15, […]

On his first official trip abroad, Secretary of State John Kerry is sending a message to the Syrian rebels that, after months of dithering and halfhearted support, the Obama administration is planning to step up assistance of their effort to unseat Butcher Assad: “We are determined that the Syrian opposition is not going to be […]

Today the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, began his maiden voyage as dean of American diplomacy. He is headed to nine countries; specifically, to London, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. According to the State Department and sources quoting Secretary Kerry’s entourage, and according to […]

According to Dante, the last pope to resign couldn’t even make it into Hell. Pope Celestine V, a 13th century monk whose brief elevation to the papacy ended with resignation, is found among the ‘neutrals’ who neither God nor the Devil wants anything to do with. Dante was hardly an objective observer; he blamed Celestine’s […]

Nearing the end of his second term, George W. Bush sought to salvage Russian-American relations with a visit to Sochi in April 2008, but then a few months later, Russia’s invasion of Georgia brought the bilateral relationship to its lowest point in twenty years. President Obama came to office intent on repairing the relationship and […]

On February 8, 2013, The Christian Century carried an article by Lauren Markoe entitled “Did gun control prevent Jews from stopping the Holocaust?” It reported on what must be one of the most bizarre misuses of the Holocaust. As the debate over gun control has moved to the forefront of policy debates in the wake […]

Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left By Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell PublicAffairs, 2012, 320 pp., $26.99 Adam Garfinkle: What are you and your co-author, Hank Campbell, trying to accomplish in your new book? Alex Berezow: We’re both science writers, and we’ve noticed that the media likes to paint […]

Iran can sometimes be very hard to read, but the announcement that even as talks approach it is installing advanced and more capable centrifuges at its nuclear facility in Natanz doesn’t need much interpreting: Iran isn’t afraid of Barack Obama. The Ayatollahs have looked at the clues, added up the numbers, and come to the […]

The announcement just a few days ago that, Congress willing (and it may not be willing), the USPS will suspend Saturday postal delivery, coming just days after the January 27 rate hike, reminds me of how scurrilous these guys are. It also reminds me of the post I wrote last year, and also of a terrific essay […]