While we here at Via Meadia have generally been bullish on the prospects of hydro-fracking, it is important to note that the technology is still in its infancy and comes with real problems in need of solutions. As the Associated Press notes: Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is […]

Iran is rolling out one defiant step after another these days.  In recent days it has begun ten days of naval games in the Straits of Hormuz while warning that it would close those straits to oil shipments if it is attacked.  It has warned Turkey that, if attacked, it will respond by attacking NATO […]

The Egyptian non-revolution continues to push liberals to the margins even as the Army and the Islamists renegotiate the boundaries between them.The latest demonstration of liberal impotence: the Egyptian government, despite strong pressure from Washington and other donors, insists on its right to supervise and watch over NGOs that receive funds from abroad.  Overwhelmingly these […]

The Mead list of the top ten things to do to get smart hasn’t changed since 2011, but it deserves reposting nonetheless. Here it is: enjoy — and let one of your New Year’s resolutions be to get smart in 2012. To those of you out there nursing your hangovers, Merry Christmas!  While most of […]

The Atlantic.com has a selection of twelve celebrity hangover cures for those of you glazing dazedly at the too-bright New Year.  Many date from the Golden Age of American Drinking, those years between the onset of Prohibition when drinking became glamorous and rebellious, and the death of the three martini lunch when increased economic competition […]

The Iowa caucuses are coming much too early this year, but it feels as if we have been waiting forever for them to actually arrive.  A barrage of excessive and pointless press coverage has drowned the country for months.  Iowa’s caucus for years was seen as the prequel to the actual presidential race which began […]

History isn’t over in the blogosphere; Francis Fukuyama, the chairman of the board here at The American Interest, has announced his intention to relaunch his blog on the site.  His New Year’s resolution to blog more appears on the site today. You can find him here.He joins Peter Berger and Jagdish Bhagwati on a blogroll […]

Marian Tasco and Ronald Donatucci should be ashamed of themselves.  Their shortsighted greed is wrecking Philadelphia.Marian Tasco is a Philadelphia city councilor who voted for DROP, an outrageous pension giveaway that allows the shameless and depraved to retire for one day, collect a six figure retirement payout, and return to work the next morning.Yesterday the […]

There has not been much good news coming out of Italy lately, and we shouldn’t expect that to change anytime soon.  The weak “technocratic” government is committed to an austerity and liberalization program that strikes at the heart of the Italian political system, and the politicians have the votes to water down and amend whatever […]

The editors of Foreign Affairs have published my list of the three best books on the United States I reviewed for them in 2011.  You can also see the list of my colleagues’ selections in a variety of fields.  The capsule book reviews at the end of each issue of Foreign Affairs are one of […]