In an interesting article on the federal law code, the Wall Street Journal discusses the weakening of criminal intent standards: For centuries, a bedrock principle of criminal law has held that people must know they are doing something wrong before they can be found guilty. The concept is known as mens rea, Latin for a […]

The riots that scarred much of London last month came as a shock to the British public. As often happens with social upheavals of this type, the chattering class has spent the past few weeks discussing the cause of the riots, and has finally settled on a simple explanation: single mothers. The New York Times […]

Why hasn’t the biggest economic crisis in two generations rekindled the political left?American leftists are not alone in asking this question; the failure of the latest recession to fuel anti-capitalist or at least anti-corporate rage in most of the developed world has European social democrats scratching their heads.  The 2008 financial crisis was, from a […]

China’s message to the Eurozone: don’t count on us. From the WSJ: “We can’t just go save someone,” said Gao Xiqing, president of China Investment Corp., China’s huge sovereign wealth fund. “We’re not saviors. We have to save ourselves,” he said at a weekend [IMF] panel discussion.If Europe decided to issue euro-zone bonds—debt guaranteed by […]

They say a diplomat is someone sent abroad to lie for his country. While that is not always the case, it certainly matches the job description for the Greek finance minister this weekend. In the Washington Post: Greece’s commitment to the euro is “firm and irrevocable,” the country’s finance minister said Sunday as euro-zone officials […]

The long stalemate in Syria is taking an ominous and possibly important new turn.  Syrian dissidents appear to be forming an embryonic army to challenge the Assad regime’s violent repression of largely peaceful protests.  The Washington Post reports: For now, the shadowy entity seems mostly to consist of some big ambitions, a Facebook page and […]

Months after the Egyptian revolution, the nation’s ruling council faces a significant new problem: militant labor. From the Washington Post: Here in a nation that long outlawed strikes and largely judged independent unions to be enemies of the state, a juggernaut labor movement is flourishing in the light of the Arab Spring.The ruling military council, […]

Those who say we can’t get cross party cooperation on tough decisions like budget cuts should take a look at Great Britain, where a coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have agreed on a tough program of budget cuts and reforms. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne, has been visiting the US to […]

In more bad news for Democrats, America continues to track right-of-center.  A new Gallup poll indicates that “a record-high 81% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the country is being governed”, and that the public’s faith in government’s ability to solve problems is plumbing new depths: Majorities of Democrats (65%) and Republicans (92%) are […]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Russian decision to take off the Medvedev mask and put Prime Minister Putin back into the top spot is causing headaches in Washington. There seems to be some concern that when President Good Cop switches places with Prime Minister Bad Cop, something important could change in Russian foreign […]