Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Bull Run, the first major battle of the Civil War. This battle – a decisive rout in favor of the Confederacy–was the first sign to many in the North that the South was capable of standing up to the Union on the battlefield, and was the […]

Science is a funny thing in the hands of today’s global greens.Greens decry their political adversaries as unsophisticated, anti-science simpletons for questioning the empirical evidence behind global warming.Yet when it comes to scientific evidence that hurts their cause, the greens are full out flat earthers. Take genetically modified foods, for example: the scientific community has […]

Those who can, do.  Those who can’t, teach.  And those who can’t teach, teach teaching.As a professor myself, I don’t love that old saying, but it’s at least partly true.  There is, however, something that those who can’t teach do beside teach teaching:  they are pretty good at shooting messengers.America’s education schools are organizing against […]

A few months ago I wrote about Blacks fleeing northern cities–now it appears that millennials are doing so as well.  The indispensable Joel Kotkin at Newgeography points out that recent census data shows young whites moving out of the cities and into the distant suburbs around the country, bucking predictions that they would abandon the […]

Politicians love to blame China’s managed currency for US economic problems.  They should all just shut up, says the IMF.  A 20% increase in the renminbi rate against the dollar would have a negligible effect on US GDP and our trade balance.Whining about Chinese currency manipulations only diverts our attention from the real issue: if […]

Global progress is hard.  Efforts to eradicate polio (incurable but prevented by simple oral vaccine) are foundering in countries like Pakistan, Nigeria and the, ahem, Democratic Republic of Congo.The oldest human rights movement is the anti-slavery movement dating from the 18th century.  There are more slaves now than there were when the movement was founded.The […]

Is Germany back as a dangerous great power?  Most Americans think that is crazy; in Britain (and these days in France) they aren’t so sure.  Archbishop Cranmer, Henry VIII’s Archbishop of Canterbury returned from the grave as a blogger, lays out the case.  Worth a read.

News that Mitt Romney is in a dead heat with President Obama has many Gopsters licking their chops as they contemplate 2012.Slow down, guys.  While the economy isn’t breaking his way and most voters still don’t like Obamacare, the GOP has big problems too.The GOP now looks like the party that wants to cut Medicaid, […]

The international trading system based on the World Trade Organization in Geneva is falling apart.  The Doha Round is brain dead, though the doctors don’t want to cut off life support just yet.  These days, when trade agreements happen, they tend to be bilateral deals or agreements among a small number of countries.The march to […]

Michael Moore won’t be alone if he heads to Cuba for his next doctor’s visit; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez turned down an offer from Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff last week to seek treatment for cancer in her country, choosing instead to rely on the healthcare system that Fidel built.Chavez’s decision may have been motivated by […]