Famed sociologist (and TAI blogger) Peter Berger is not only one of the best known sociologists of our time but one of the funniest men alive with an near-infinite supply of jokes.  His outsized personality and Truly Giant Brain are on full display in his new book out, called Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist. The […]

The story of rapid Christian growth in China is well known; since the end of the Cultural Revolution tens of millions of Chinese have converted to Christianity; TAI blogger Peter Berger accepts a middle range estimate of 65 million.What’s less known is that India, too, is experiencing a surge in Christian conversions, with some observers […]

The durian, aka the ‘stinky fruit’, is moving upmarket.  As durian season moves into high gear, Southeast Asian millionaires are sending private jets to get prime specimens fresh from the tree.  As a longtime fan of the pineapple sized, spike covered fruit that smells like a sewer and tastes like heaven, I sympathize.  Durian smoothies […]

China is spending more money and talking more trash around the neighborhood, but the American backed Asian security order is looking stronger by the day.  China’s problem in a nutshell: the more it tries to throw its weight around, the more its neighbors turn to the US, and try to bring India into the picture.Latest […]

Rarely does a piece of writing fall as flat as this travel piece that recently limped (it sure didn’t run) in the New York Times. HONOLULU has never been hotter, and not just because it’s July. The city’s “it” factor has been on the rise since President Obama announced, two years ago in Singapore, that […]

It is almost never good when the head of your central bank steps down in disgust.That seems to be happening on a regular basis in Pakistan where the second central banker in fifteen months has thrown up his hands in disgust.  Wasteful government expenditure, poor decision making and a general lack of commitment to any […]

The Quadriga prize, a coveted German honor awarded to those “whose courage tears down walls and whose commitment builds bridges” went to Mikhail Gorbachev and Vaclav Havel.  This year’s announced winner?Freedom fighter extraordinaire, Vladimir Putin.An explosion of criticism cancelled the Putin party; no prize will be given this year, and Prime Minister Putin’s dedication to […]

At last, there are signs of a working American policy toward Libya.  The embarrassing and damaging “days not weeks” war has turned into a stalemate that makes America look both violent (bombing villages in order to save them) and weak (the Loon is still spouting defiance from Tripoli).  The lesson so far to despots like […]

If there is one phrase in the global climate debate that sets my teeth on edge it is this: the claim by so many greens that the “science of global warming is settled.”Really?  “Settled?”  The essence of science is that it is never settled.  Science is a frontier, not a town.  That the science of […]

Back in March, Dan Drezner argued that my piece in Foreign Affairs marked the beginning of the end for the Tea Party as a factor in American foreign policy. Yet today, Dan observes that the Tea Party — high on the electoral and political successes of its “no retreat, no surrender” strategy — is a […]