Glenn Reynolds has penned an op-ed for USA Today that takes a close look at the Justice Department’s new guidelines on how to deal with journalists and leaks of sensitive information. He comes away with a bad feeling that the Obama administration is waging a war on the First Amendment: Does this policy [The DoJ’s […]

Ultra-wealthy Southern California residents have just won a victory in the battle to impose their social preferences on the poor. The neo-puritan landowners of Newport Beach, worried about their “asthma and allergies,” have convinced air-quality regulators to make it impossibly hard for the public to use the beach fire-pits that have lined California’s coast for half […]

Fracking was dealt a blow last Friday when a series of papers was released in the journal Science linking fracking with earthquakes. A team of researchers, led by Columbia University seismologist Nicholas van der Elst, found a correlation between the injection of fluids underground—a key step in the extraction of shale oil and gas (as well as the extraction […]

Having tidily dispatched his nemesis Julia Gillard in a labor party leadership struggle last month, Kevin Rudd is setting his sights on winning the next Australian elections scheduled for September 14. Step one: slash a politically toxic carbon tax, and make up for the lost revenue by cutting several green programs. NY Times: “The government has […]

Shortly after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto took office last year, he organized a coalition with the leaders of the country’s three largest political parties called the Pact for Mexico. The purpose of the pact was to pave the way for desperately needed but politically difficult reforms.The alliance has made big strides so far this year, […]

The last of the three major credit raters downgraded France on Friday, citing poor growth, rising unemployment, and projected public debt of 96 percent of GDP by next year. President François Hollande has responded by reluctantly promising to move ahead with austerity measures. The FT reports: There would be “less spending in 2014 than in 2013”, […]

China and India agreed to hold their first joint air and naval military exercises, and are “seeking to strengthen mutual trust between their armed forces,” the Times of India reported late last week. In 2007 and 2008 the two countries held joint army exercises but suspended them in 2009 over a diplomatic disagreement; this will be the […]

Spain is the latest European country to regret its foray into green energy production. On Friday the Spanish government announced some contentious reforms to its regime of green energy subsidies, which were among the most generous in Europe.Those subsidies (in the form of guaranteed above-market rates for producers) have been wildly successful at encouraging solar and wind […]

Men aren’t the only ones driving the hookup culture so prevalent across college campuses.  More than 60 women, all students at the University of Pennsylvania, granted anonymous interviews to The New York Times, and the resulting Style Section feature explores the sexual mores of some ambitious female students today: Ask her why she hasn’t had a […]

Vietnam and China should be friends. They share a 1,350 kilometer-long border and a similar socialist political culture married to a capitalist economy dominated by state-owned enterprises. Communist parties rule the roost in both Hanoi and Beijing; a strong police force keeps the population in line.But since 2009 the relationship has been cold and distant. In […]