“The East is Red”, Mao used to say. We’re not sure this is what he had in mind. The Daily Mail has the best collection of photos on this phenomenon on the internet right now.The Mail goes on to report that it’s not the first time something like this has happened in China: Last December, the […]

Pension reform is possible, folks. Even by Democrats. Even in Rhode Island.Fred Hiatt devoted his WaPo column yesterday to a quick profile of Gina Raimondo, the Rhode Island state treasurer who is proving that even Democratic politicians—from deep-blue states no less—can touch the third rail of politics and live: How did Raimondo do it?In her […]

Germany’s obsession with austerity is endangering the euro and Europe, says George Soros. Germany must either get with the program or abandon ship: “Lead or leave: this is a legitimate decision for Germany to make,” the billionaire financier and philanthropist said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Either throw in your fate with the […]

The biggest story domestically was the Democratic National Convention. Last week we argued that conventions are increasingly irrelevant, and the falloff in viewership of this week’s spectacle suggests many Americans agree. This week we argued that closely following the horserace is a fine enough past-time, if the political junkie understands that that’s all it is: […]

The blue social model is eating its young with the active help of President Obama’s Department of Education. More specifically, two generations of student debtors are being hounded and harassed by President Obama’s hired debt collectors because a bad federal program and a dysfunctional higher ed machine (with an assist in many cases from poor […]

Last week, we closed comments on Via Meadia. However, we don’t want this to be the end of a productive back-and-forth with our readers. We encourage you to write us with comments or criticism, and we’ll run the best of them on the site.In response to our quick take on the technologies available today which […]

An update in the contentious Koran-burning saga in Pakistan: the accused Christian teenage girl, who reportedly has Downs Syndrome, has been granted bail. This follows the arrest of the Muslim cleric who tried to frame her by planting Koran-pages near some burnt paper. The New York Times has more on this story, which is indicative of the […]

The BBC reports: Iraq’s fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi has been sentenced to death in absentia after a court found him guilty of running death squads.Politically motivated or not, the case sparked an emergency in Baghdad: Hashemi was the most senior Sunni Muslim in the predominantly Shia Iraqi government until he was charged last December and […]

How much trouble is President Obama’s re-election campaign in? After watching and then re-reading the President’s convention speech, a writer for the (liberal) New Republic has uttered the most dreaded name in the Democratic lexicon: Carter.The speech did not exactly thrill TNR’s Timothy Noah: Watching President Obama give his nomination speech last night, it occurred […]

One of the nastiest practical consequences of the Syrian civil war for the West may very well be its radicalizing effect. We’ve already noted how Syria’s own rebels are increasingly turning to jihadist rhetoric and fundamentalist Islam as an organizing principle. Now comes word from a doctor from Médecins Sans Frontières, who just returned from Aleppo, […]