Michael Fagan, the barefoot intruder who humiliated British royal security by climbing unobserved into Buckingham Palace, wandering through the building’s art collections and private areas, trying out various thrones for comfort before breaking in on the queen in her nightgown, was finally corralled by a footman who gave him a glass of Famous Grouse whiskey […]

The typical American church today is organized around the ideas and realities of blue model America. Denominational structures (weakened by years of cutbacks in many cases) are bureaucratic staff organizations. Most local congregations own a large building and land; most of their budgets are eaten up by professional salaries and building maintenance. The mainline Protestant […]

Not all the Democrats are celebrating the January unemployment numbers as morning in Obama’s America. Robert Reich, Clinton’s labor secretary and one of Via Meadia’s favorite liberals, notes dourly that most of the hiring is happening in lower-wage sectors.With more Americans impoverished than at any other point over the past fifty years, Reich finds candidate […]

Joel Kotkin wrote a thought-provoking piece in The Daily Beast the other day about how Silicon Valley’s elites are predominantly supporting Democrats.It wasn’t always this way, Kotkin argues. While firms were in the business of manufacturing hardware, they were concerned with much of the same things as any other business: minimizing onerous government regulations which impact […]

The left leaning Guardian newspaper in the UK thinks war is coming to a Middle East near you, quite probably in the fall of 2012.  That is the message of this article by reporter Chris McGreal.The basic argument is simple. First, Washington has despaired of sanctions.  They will not change the Iranians’ minds about the […]

That is the theory of a legal process wending its way through the Iowa court system.  A class action suit filed on behalf of African-Americans in the state alleges that an insidious pattern of unconscious racism led to whites being preferred over African-Americans in thousands of decisions over hiring and promotion.The suit does not allege […]

Slick high-speed trains, imposing bridges, gleaming towers reaching towards the heavens–infrastructure in the 21st century has become a surprisingly sexy topic. While infrastructure projects are meant to solve mundane logistical problems, the sort of grandiose, white elephant undertakings that have been popping up all over China for the past decade can also serve as powerful […]

Here at Via Meadia, we’ve been thinking extensively about the future of education in America. While nobody seems to have a clear picture of what it will look like, it seems virtually certain that education at the end of the 21st century will look nothing like it does now. Charter schools, homeschooling, online learning, and […]

By now, many of you have probably heard of Jeremy Lin, the undrafted basketball phenom who has set records and electrified NBA crowds since debuting this month for the New York Knicks. What makes Lin so compelling to so many, beyond his athletic prowess, is his unique biography. He is the first American-born player of […]

Robert Zoellick, who has served as the World Bank’s president since George W. Bush appointed him in 2007, is leaving when his term expires in June. The United States  traditionally has the power to nominate replacements for the post, but that could be changing.Zoellick noted that his departure coincides with a tectonic shift in the […]