After the NATO airstrike that left two dozen Pakistani soldiers dead, each side predictably rushed to shape perceptions of the incident in ways which supported their self-interest. The NYT reports: The NATO air attack that killed at least two dozen Pakistani soldiers over the weekend reflected a fundamental truth about American-Pakistani relations when it comes […]

America has always feared that a nuclear Iran would lead to a Middle Eastern arms race. Speaking at a regional security forum in Riyadh earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Al-Faisal (former ambassador to the US and intelligence chief) stepped up the pressure. The NYT reports: Prince Turki said at the forum on Monday […]

After President Obama and Secretary Clinton announced a series of new agreements and deployments aimed at countering China’s assertiveness, Chinese President Hu Jintao has called on the navy to prepare for military conflict in the South China Sea. Yahoo News reports: The navy should “accelerate its transformation and modernisation in a sturdy way, and make […]

India’s government has fought itself to a standstill over a reform plan that would allow foreign-owned retail chains direct access to Indian markets. As soon as the reform measure passed in Parliament, the opposition Bharatiza Janata Party (and others) brought the government to a halt and Indian traders organized a day-long strike in protest. On […]

Two days ago, the Argentine coast guard boarded Spanish fishing vessels operating under license from the Falklands authorities. In response, the UK announced it intends to set up a “maritime protection zone” around its South American territories. At least one commentator has urged London to respond with force: “it should be considered an act of […]

In a lecture at Columbia University’s Amman-based Middle East Research Centre, Fayyad appears resigned to continued frustration in the Palestinian quest for statehood, despite the decision to go to the UN. The Jordan Times has the story: The Palestinian premier, a champion of institution-building as a path to statehood, said the current political conditions within […]

Just as they were for the Irish and Italian immigrants of the early twentieth century, government jobs have been an important ladder to the middle class for generations of Black Americans. As one of the largest and most venerable public-sector programs, the Postal Service has long been one of the largest and most effective of […]

While the economic crisis has already reshaped the lives of generations of Americans,  it’s most lasting legacy may be the acceleration in the decline of the shaky and ossified Blue Social Model. Our recent economic troubles forced state and local governments to make tough decisions now that would otherwise have been kicked into the future. […]

Some years ago a sizable number of American Evangelicals, perhaps in search of a more colorful version of Christianity, became Eastern Orthodox as a group. For some reason they chose to join the American branch of the Patriarchate of Antioch, one of the most ancient Christian bodies in the world. (Its liturgical language is traditionally […]

Alert reader Dan Shea drew Via Meadia‘s attention to an unusually depressing article in the Boston Globe.  It is one of those fluffy and airheaded “lifestyle” pieces, the print equivalent of empty calorie junk food and like many such articles it provides a horrifying glimpse into the vacuous nature of the modern American mind.  In […]