In case you missed it yesterday, a new Via Meadia essay has been posted. You can find it here. 

Barack Obama won the election, but Dick Cheney is still running the show.That, at least, is the only conclusion I can draw from the news that a writer for the Weekly Standard called in a NATO airstrike during the Libya fighting last week.Via Meadia does not yet have its own air arm, but we are […]

Key conclusions from a paper by Gabe Collins and Andrew Erikson at China Sign Post: –China is likely to follow an S-Curve-shaped path of slowing growth as key internal and external challenges—including pollution, corruption, chronic diseases, water shortages, growing internal security spending, and an aging population—feed off of one another and exact increasingly large costs.–One […]

Lord of the Rings aficionados know that the evil lord Sauron paid little attention to the danger posed by two hobbits slowly struggling across the mountains and deserts of Mordor until he suddenly realized that the ring on which all his power depended was about to be hurled into the pits of Mount Doom.  All […]

For your Sunday reading, a roundup of recent stories on religious persecution and violence.  This is not a complete or necessarily a representative list, and since many of these events take place in remote locations or have not been covered by mainstream news organizations, it is not always possible to vouch for the accuracy of […]

India’s Karnataka province is the site of renewed radical-Hindu led pogroms against local Christians with worries that worse is to come. A recent string of attacks against Christian pastors, church services, homes and three orphanages resembles the violence that racked the province of Orissa three years ago.Asia News reports on the latest incident of persecution: […]

At Via Meadia, we are trying to provide readers with information and analysis that helps them understand the major forces driving world history.  Religion is one of the most powerful forces in our world for good and for ill and chaotic and tumultuous periods of world history like the one we live in today often […]

If you have paid any attention to the mainstream media over the past decade, you have surely noticed its fixation on the rapid economic growth that has taken place in much of the developing world. Understandably so: economic progress in these countries — as well as the consequent social, cultural, political, and, yes, even environmental dislocations […]

Hurricane Irene made its second landfall near Little Egg Inlet, N.J. around 5:35 a.m. That means New Yorkers woke up to howling winds and pounding rain,reported the NPR news blog this morning.Perhaps some New Yorkers woke up to that; in Queens the winds would be better described as breezy gusting to brisk.  The rain is […]

I’ve written in the past about President Obama’s uncanny ability to find the sour spot on any issue, from the peace process, to Afghanistan to the debt ceiling. He is now in danger of finding the same spot on race. The Washington Post reports that in the wake of increased criticism of the president, the […]