Twice now the public sector unions and their allies have tried to change the balance of power in Wisconsin.  Twice they have failed.The battle isn’t over; an attempt to recall Governor Scott Walker appears inevitable next year.  And fans of the blue social model can draw some hope; both the judicial and recall elections in […]

Amazon.co.uk has seen a huge spike in the purchase of baseball bats and a police weapon called a “Telescopic Tonfa” over the past several days. Seven of the top ten “sports and leisure” items experiencing the rapidly increasing sales are baseball bats. Yikes. H/T Andy Carvin.

The most recent issue of The American Interest has a profile of the Afghan National Army by Alim Remtulla, one of the only Western journalists to spend any length of time in the Afghan Army without NATO supervision. The article, over a year in the making, is here; excerpts are below. A clutch of soldiers […]

The latest Mead column in the WSJ is out today. It’s called “Europe’s Less Than Perfect Union: The EU’s weak response to its financial crises highlights the failings of multinational institutions.” You can find it here.In the same vein, here are some wise words from Otmar Issing in the FT.

The decision by the House of Representatives to end the House Page program is appropriate and wise.  At up to $80,000 per page, the cost was wildly excessive given the cuts our government needs to make.  And the program had not only been made obsolete by technology (in an age of cell phones, email and […]

Ryan Lizza at the New Yorker has a fascinating profile of Michele Bachmann in this week’s issue. From the article: Bachmann belongs to a generation of Christian conservatives whose views have been shaped by institutions, tracts, and leaders not commonly known to secular Americans, or even to most Christians. Her campaign is going to be […]

Tunisia’s upcoming parliamentary election has failed to inspire many of the people who first organized the Revolution. Shockingly, very poor people who have never had any experience of democratic governance care more about jobs, electricity and paved roads than about democratic election contests between people much richer and better connected than themselves. Adel Kahri, a […]

Last week we put up a post on HSBC’s plan to ax 30,000 employees this year. Now we hear that it’s not just HSBC: the fifty largest banks in the world are poised to cut almost 101,000 jobs between them, according to Bloomberg. These are the biggest cuts since the recession struck in 2008.The smartest […]

In the newest issue of The American Interest, a short essay by Professor of Middle Eastern studies Karim Mezran succinctly details Libya’s historical divisions, the 1911 Libyan revolt against Italy, and European meddling in North Africa — and their impact on today’s conflict in Libya. Take a look at the full article here. Meanwhile, some food for […]

As the news from London has grown darker, I’m remembering the year I lived there as a kid.  My father had switched parishes with a Church of England priest in Esher; after being licensed under the Colonial Clergy Act he settled in for a year as visiting rector.These days Esher teems with American expats; in […]