Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Well, he incited still-simmering outrage by allegedly “sexing up” data about WMDs to justify sending British troops on Bush’s march of folly into Iraq. Then he amassed a king’s ransom by trading on his tenure as prime minister in a manner that made Bill Clinton seem urbane and discreet by comparison. But passing off fake… Read more.
Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro seems to be recovering from the gastrointestinal problems that nearly killed him a few years ago in a manner that is worthy of Lazarus. Indeed, nothing demonstrated his miraculous triumph over the Grim Reaper quite like his donning army fatigues, instead of track suits, again. Yet, in the United States,… Read more.
Donors to Haiti who don’t donate Last January, Haiti was devastated by a catastrophic earthquake, killing an estimated 250,000 people. Still reeling from the aftershocks, the country witnessed global leaders parading their pledges of support for relief and recovery efforts. In that context, I sounded a cautionary, perhaps cynical, note. I warned those managing relief and recovery efforts to beware… Read more.
The Falklands are little more than a bleak and desolate cluster of rocks dotting the South Atlantic Ocean, some 8,000 miles from Britain. Therefore, when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dispatched the Royal Navy there in 1982 to oust Argentine forces, I thought she was acting pursuant to some quixotic, neocolonial notion of extraterritorial sovereignty.… Read more.
Given the way Scottish authorities handled the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi last summer, the only thing left for them to do now is act like Captain Renault in Casablanca and exclaim they’re “shocked, shocked” to find that Megrahi is still alive. Three months ago, I called Scotland’s “compassionate release“ exactly what it… Read more.
Australia is roughly the same size as the contiguous United States. But it has a population of only 22 million people; the US has 307 million. Therefore, you’d think Australia would be solicitous about attracting new immigrants to its shores. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. For the record, over 1 million people… Read more.
Abdel Baset al-Megrahi is the notorious Libyan convicted in 2001 of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. The explosion occurred over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, two-thirds of them American. Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison. Nevertheless, Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds last Thursday after determining he was suffering… Read more.
I officially declare the coalition of democratic forces … in Ukraine’s parliament dissolved. This has been long expected, but for me it is extremely sad. I would not call this a political apocalypse, though it is true that it is another challenge of democracy. I hope we can overcome it. (Arseny Yatsenyuk, Speaker of the… Read more.
In 2005, the U.S. Congress hailed Viktor Yushchenko, the first democratically-elected president of Ukraine, as the George Washington of his country. However, no American politician could have anticipated the obsession fractious Ukrainians evidently developed for elections after their split from the former Soviet Union. After all, Sunday’s national poll was the third in three years,… Read more.
Yesterday, President George W. Bush of the United States and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran joined the queue of world leaders delivering canned speeches before the Annual Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. None of them said anything of any consequence. They never do. But here’s the dirty UN secret: most… Read more.
