Brian Till from Creators Syndicate

The Dysfunctional Marriage for 01/27/2010

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

In April 2001, a green and inward-looking American president had to deal with his first foreign policy crisis: an EP-3 Naval intelligence plane had collided with a Chinese interceptor. The plane was forced to make an emergency landing at a Chinese airfield. The Chinese Premier, Jiang Zemin, was scheduled to meet with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brazil days later.

George W. Bus ...

Updated: Wed Jan 27, 2010

It Gets Loud for 01/20/2010

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

It begins modestly enough, with Jack White, a famed if not infamously gritty rocker, rigging together a piece of wood, a classic Coca-Cola bottle and a metal wire, while standing alongside a Tennessee porch, a cigarette jammed between his lips. Soon, there is a taut line and an amplifier's attached, and the familiar sound of a screaming guitar wails across.

"Who says you need to buy ...

Updated: Wed Jan 20, 2010

Martin Luther King Jr. Day for 01/13/2010

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

If there's anyone out there arguing about the impact of electing a black president on this nation's African-American community, they should probably sit down now. Quietly.

As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the extent to which the president has reconfigured views and perceptions of self-worth is astounding. A new Pew study shows that in the last two years, the number of blacks wh ...

Updated: Wed Jan 13, 2010

Obama and Northwest 253 for 01/06/2010

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

On Christmas day, the president was singing carols with his family in Hawaii when an aide arrived with news of the bungled Northwest flight 253 bombing.

He would wait three days before speaking publicly. He was, it's important to note, already immersed — more than usual, that is — in issues of terrorism and national security. Early in his vacation, he received an 80-page brie ...

Updated: Wed Jan 06, 2010

Lessons from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for 12/30/2009

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This holiday season's flummoxed terrorist attack should remind of us several important things. First, it affirms much of what we should already understand about airline security: The regimen we go through while boarding planes is largely ineffectual ritual meant to allay fears more than protect lives. It's a process geared toward protecting against the last attack, as opposed to preventing what ...

Updated: Wed Dec 30, 2009

Saving Christmas for 12/23/2009

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

I'm not talking about saving Christmas from the assault by the political left. No, I don't mean that BS "war on Christmas garbage" about schools and businesses insisting upon "happy holidays," rather than "merry Christmas," paraphernalia.

I'm talking about something much more serious. Much more troublesome. Much more existential: Christmas has become about a ...

Updated: Wed Dec 23, 2009

Buying into Barack for 12/16/2009

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

At the beginning of his campaign for the presidency, the junior senator from Illinois was listless, perhaps befuddled. A week after he announced his candidacy in Springfield, I saw him before a modest crowd on a bright and clear Los Angeles afternoon.

He offered a passionless pitch, a list of problems rather than a vigorous call to action or a poignant criticism of the sitting president. ...

Updated: Wed Dec 16, 2009

Climategate Reviewed for 12/09/2009

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

For the moment, let's assume the worst. Let's say that the leaked "Climategate" e-mails are, in fact, a canary in the coalmine, and the bulk of global warming data has been distorted, or rests on a less than sturdy foundation.

The e-mails I refer to emerged last month from an e-mail server — hacked from somewhere in Russia, an energy-rich nation that will have difficulty ...

Updated: Wed Dec 09, 2009

Keeping Minarets and Values Intact for 12/02/2009

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Last week, the Swiss public voted to disallow minarets — iconic, onion-shaped mosque spires — in a national referendum. There are four in Switzerland today; each will remain standing, though no others will be allowed.

The plebiscite adds an amendment to the constitution that cannot be reviewed by the judiciary. It is, quite simply, a disconcerting moment for all that subscrib ...

Updated: Wed Dec 02, 2009

The Paradox of Thanks for 11/25/2009

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Privilege and fortune are fickle persuasions. They are each at their essence, it often seems, blinding and numbing in effect. It makes for one of the great ironies of our time: Those with most are often the least certain what to appreciate. The flow of anesthesia is only interrupted by tragic moments: by a loved one falling ill or dying tragically, by the unexpected collapse of a family busines ...

Updated: Wed Nov 25, 2009

An Almost Beautiful Week for the Beautiful Game for 11/18/2009

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

PARIS — And so the World Cup madness begins, still the better part of a year before an opening whistle blows in Johannesburg. Perhaps the happiest football fan in the world was here last week, in Paris: President Nicolas Sarkozy, one would imagine, was kneeling in front of his TV, praying France's way to a World Cup birth with a 1-0 victory over Ireland.

To not have les blues in t ...

Updated: Wed Nov 18, 2009

A Post-Cold-War World for 11/11/2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

MADRID — In the first years of the 1990s, grinding wars in the Third World were resolving themselves at an astounding pace; intractable low-intensity conflicts navigated toward durable peace in a way the world had never seen before. It was, of course, because the patrons of those wars had lost interest. The Mujahidean, the Unitas, and the Contras, Renamo, MPLA, and the ANC — milita ...

Updated: Wed Nov 11, 2009

Truths We Know for 11/04/2009

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Among the first things we learn as children is that actions have influence on our surroundings: A touch to our skin creates feeling; objects can be picked up and moved; a cry garners a reaction. Nothing is cemented in our world. Everything can be manipulated and changed.

Convincing ourselves, then, that more than 6 billion of us — each American, for his or her part, producing 4 pou ...

Updated: Wed Nov 04, 2009

"A November Walk" for 10/28/2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FADE IN:

EXT. WHITE HOUSE SOUTH LAWN — DUSK

THE PRESIDENT walks with his faithful, shaggy Portuguese water dog, BO, as the evening light settles on Washington. Both seem a bit unnerved, perhaps worried that their magic is slipping.

THE PRESIDENT: Look, Bo, it's not all fun and games for me. On top of everything else — the wars, the girls, Biden, McChrystal, that ...

Updated: Wed Oct 28, 2009

Why Kashmir Matters Most for 10/21/2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The most vital region in this world today, for U.S. interests at least, remains a maze of cloud-sheering piles of rock and sweeping valleys, both checkered by impoverished towns and men clutching AKs — but this pile is hundreds of miles from Kabul. So the logic follows: One can not tolerate an unstable Afghanistan for fear that it will become the Mecca of a perverted Islam once more; and ...

Updated: Wed Oct 21, 2009

The One Prize He Didn't Want for 10/14/2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Last week, President Obama did what one must when given a gift beyond what's reasonable or socially acceptable: He accepted graciously. He knows full well, though, that the Nobel Prize only makes already difficult work all the more challenging, and must be hoping that it won't be a curse that stares back at him from an Oval Office shelf, reminding him of the power of symbols and the difficultly ...

Updated: Wed Oct 14, 2009

The Right Wing Swings Behind Health Care? for 10/07/2009

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bill O'Reilly supports a public option in the health care debate, given that it will provide cheaper insurance to those who can't afford it and isn't intended to replace insurance providers as the status quo for the majority; Tommy Thompson, W.'s secretary for Health and Human Services and a former four-term governor of Wisconsin, has praised the Senate's proposed reforms.

Dr. Bill Frist ...

Updated: Wed Oct 07, 2009

Iranian Smoke and Mirrors for 09/30/2009

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Try to tell me Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn't the most talented politician at U.N. week. Really, go ahead.

The leader, who should have been reviled last week, somehow navigated zoo-york with the expertise of a lifelong Upper East sider. Sure, nearly everyone walked out of his speech at the General Assembly, but nobody forced him to answer serious questions about his legitimacy nor his regime ...

Updated: Wed Sep 30, 2009

A Nuclear-Free Tomorrow for 09/23/2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This week, as nuclear proliferation takes a front seat for a moment in global politics, I can't escape the notion we're at a precipice of sorts. Obama's abandonment of the missile shield in Eastern Europe, though newsworthy, represents a very predictable turn of course. Both the Polish and the Czechs will overcome the loss — installations were to be built in both nations, and both saw hos ...

Updated: Wed Sep 23, 2009

The Climate Change of Drink for 09/16/2009

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC — What do Czech lager and South American Arabica have in common?

Both, as it turns out, might well be victims of climate change in coming years, if not sooner — most likely sooner in the case of the famed Czech brew affectionately known here, and indeed around the world, as Pils. Yes, it's not just polar bears and penguins confronting global warming hea ...

Updated: Wed Sep 16, 2009