May 14, 2008
What the earthquake tells us about China
China’s leaders “have marshaled an impressive rescue,” said the Toronto Star in an editorial, and the one edict from Premier Jiabao, “Save the people,” even extends to “welcoming the world’s offer of help.” The government’s “brief flirtation with openness and responsiveness” doesn’t mean China is “headed toward Western-style democracy,” said Andrew Jacobs in a New York Times analysis, but . . .
May 14, 2008
The Vatican’s extraterrestrial endorsement
The Vatican’s top astronomer, Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, said the Roman Catholic faith was not incompatible with believing in extraterrestrial life. That would seem to “raise certain uncomfortably absurd theological questions for the Church," said Allahpundit in the blog Hot Air. Actually, the idea of extraterrestrial life is “far from a new one” for Christians, said Mike Nizza in a New York Times blog . . .
May 12, 2008
Is Olmert ruining Israel’s birthday party?
Olmert has deservedly earned calls for his resignation before, said The Jersusalem Post in an editorial, but did this investigation into bribery allegations have to start during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence? Maybe it’s appropriate that the “unofficial” theme of the celebrations is “warts and all,” said David Hazony in Commentary’s Contentions blog. As the country . . .
May 9, 2008
Should Zimbabwe’s opposition agree to a run-off?
Zimbabwe's opposition must participate in a run-off election if it wants to get rid of Robert Mugabe, said The Christian Science Monitor. You "can't win" a vote you boycott. There’s little point in holding a second-round vote as long as “Mugabe’s campaign of terror against the people of Zimbabwe continues unchecked,” said The Washington Post . . .
May 8, 2008
Is OPEC breakable?
Bashing oil producers is good politics "around election time," said Josh Marshall in Talking Points Memo, but Hillary Clinton's determination to break up OPEC is as unrealistic as her plan to suspend the federal gas tax. The gas-tax holiday is "misguided," said Steven Pearlstein in The Washington Post, but taking on OPEC is a good idea . . .
May 8, 2008
Is Russia's new president Putin's puppet?
Dmitri Medvedev was sworn in as Russia’s new president, replacing his political patron, Vladimir Putin, said Marshall Goldman in The Boston Globe. Medvedev will follow Putin's lead, but eventually he'll become "his own man." Sorry, but Putin gave Medvedev power, said James Nixey in London's Guardian, and he can take it away . . .
May 7, 2008
What scolding Myanmar's generals does for cyclone victims
Myanmar's military regime is again demonstrating its "utter contempt" for its people with its pathetic response to the devastation from Cyclone Nargis, said The Washington Post. The generals are indeed "loathsome," said the Los Angeles Times, "but now is not the moment to say so" . . .
May 6, 2008
Could Abkhazia spark a world war?
Tensions between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway Georgian region Abkhazia are coming "perilously close" to open warfare, said the Los Angeles Times. And the trouble in Abkhazia could "become the starting point of a larger war," said Anne Applebaum in Slate . . .
May 5, 2008
Does food aid ease hunger, or cause it?
The dramatic spike in prices for basic food staples has created “the worst hunger crisis in a generation,” said Mike King in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and emergency food aid is the first step toward easing the crisis. Actually, said Dr. Joia Mukherjee and Donna Barry in The Boston Globe, American aid shipments have had "disastrous" consequences in the past . . .
May 2, 2008
Have the Olympics backfired on China?
The “seemingly never-ending journey” of the Olympic torch has been a disaster for China, said John Pomfret in The Washington Post’s PostGlobal blog. Say what you will, the crisis has prompted China to extend an “olive branch” to Tibet, said the Toronto Star in an editorial . . .
May 1, 2008
Why oil matters in Iraq
It’s time for Iraq to pick up more of the tab for its own security, said USA Today in an editorial. We have already spent $500 billion on the war and reconstruction, and now Iraq has piled up a huge surplus from oil exports. Oil is indeed the key to stability in the region, said Victor Davis Hanson in RealClearPolitics, but not for the reason many people think . . .
Apr 30, 2008
London’s mayoral personality contest
Londoners go to the polls Thursday to decide a tight mayoral race between leftist incumbent Ken Livingstone and Conservative challenger Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. In 2,000 years, London has only had two mayoral races, said A. A. Gill in the International Herald Tribune, and Livingstone won both of them. It’s not an election, it’s a “personality contest,” said Anne Applebaum in The Washington Post (free registration), and a . . .
Apr 30, 2008
Does Austria produce monsters?
“Every nation has its horror stories,” said Adam McCulloch in The Social Work Blog, but there's a “bland conformity” in small Austrian towns that might help explain why no one noticed that Josef Fritzl's daughter was being held captive in his basement for 24 years. It's unfair to say this "truly appalling tale" is an illustration of Austria's "much darker side," said the London Independent . . .
Apr 29, 2008
The food crisis: Time to ‘change course’?
The food crisis is "more dire" than any of the dramas the world faces today, said Romano Prodi in The Christian Science Monitor, so "we must change course" and stop making matters worse by converting food into biofuels. That would be a mistake, said Charles Bartholomew in the Merrillville, Ind., Post-Tribune. Ethanol is a short-term bridge to a future without dependence on carbon-based fuels . . .
Apr 28, 2008
Why the Russian press is suddenly silent on Putin's love life
Russia showed it doesn't have "this whole 'freedom of the press' thing down pat," said Michael David Smith in an AOL Sports blog, when it clamped down after a newspaper printed a rumor about a romantic link between Vladimir Putin and a beautiful gymnast-turned-lawmaker. The newspaper has a lot to learn about journalism, too, said The Moscow Times . . .
Apr 28, 2008
What the attack on Karzai means for Afghanistan
The Taliban's attempt to assassinate Afghan President Hamid Karzai failed, said Tom Coghlan in the London Telegraph, but it was a "huge propaganda coup." Clearly, “Karzai's government has failed to bring stability and unity to a country in desperate need of both,” said Lisa Gans in The Huffington Post . . .
Apr 25, 2008
Was Syria on the verge of going nuclear?
The CIA accused Syria of building a plutonium-powered nuclear reactor, although Syria's U.S. ambassador denied the claim, said the Financial Times. There is already a "climate of deep distrust" towards the Bush administration, said Mike Nizza in The New York Times, and this CIA claim already raises several questions about its veracity . . .
Apr 24, 2008
Unveiling North Korea's nuclear secrets
The Bush administration is showing Congress videotape inside a Syrian nuclear site North Korea was helping to build, said The Washington Times, so why is the White House suddenly taking a more "conciliatory" approach to getting Pyongyang to disarm? Making a production of this video could complicate things by making North Korea mad, said Yossi Melman in Haaretz . . .
Apr 23, 2008
Can Africa fix Zimbabwe?
China has to answer for its attempt to sell arms to Robert Mugabe as he cracks down on people who say he lost Zimbabwe’s election, said The Boston Globe. The “stirring news” that union dockworkers in South Africa refused to unload the ship suggested their government’s “shameful accommodation” of Mugabe may be ending, said Christopher Hitchens in Slate . . .
Apr 22, 2008
Jimmy Carter: Did his talks with Hamas help, or hurt?
Jimmy Carter claims he was seeking peace by talking to a Hamas leader, said Mortimer Zuckerman in USNews.com, but nothing meaningful can come from talks with a "terrorist mastermind." What was Carter's crime? said Linda Heard in Arab News. Believing that peace can't be achieved unless Hamas goes along? . . .
Apr 22, 2008
Can vegans embrace test-tube meat?
Animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is offering $1 million to the first person to come up with a commercially viable way to create meat in a test tube, said Terry Cowgill in a Lakeville, Conn., Journal blog, but the revulsion of some PETA members to the thought of eating even fake meat shows "how overheated" their rhetoric can get. The internal struggle could be “good for PETA,” said Graeme Wood in The Atlantic’s The Current blog . . .
Apr 21, 2008
Oil: Will prices keep rising?
Oil prices are marching farther into record territory, said Sharon Epperson in CNBC.com, and with surging consumption in China and India helping to drive the run-up don't expect relief at the gas pump any time soon. There are still some lonely bears out there who believe we're experiencing a commodities bubble that could burst at any time, said Gregory Meyer in The Wall Street Journal . . .
Apr 18, 2008
Is it time to ditch biofuels?
Using grains to make biofuels is contributing to skyrocketing prices and food riots around the world, said the Montreal Gazette. Clearly, it's time to scrap ethanol. Dropping biofuels would be a mistake, said Newt Gingrich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. America needs to reduce its dependency on oil from unstable regions . . .
Apr 18, 2008
Zimbabwe’s long wait
If Robert Mugabe had won Zimbabwe’s election the results would have been “instantly proclaimed,” said The New York Times. Now his “goons” are coercing election officials into “falsifying enough votes” to force a runoff. The “blunt repression” seems to be working, said The Wall Street Journal . . .
Apr 17, 2008
Can a coalition cabinet save Kenya?
Now that Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been sworn in under a power-sharing deal with President Mwai Kibaki, said Tanzania's The Citizen, "cooperation and teamwork" will be needed to put the violence that followed disputed elections in the past. It won’t be easy to create harmony in a cabinet bloated to suit both sides, said Adam Mynott in BBCNews.com. And it won’t be cheap . . .
Apr 16, 2008
Padded bras for 7-year-olds?
British teacher and parent groups are angry at supermarket giant Tesco for selling a padded bra for 7 and 8 year olds, said the Alpha Mummy blog, and it's easy to see why they're "appalled." It appears that the U.K. is leaving the U.S. in the dust when it comes to "sexualizing its youth," said Radar Online . . .
Apr 16, 2008
Should Jimmy Carter be talking to Hamas?
Jimmy Carter has the right idea by talking with Hamas leaders, said the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. You can't broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians when you refuse to talk to a major party. Except when that party is a "gang of cutthroats," said the New York Post . . .
