Movies and television teach us that evil comes draped in drama, set to a sinister sound track, often with lots of visible gore. But all too often, especially in matters of tyranny, evil appears in banal ways that blend into the accepted landscape. For years I have remembered a scene of this kind. It involves …
Evo Morales won the Bolivian presidency in 2005 with an overwhelming 54% of the vote with his Movement toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo) gaining control of the lower house of congress. However, he failed to win the majority in Bolivia’s Senate, and that body was able to stop some of his radical initiatives. However, in …
Amidst all the congressional to-ing and fro-ing associated with the President’s controversial health care, cap-and-trade and "hate crimes" initiatives, it would be easy for most legislators to overlook a hearing the House Homeland Security Committee has scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. If Congress fails to address the subject of that hearing, however, it literally will not …
In March 2009, Premier Wen Jiabao made an astonishing announcement when he expressed his deep worries about the safety of China’s assets in the United States. In the financial world, most specialists understood that Beijing was growing increasingly concerned about holding nearly $2 trillion, with more than half of those holdings, estimated to be United …
The Communist guerillas of El Salvador have not changed their ideology since the birth of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 1980. What they have changed is their image and their electoral strategy. Mauricio Funes is their new "made-for-television" 2009 presidential candidate who has created an image of moderation under the moniker of …
A nuclear-generated electromagnetic pulse "is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces." The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack announced this startling conclusion in a July 22 …
In the 1980s, Americans feared neutron bombs that could kill everyone but leave buildings, roads, and cars intact. Today, Americans should fear a different kind of nuclear threat that can instantaneously destroy power grids, electronic systems, and communications along an entire coast but spare people. This destruction would result from the split-second release of a …
The sharp drop in world prices for oil and grain precipitated by the past few months’ economic turmoil has literally, if probably temporarily, taken the energy out of last summer’s vitriolic "food-versus-fuel " debate. Suddenly, we’re not hearing the denunciations about how ethanol is taking corn from the world’s hungry in order to put it …
The sharp drop in world prices for oil and grain precipitated by the past few months’ economic turmoil has literally, if probably temporarily, taken the energy out of last summer’s vitriolic "food-versus-fuel " debate. Suddenly, we’re not hearing the denunciations about how ethanol is taking corn from the world’s hungry in order to put it …
Meltdown in the financial sector. Recent spikes in oil prices. Democratic electoral gains throughout Washington, made possible in part by the political muscle of organized labor. Add it all up, what have you got? A perfect storm that will surely translate into an infusion of billions more in taxpayer life-support for the seriously – possibly …