Proposition 32 will test California voters Warring factions will spend untold millions of dollars on political propaganda to sway California voters on Proposition 32 this year. While each denounces the other as a pack of scoundrels, neither likes the media's capsule description, "paycheck p..
Will theater shootings spur gun-control measures? At least one American politician gets it right on gun control. While most other politicians dillydally, or hide behind half-truths and ruses, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer tells it like it ought to be told. The Oregon Democrat spoke out on the U.S. Hou..
Survey on Japanese perception of territorial disputes I thought this research project was over and done with when, in late February of this year, the Japanese university where I work refused to sign a memorandum of agreement on the ``Survey on the Japanese Perception of Territorial Disputes projec..
Syria threatens to use chemical weapons Even though it has been an open secret for 40 years, Syria has always been studiously ambiguous about whether it has chemical weapons.
Good and bad reactions to Colorado horror A terrible event occurs, the country reacts, some of the response heartening, some of it dismaying, as in journalists trotting out a leftist bias that cannot resist defaming the Tea Party. But let's start with the good, with President Barack Obama ..
Varieties of nepotism: Korea What has been happening in North Korea recently is straight out of the Hereditary Dictatorship for Dummies handbook. Kim Jong-un, the pudgy young heir to the leadership of one of the worlds last Communist states, is removing powerful people wh..
In celebration of America's immigrants Japan has the oldest population in the world, with a declining labor force and shrinking economy. Is the United States going the way of Japan?
Penn State's conspiracy of silence Before dawn on Sunday, workers showed up at Penn State's Beaver Stadium, put up a chain-link fence to keep spectators at bay and draped the fence in a blue tarp to block TV cameras. They then proceeded to jackhammer from its base the 7-foot tall, 9..
Entrepreneurs, not politicians, build prosperity I think it's a sport for President Barack Obama to make outrageous statements like "If you've got a business you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen," which he said in a recent campaign trip to Roanoke, Va. and then watch Republ..
Bad society LONDON How much inequality is acceptable? Judging by pre-recession standards, a great deal of it, especially in the United States and Britain. New Labour's Peter Mandelson voiced the spirit of the past 30 years when he remarked that he felt inte..
California politicians act as if they live in isolated bubbles Thirty-six years ago, during the early stages of a young Jerry Brown's first governorship, actor John Travolta starred in a made-for-TV movie called "The Boy in the Plastic Bubble."
Fatal dilemma of lone-wolf killer The Aurora, Colo., theater shootings represent one of law enforcement's worst nightmares: a "lone wolf" killer acting with no accomplices and with no discernible motive other than a sense of burning resentment and persecution, opening fire in a pub..
Looking forward to presidential debates WASHINGTON President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is in serious trouble.
Privatizing the Gulf JEDDAH As the Arab world undergoes fundamental changes, its leaders must adapt fast or risk popular uprisings a lesson that has not been lost on the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,..
Gas prices sputter as campaign issue In February, Republicans were confident that gasoline prices would be a winning political issue in the fall. Commentators allied with the GOP predicted $5-a-gallon gas by Memorial Day and $6 per gallon by Election Day.
Ominous rumblings in North Korea Strange things are happening in North Korea, which is nothing new. This time, however, developments apparently reflect divisions within the leadership of the isolated totalitarian regime. Conceivably, this could spark a renewed Korean War.
Arab Spring: good news The good news about last weekends election in Libya, as relayed by the Western media, was that the Islamists were defeated and the Good Guys won. The real good news was that democracy in the Arab world is still making progress, regardless of w..
