Reading The Reactions To North Korea

December 23, 2011

Varied reactions to Kim Jong Il’s death should remind us which countries are our true friends in the world, and which are not.

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Libya And The ‘Bystander Effect’

March 11, 2011

Exactly 47 years ago this weekend, a young woman named Kitty Genovese screamed for help as she was attacked outside her Queens, N.Y., apartment building. The New York Times reported two weeks later that 38 neighbors heard her cries but did nothing until it was too late. That story was probably wrong in its details — investigators later determined that an initial stabbing pierced the woman’s lungs, leaving her unable …

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Patriotic Justice

January 10, 2011

No one was very surprised last month when a Russian court convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of the Yukos oil company, of embezzling $25 billion worth of oil. But what made the verdict predictable wasn’t the strength of the charges against Khodorkovsky. In fact, the absurdity of some of the prosecutors’ arguments made even the judge laugh. The reason everyone knew what would happen was that the case was in …

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Chairman Mao’s Living Legacy

November 11, 2010

In China, one Nobel Peace Prize winner sits in jail while his wife endures an unofficial house arrest. Another, much more famous winner — the Dalai Lama — has been in exile from his Chinese-ruled homeland for more than 50 years. In Russia, journalists are routinely attacked and killed with impunity. A video documenting one such attack appeared on a Russian news site just this week. In Pakistan, journalists also …

Just What Does A Spy Do, Anyway?

July 22, 2010

The case of the Russian agents who allegedly spied for years but obtained no classified secrets may have convinced you that the Soviet Union’s last surviving idiots run Moscow’s security services. The Russian spymasters who reportedly wanted to keep tabs on American power brokers might have gotten more information, for a lot less money, by subscribing to The Washington Post. Instead, they dispatched a team of deep-cover agents who blended …

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Israel Joins The OECD

May 13, 2010

In the interminable struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, any step forward by one side is automatically seen as a step backward for the other. Palestinians were, therefore, outraged this week when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development invited Israel to join. But Israel belongs in the OECD, and allowing it to take its rightful place there does not set back the Palestinian cause. The OECD, whose membership comprises an …

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A Financial Thunderstorm, Not A Hurricane

May 5, 2010

The Greek financial crisis sent markets around the world reeling yesterday, as the soothing effects of the Eurozone’s $143 billion bailout package wore off after just one business day. If Greece falls, and then perhaps Portugal, will we be looking at the sort of global paralysis that set in when the Bear Stearns domino hit the Lehman Brothers domino, which hit Merrill Lynch, which hit American International Group, ad infinitum? …

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Controlling The Weather — Or Not

November 20, 2009

In China, the government controls just about everything, possibly including the weather. After Beijing was hit with a record snowfall last week, an unidentified official from the Beijing Weather Modification Office said the government was responsible. The Office also took credit for an earlier snowfall this autumn. Zhang Qiang, director of the Weather Modification Office, said that the 16 million tons of snow that fell on the city Oct. 31 …

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Western Leaders Stand Together, Alone

September 28, 2009

The leaders of the United States, France and Britain wanted to show strength and resolve Friday as they denounced Iran’s belated disclosure that it is building a second nuclear fuel enrichment facility. Instead, they showed just how isolated the Western industrial democracies have become. There were 20 prominent heads of state in Pittsburgh that morning, gathered for the G-20 economic summit. President Obama, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister …

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