There is a puzzling paradox about Holocaust denial: those who deny it are precisely the ones who would have supported it. I couldn’t help thinking of this paradox when I heard that American university professors have recently been accused of anti-Semitism (!) for...
A RELIGION OF PEACE?
One good aspect of the holiday season was that veteran Arab-hater James Taranto, whose column "Best of the Web" runs on the Wall Street Journal's website, went on vacation, and the world was spared his unsparing hatred for all things Arab for a few blessed...
The Unresolved Problem of the United Nations
Did I just call the United Nations a problem? I suppose I did. Long ago and far away – back in the 1960s actually – the John Birch Society used to put up billboards calling for the US to get out of the UN and the UN out of the US. I understand the sentiment,...
The Empire Ruminates
I try not to sound too preachy in these columns, but having just celebrated Christmas with more of my extended family than we have been accustomed to in recent years I had to wonder in print. Jesus talked about turning the other cheek, about never returning evil for...
Merry Christmas from China
The past two days have been (yet another) excuse for Chinese to flood the streets, discos, karaoke bars, Western style bars and various plazas with Santa hats atop their heads and – for some reason – plastic hammers which are used to emphasize a "Merry...
Forget Iraq: The Real Battle Is In Turkey
All eyes are on Iraq these days, but conventional wisdom holds it's just the first step of the Bush administration's larger push to gain hegemony over the international oil and gas industry. Two factors could stand in the way of the US grand plan though: Central Asia...
Forget Iraq: The Real Battle Is In Turkey
All eyes are on Iraq these days, but conventional wisdom holds it's just the first step of the Bush administration's larger push to gain hegemony over the international oil and gas industry. Two factors could stand in the way of the US grand plan though: Central Asia...
The 12 Months of Christmas
The year that is about to end has again left the Balkans a bit worse for wear. Of course, the entire world is substantially worse for wear since the shocking attacks of September 2001, and the Empire's resulting announcement of its quest for global domination....
CHRISTMAS CARNAGE
There is something awfully weird about J.C. Penney's "Forward Command Post," a toy for kids age five and up. It's not apparent, at first sight, exactly where the weirdness is coming from. Sure, it's a battle scene, and the house is shattered, cratered with...
A Ray of Hope?
Perhaps it's the season, and a not entirely rational desire to have the birthday of the Prince of Peace be something other than a harbinger of all-out war this year. But a phone conversation with Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International...