Monthly Archives: January 2013
French Kissing Mali
With the news that French forces have retaken not only Gao but Timbuktu, a colleague asked me this morning if I was surprised by the speed of French success. Here, in essence, is what I answered. No, I’m not at … Continue reading
Why Your Taxes Just Went up after the Obama Administration Said They Wouldn’t
Last week I erred by identifying the now-rescinded FICA tax cut from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent as part of the Bush-era tax cuts; it wasn’t. A reader pointed out that this was a 2010 Obama Administration decision, part of the broader … Continue reading
What the Algerian Attack Was Really About: Algeria
Over the past week or so, I have had recourse to critique the American mainstream, elite press for not doing justice to the situation in the Sahel on behalf of their readers. Over the past few days, the Algerian angle … Continue reading
Flogging Mali Again (and the Attack in Algeria too)
When I wrote about the situation in Mali a couple of days ago, little did I know just how much get-up-and-go this story would acquire. In just about fifty hours, from the time I left off writing on Tuesday to … Continue reading
Flogging Mali
As often happens, my colleague Walter Russell Mead, with his team of intrepid assistants ever at the ready, has beaten me into print—or electrons, as the case may be—over what is going on in Mali. He takes his cue from … Continue reading
What’s Wrong and How to Fix It, Part 7: Health Care
We must fix the health care system (and no, folks, we have not already done that). If we can get the plutocrats back on their heels by cordoning off the impact of television on our moneyed politics, reforming the banking/financial … Continue reading
The Khedive’s Revenge? A Lesson of Indebtedness and Sovereignty
When, on Tuesday morning, I finished reading David Brooks’s column in the New York Times, I scribbled two words at the bottom of the newsprint. First let’s hear how his typically excellent column, this one on the nature and scope … Continue reading
What’s Wrong and How to Fix It, Part 6: Tax Reform
We must get rid of the IRS and the present tax system that goes with it. Next to money-leaking corporate and union lobbyists paying for politicians’ political ads and the inside-baseball influence of financial-sector plutocrats, nothing tilts the playing field … Continue reading
