This health care article by Robert Samuelson is something every young person in America should read.  They won’t of course; young people don’t pay serious attention to politics, and that is one of the reasons that American social policy is increasingly rigged against them.  One of Samuelson’s key points is that the House bill “mandates […]

While flying back from the Aspen conference in Italy I came down with my second cold in a month.  In honor of that, and of this generally dark season, I offer another occasional poem, this one by Ezra Pound. “Ancient Music” Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm, Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how […]

Over at the Arena on Politico.com they asked me to put in my two cents about the purloined emails from the global warming scientists.I did; this could unfortunately be one of the stories of the year. Read it below:When the ‘climategate’ story broke, I doubted that it would ultimately amount to much. Scientists are as […]

The signs are that President Obama is nearing an inflection point in foreign policy: a point where perceptions crystallize one way or the other.  Either he is a cool and calm genius, restoring order to an American foreign policy in crisis, or he is a well-intentioned bumbler, Jimmy Carter II.  Peggy Noonan, not surprisingly, makes […]

As I sit here courtesy of the Aspen Institute Italy at the official Team Mead Remote Roman Blogging Facility at the Parco dei Principi hotel, I can see the dome of St. Peter’s from my balcony beyond the Borghese Gardens overlooking the Old City.  Nice work if you can get it, although after almost two […]

Not surprisingly for Thanksgiving Day, I’ve got Turkey on my mind.It’s not just me; Turkey could become a major issue in US-European relations.  I heard rumors in Berlin that President Obama surprised German Chancellor Angela Merkel by asking her why admitting Turkey into the EU is such a big deal for Germans.Mustafa Akyol has just […]

My friend Steve Clemons has one of the most interesting blogs around; today I think he went off the rails with a post on a New York City $100 million stimulus project that has gone to a Chinese firm.  Even when he’s wrong, Steve is interesting.  This time, he’s very wrong — and wrong in […]

I’m finishing up a quick visit to Germany after the Turkey trip.  I stopped off in Hamburg to see Joe Joffe, another member of TAI’s editorial board, and met a group of his colleagues at Die Zeit.The short take: Obama remains very popular in Germany, but people are less sure about America.  The question here […]

Mars Bluff is a small town outside Florence, South Carolina, the town where all four of my grandparents lived for many years.  About fifty years ago it had its 15 minutes of fame when an atomic bomb fell out of an Air Force plane and exploded near the home of one Walter Gregg, injuring some […]

My recent trip to Turkey was an adventure in public diplomacy; I was in the country at the request of the State Department.  US diplomats abroad invite a variety of Americans to appear before foreign audiences for anything from jazz concerts and poetry readings to scientific presentations and talks on current events.  Wisely, the embassy […]