Amid new images of starving Africans we are told the United Nations is using a word it rarely utters—famine. It is the next supposedly global crisis, though no one ever explains ...

ONBOARD S/Y BUSHIDO—According to C. M. Bowra, gold had a divine association with the Ancient Greeks and possessed more than a symbolic value. When Pindar wished to stress ...

Let’s take it as a given that we’re heading into an age of austerity. This may not be the case. There is no certainty in human affairs. The secret of tabletop fusion ...

The decision by Standard & Poor’s to strip the United States of its AAA credit rating, for the first time, has triggered a barrage of catcalls against the umpire from ...

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines the word “discriminate” as a transitive verb meaning “to mark or perceive the distinguishing or peculiar features of…to make ...

China’s rating agency has just downgraded the US credit rating from A+ to A, citing America’s inability to reduce its deficit by four trillion dollars over five years. A ...

It is summer in the city and the smell of trash rises from the hot streets. There is trash on the sidewalks, trash in the bookstores, and trash in the movie theaters. It is, as it ...

Mocked by The Wall Street Journal and Sen. John McCain as the little people of the “Lord of the Rings” books, the Tea Party “Hobbits” are indeed returning ...

As the international embarrassment known as the American debt-ceiling debate winds down and Congress decides on how much more they should rob unborn Peters to cover for deadbeat ...

ONBOARD S/Y BUSHIDO—The thickly pined forested hills form a perfect backdrop to the not-so-wine-dark waters off the Peloponnese. Soft greens and blues are Edward Hopper ...

The once-mighty industrial giant called America, this formerly muscle-bound striding imperial colossus, these days more resembles an emaciated Gulliver lying dead in a weed-choked ...

Pretty much everything any politician says about education makes me want to go up to whoever said it, grab him by the suit-jacket lapels, and shake him forcefully up and down ...

In his new book On China, Henry Kissinger looks at what makes China what it is. In his new book The Origins of Political Order, Francis Fukuyama attempts to explain why China is ...

Though President Obama has run rings about the Republican Party in the debt-ceiling debate, that party can yet emerge victorious, if it will stick to its guns. Clearly, the ...

Protesters from the it’s-so-fun-to-wreak-havoc-together outfit “No Justice, No BART” disrupted BART trains’ operation in several San Francisco stations the other day, to ...

The man in the Apple store lied to me. He LIED TO ME. But then, I knew he would. I hate the Apple Store. My kids, of course, love it. The stuff in there is so sleek, so stylish, ...