Category: world
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A New Environmentalism?
As you probably know by now, Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize last week, sharing the medal and the money with the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. This seems to have triggered some new press for consideration of the idea of what it means to be an environmentalist. Though few dispute the idea that […]
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OPW: John Burns on Iraq
On today’s “Other People’s Words,” John F. Burns’s–former Baghdad Bureau chief for the New York Times–on the way forward in Iraq. This quote is from an absolutely excellent conversation he had Monday with Charlie Rose. If you have the time (and bandwidth), I would recommend that you watch the entire thing. I can understand why […]
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Being Under Attack: War, Genocide, Terrorism & Nuclear Proliferation
I’m fairly certain that the most dangerous people in the world are those that nihilistically believe that their group–especially one they find essential to their identity–is under attack. Many relatively powerless people with such fears, rational or otherwise, resort to terrorism. Having no ability to defend their group through conventional warfare, they strike anything and […]
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OPW: “To My Yugoslavian In-Laws”
On today’s “Other People’s Words,” a poem about people, places, and distance. Debra Gingrich’s “To My Yugoslavian In-Laws” is about all that we have in common, and a few of the things we don’t. If we could speak, I would tell you that we have trees here too, and rivers. I know how to hammer […]
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The Trouble with Myanmar
It would be easy to say that the trouble with Myanmar–Burma if you’re a traditionalist, rebel, or new arrival from the 1990s–is that it’s ruled by an exceptionally undemocratic junta, which is willing to its exploit its citizens, even the clergy, and considers force a perfectly reasonable option in the face of dissent. And indeed, […]
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OPW: The Economist on Sputnik’s Legacy
Rarely are newsmagazines brilliantly written and filled with breathtakingly innovative ideas. For all I know, this excerpt from this week’s The Economist doesn’t break with that rule–I’m not well versed in the philosophy of space. Regardless, something in the magazine’s analysis of the legacy of Sputnik–which was launched on October 4, 1957–really struck a chord, […]
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Good to Know: What is microlending?
Microlending–or microcredit–has gotten more and more press recently, both good and bad. In the simplest terms, microlending is the practice of making small and unconventionally secured loans to those generally outside the banking system. That is: for people without collateral, a credit history, or demonstrable employment, it’s a way that they can get additional money […]
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Global Warming Pessimists
In a recent piece, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman identified himself as a global warming skeptic. But before you go away thinking that a liberal-leaning columnist at the Times actually doubts that global warming is occurring, we should clarify. In the column, Mr Friedman discusses his recent visits to Doha and Dalian, mentioning his […]
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Will the Republican Platform Change?
In Monday’s review of The Moral Center, I mentioned that David Callahan had offered his moderate platform for changing America to either Democrats of a third party. It wasn’t until after I hit “Publish” that I considered the possibility that the platform could be good for the ailing Republicans. But after some consideration, I decided […]
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Did the World Change on September 11?
Yesterday, as you’re no doubt aware, was the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that made America notice radical Islam. If our President had been one for rhetorical flourishes, he may have reminded us that it was a day “that will live in infamy.” If there is another day where America’s world changed, the only […]