Politics & Current Affairs

The FBI today released the 423-page file they had kept over the years on left-wing historian Howard Zinn, who died in January. When Zinn sat for an interview with Big […]

Steve Chapman attends a National Organization for Marriage speech and sees how defenders of traditional marriage hope to use their raucous critics to their own advantage.

“The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system,” says The Boston Globe. The state’s electoral votes would follow the national popular vote.

“We never know the source of the leak,” Julian Assange assured a London audience today at the Frontline Club. The uniquely charismatic WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief went on: “We could make a […]

When, after thirty years of authoritarian rule, a young dissident and perennial thorn in the side of the Establishment, Mohammed Nasheed won the first free and fair election in the Maldives in […]

In June 2009 the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey bill to reduce carbon emissions through a series of cap-and-trade regulations.  The news this week that the Senate version of […]

In 2008, journalist Jere Van Dyk crossed the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan. An expert on the history and culture of the region, Van Dyk had lived with the Mujahideen […]

“In many ways, WikiLeaks’ 92,000 Afghanistan documents are no Pentagon Papers.” The Christian Science Monitor says the leaked documents confirm already-available information.

Nobel Laureate Gary Becker and Judge Richard Posner oppose the extension of unemployment benefits. Six months compensation is not enough, says Becker, but two years is too long.

The Guardian condenses the more than 90,000 intelligence documents leaked out of the Pentagon concerning the war in Afghanistan; Wikileaks published the documents online.

U.S. human rights diplomacy is usually code for economic policy, says The Economist’s Babbage blog. So why can’t the State Department openly talk about development as a worthwhile goal?

“Biofuels have always sounded better during the Iowa caucuses than they have performed in reality.” The Chicago Tribune on why federal ethanol subsidies may be on the chopping block.

Bioethicist Jacob Appel believes that Washington should fortify all of our drinking water with trace amounts of lithium, which has been show to decrease suicides.

I am taking a couple of weeks off. But while I’m away, I thought I’d share with you some of the what I consider to be this year’s essential readings […]

“U.S. policymakers should find every available means over the next decade to ensure that American economic and military power remains indispensable to China’s rise.”

“MIT political scientists demonstrate how much candidate appearances affect election outcomes, globally.” Good looks seem to win out across cultures with very different histories.

I am taking a couple of weeks off. But while I’m away, I thought I’d share with you some of the what I consider to be this year’s essential readings […]

Are CEOs rewarded more for their perceived success or the success of their companies? In his recent Big Think interview, biographer T.J. Stiles says robber barons like Cornelius Vanderbilt may […]

A new history of voting through the ages is timely, says The New Yorker, as the U.K. prepares for electoral reform while the U.S. holds out against newer and fairer electoral methods.

“How can the United States legitimately claim the right to promote democracy and human rights at the same time that, at home, it is becoming somewhat less democratic, and a great deal less just?”

Did Obama abuse the power of the Presidency when he told BP to create a $20 billion escrow account? “Yes,” say Nobel Laureate Gary Becker and Judge Richard Posner at the U of Chicago.

From Mel Brooks to Woody Allen to Jackie Mason to Sarah Silverman to Sacha Baron Cohen, Jewish comedians have a long and celebrated history of telling jokes about their own […]

“The Deepwater Horizon leak has been capped and the president is taking a vacation. Let’s repeal the oil spill and start all over.” Gail Collins delivers some biting satire in her Saturday column.

Unsettling news about Afghanistan today: the Army released its suicide data for the month of June. The deaths of 21 active soldiers and 11 reserve soldiers are being counted as suicides, […]

A story in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine focuses largely on Jared Cohen, who at 28 is the youngest member of the State Department’s policy planning staff. He and […]

“Human rights advocates fear that political reconciliation with the Taliban could erase the fragile progress made in improving the situation of Afghan women over the past nine years.”

“China’s astonishing urbanization could bring a new era of supercities, but its cultural norms probably won’t eclipse American dominance.” The foreign minister of Singapore on the rising state.

Yesterday the N.A.A.C.P. approved a resolution censuring the Tea Party movement for racism within its ranks. Cited in the resolution were “signs and posters intended to degrade people of color […]

France’s lower house of Parliament voted yesterday to ban the wearing of veils that cover the face in public places. Aimed at the burqas worn by Muslim women, the legislation […]

Here are some of the what I consider to be this year’s essential rnreadings on politics. In particular, today I want to look at some of the crucial rnissues that underlie domestic politics in America.