May 10, 2014 The kidnapping of some 200 girls in northern Nigeria has sparked world outrage. It’s a perfect media sensation: exotic locale and remarkably nasty kidnappers from a northern rebel movement, Boko Haram. I’ve long been a connoisseur of Third World nasties, starting way back in the 60’s with […]

May 3, 2014 Did anyone really think that John Kerry’s nine-month effort to produce a Palestinian mini-state would ever work? If so, they were either ignorant of the Mideast, naïve, or deeply cynical. The best one could say about Kerry’s fiasco was that it was a charade designed to show […]

April 26, 2014 Small wonder President Barack Obama’s hair is rapidly greying. Most second term presidents age rapidly from the constant pressure, tension, and need to make tough, painful decisions. This past week, Obama finally managed, after two cancellations, to get to Asia – the epicenter of his much-ballyhooed but […]