Voters who wanted a smaller federal government are set to lose badly in the budget deal taking shape in Washington. In exchange for tax hikes and overhyped cuts, Republicans would hand the political class a shiny new credit card and President Obama a huge political victory. Even before a deal …

It’s been 24 hours since the government of Iran announced that it has, allegedly, captured an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, (UAVs), or “drones” as the press is wont to call them, can be used for surveillance, relaying communications and some can be weaponized and called in …

This year’s overlap of Christmas and Chanukah brought startlingly different, but ultimately connected, developments overseas. In Nigeria, word of five suicide bombs by an extremist Muslim sect murdering and maiming Christians at prayer, and wiping out whole families, cast a pall on many of the faithful. Meanwhile, archaeologists working in …

Like Lindsay Lohan weeping at her sentencing, sportswriters and journalistic purists are sobbing in their beer that LeBron James has been allowed to call all the shots about his next NBA destination. “How dare he,” they moan, “hijack the league, the process, and even a TV network to selfishly control …

Probably unintentionally, WikiLeaks has done the international campaign against Iran’s nuclear program a major service by revealing the views, in their own words, of Arab leaders in the Gulf. The leaders of Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, among others, are now on the record in the public domain. …

Though the brown pelican seems to be the bird most affected by the BP oil spill, the albatross may be the most appropriate icon for the mess in the Gulf. For one is apparently hanging heavily around President Obama’s neck. Now he says he’s “furious about the whole situation” and …

Christmas arrived early this year for this brave, young ex-Muslim convert to Christianity. On Thursday, at 5 p.m., Judge Mary Goodrich in Columbus, Ohio decided that Rifqa Bary, who will turn eighteen in five days, does not have to return to her family (all of whom are here illegally from …

Columnist Michael Kinsley is looking exceptionally prescient. Last May, in an article titled, “My Inflation Nightmare” in The Atlantic Monthly, he asked “Am I crazy or is the commentariat ignoring our biggest economic threat?” Kinsley’s piece in The Atlantic Monthly anticipated a flood of articles in the world press exemplified …

The problem isn’t the full-body scans or the pat downs. What TSA is doing wrong is it is not getting the message of their mission out there. We, the American people, need to have faith in their brand… but we don’t. A brand is more than a name. For an …

The diplomatic tom-toms in Washington and Jerusalem are heralding yet another “breakthrough” in the much stalled Middle East peace process. In Jerusalem on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged his cabinet to support a one-time, 90-day extension of a freeze on Israeli settlement building on the West Bank in exchange …