There’s a lot in a name. Just ask the so-called pinkos from the 1950s, or any ethnic group denigrated with a nasty epithet. In our Medicare debate, the role of invective has been foisted upon the word “voucher.” If we want to get our government’s finances under control, it’s time we rehabilitated it. The use of the V-word screams “far right wing.” Its public utterance has become so dangerous that

For all the excitement about the twilight of the dictators, only two ― Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia ― have been officially knocked over since the start of the so-called Arab Spring six months ago. It isn’t even clear whether that count will reach three. Yemeni strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh is in neighboring Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after a bomb in his own

WASHINGTON ― The botched defection several months ago of Musa Kusa, Libya’s former foreign minister, illustrates the uncertain strategy that has plagued the NATO campaign against Col. Moammar Gadhafi. But even so, the Gadhafi regime is feeling enough pressure to send an emissary to Washington this week to explore a possible negotiated settlement. Kusa, a prominent member of Gadhafi’s inner circle,

To ensure its control over the government, the Pakistan army has always exaggerated the threats from India, often referred to as the No. 1 enemy. It has been able to secure billions of dollars from the U.S. ostensibly in the fight against terror. The Pakistani government has followed the policy of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. Although an ally of the U.S. in its fight against g

JAKARTA ― The Association of Southeast Asian Nations stands at a defining moment. Its member states are constantly being evaluated for their economic potential and desirability as a market for investments, goods, and services. At the same time, their effort to forge a community free from external intervention is shaping a new regional order based on common security and shared prosperity.In geopoli

A recent survey on the trends of corruption in the Korean public sector has found that 2010 was the worst year since 2000 in terms of businessmen’s perception of corruption among high-ranking government officials. According to the Korea Institute of Public Administration, 86.5 percent of the respondents said corruption was serious among senior public officials last year, the highest level since it

A parliamentary bid for judicial reform appears to have foundered in the face of stiff opposition from prosecutors, judges and the presidential office. The special parliamentary committee that has grappled with the tough task of reforming the judicial system since February last year has decided to stop work this month, leaving most of the main issues on its agenda unresolved.The committee reached

Just when we thought we’d seen everything from Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Thai prime minister has managed to clone himself. The genetic copy in question is Thaksin’s younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who is running for his old job. If you think this sounds like the political version of a cheesy horror film, imagine how Thailand’s 68 million people feel. They’ve seen this one before and it d

OXFORD ― Can moral judgments be true or false? Or is ethics, at bottom, a purely subjective matter, for individuals to choose, or perhaps relative to the culture of the society in which one lives? We might have just found out the answer.Among philosophers, the view that moral judgments state objective truths has been out of fashion since the 1930s, when logical positivists asserted that, because t

“As a sensitive day known to all fell in this week, many brothers and sisters began to be restricted at home,” report the leaders of the Shouwang congregation, one of the largest unauthorized “house churches” in Beijing. “Some were told to report at their respective local police stations or neighborhood committees” that answer to the communist government.The “sensitive day” is June 4, the annivers

For more than 30 years Republicans have won elections by promising to cut middle-class taxes, or at least to stop middle-class tax increases. No domestic issue has been as reliable a vote-winner. But now Republicans are in a bind. The huge deficit makes tax-cut promises seem impractical. They also worry that cutting middle-class taxes will leave high earners paying an even larger share of income t

Celebrated in June 2009 as a model of nonviolent protest against autocracy, the Iranian Green Movement has lost much of its strength and mobilizing capacity inside Iran while the Arab Spring has toppled regimes across the region.In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak is under arrest. But in Iran, the two defeated candidates in the disputed presidential elections of June 2009 who played such an important role in

Buy a farm house in the middle of nowhere, pick up a gun or two, prepare for hyperinflation and brace for a catastrophic bankruptcy. Thirty minutes with hedge-fund manager J. Kyle Bass has you wanting to do all of the above. The head of Dallas-based Hayman Advisors LP isn’t thinking about Greece or even Spain but Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy. He says his bet against Japanese government

MADRID ― Just five months ago, Osama bin Laden was alive, Hosni Mubarak was firmly in control in Egypt, and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali ruled Tunisia with an iron hand. Today, popular rebellion and political change have spread throughout the region. We have witnessed brutal repression of protests in Syria and Yemen, Saudi troops crossing into Bahrain, and an ongoing battle for Libya.For Europe, the “A

How was Anthony Weiner so easily able to find such willing sexting partners?Even conceding that Weiner’s pecs were pretty impressive when he took off his shirt, this is nevertheless the embodiment of the geeky guy we all grew up with who struggled with girls. Sure, his quick thinking and tart tongue probably earned him a few points with ladies, but not to a level that could account for the online

No other president has invested as much political capital in a national development program.This assessment by Danareksa Research Institute’s chief economist Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa of a new economic blueprint launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on May 27 says it all.Since his reelection in 2009, Yudhoyono has tried various means to stimulate economic growth by improving the performance of

Hope isn’t a strategy. But it was a major part of NATO’s decision to launch an air war against Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi almost three months ago.Back in March, when the bombing began, the leaders of France, Britain and the United States hoped Gadhafi’s regime would shatter under the shock and awe of modern munitions, and that Libyan military officers would take the advice of their European counterpa

Former Agriculture-Forestry Minister Im Sang-gyu should have secured a place in the annals of Korean bureaucracy as a model public administrator, if only he had a little more courage to escape the temptation of corruption. He called it “the devil’s snare” in his suicide note found Monday. Suicide is not rare in this country. But in most corruption scandals, the accused bureaucrats or politicians e

If the political atmosphere between China and North Korea may at times be changeable, the two neighboring countries have been strengthening their economic cooperation steadily and substantially, particularly across the Tumen River. Some of the South Korean media saw political significance in the postponement of the official launches of the Hwanggeumpyeong and Hunchun-Raseon projects last month, bu

Republicans and Democrats alike need a significant deficit-reduction package. It is increasingly elusive. President Barack Obama and his congressional allies face a sputtering economic recovery that signals an inhospitable election environment next year, a bad situation getting worse. They need an infusion of confidence that most analysts say a serious debt deal would achieve. Republicans need to