It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race ― black ― last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads.The president also bucked a trend. Last month, the Census Bureau announced that th

In a recent interview with Newsweek magazine, former CIA lawyer John Rizzo spoke with surprising candor about the CIA’s “targeted killing” program. He discussed the scope of the program (about 30 people are on the “hit list” at any given time), the process by which the CIA selects its targets (Rizzo was “the one who signed off”) and the methods the CIA uses to eliminate them (“The Predator is the

Not so long ago, the way to convey that something was extreme was to simply call it extreme (“X” for short.) There were extreme sports (think bungee jumping), extreme tourism (think traveling in order to bungee jump) and, of course, the “Extreme Makeover” television franchise, which took self-improvement and home improvement to new levels by throwing in hefty doses of plastic surgery and new const

PARIS ― Rarely does a man in the mold of Muhammad Yunus come along who has devoted his life to the least fortunate among us.Instead of living the peaceful and comfortable life he could have had, he chose to engage in a crusade against poverty through the use of micocredit that has succeeded far beyond any expectations.Yet, as happens so often in history, no man seems to be a prophet in his own cou

CAIRO ― The political battle for Egypt’s future began in earnest last month when the country’s ruling military council held a referendum to approve its amendments to the constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood, backing the military, easily won that first test of Egypt’s new democracy, with 77 percent of the public supporting their recommended vote of “yes.” But the secular Tahrir Square revolutionari

At a time when teachers and their unions are under fire across the nation, my eldest daughter just had a much-anticipated interview with Teach for America. She will graduate from college in May and hopes to be a teacher in the fall.She was worried that I’d be disappointed she didn’t feel a desire for graduate school.But I was thrilled. Since graduating from college in 1984, I’ve taught GED (Genera

NEW YORK ― A prediction three months ago that popular protests would soon topple a dictatorship in Tunisia, sweep Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt, provoke civil war in Muammar el-Gadhafi’s Libya, and rattle regimes from Morocco to Yemen would have drawn serious skepticism. We knew that the tinder was dry, but we could never know how or when, exactly, it would combust. Now that it has, how far ca

Bundang B in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, has been a conservative electoral district. One of Seoul’s wealthy suburbs, it has been carried by the ruling Grand National Party in the past. Is the conservative ruling party assured of another win in the April 27 parliamentary by-election?The answer is hardly, as evidenced by the latest opinion poll. The liberal Democratic Party’s chairman, Sohn Hak-kyu

The crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant does not warrant optimism. Nuclear fuel in the cores of the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 reactors is believed to have been severely damaged. In the No. 4 reactor’s storage, where spent nuclear fuel is kept, water evaporated at one point, and a hydrogen explosion released radioactive substances into the environment.The governmen

Wedge issues are the rhetorical enablers of the bitterly partisan politics that have disfigured our national conversation in recent years.They’re the controversial questions on which significant numbers of voters hold views that admit no compromise or nuanced disagreement. Candidates raise them to divide their constituents and to morally discredit their opponents. Abortion is a classic wedge issue

How worrisome are real estate bubbles for the banking system? Based upon the recent subprime and then global financial crisis, they are very worrisome indeed. For households, a house is likely to be the largest single investment for most families. For companies, real estate and fixed assets are often, other than inventory, the most important assets, especially as collateral for loans from banks. F

The fundamental problem with the current international monetary system is that the U.S. dollar is used as the key international reserve currency, which gives the U.S. central bank the “exorbitant privilege” of printing the United States’ way out of its economic difficulties.And that is exactly what it is doing. Its printing presses are running at full speed in a bid to boost the U.S. economy, rega

If a person wishes to succeed as a politician, one of the first things he needs to do is appeal to the concerns of those who have elected him into public office and convince them that he has their best interests at heart. Few can afford to ignore their concerns no matter how mundane or absurd they may appear.Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, Jr., a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives,

Boorish relatives, vengeful exes, inappropriate work attire, unsent thank-you notes ― traditional advice columnists have spent decades offering prescriptions for these gaffes.Now, thanks to social media, the Internet and any number of gadgets and innovations, we have the means to offend or upset people on an unprecedented scale. With every new technology, there are new ways to make an absolute foo

In 2009, a United Nations panel led by Richard Goldstone issued a 575-page bombshell of a report. It accused Israel of committing war crimes against the Palestinians in a three-week Gaza invasion. The Goldstone report was a diplomatic bonanza for Israel’s enemies around the world. The report was so damning that some Israeli officials stopped traveling abroad for fear they’d be arrested for war cri

The prosecutor general has 18.9 billion won earmarked for “special activities” this year ― activities related to gathering information on crime and criminal investigations. He is not required to submit receipts with his claims on the grounds that they may reveal confidential information. As such, he may be tempted to spend the money for other purposes.Given that much of the prosecutorial work must

If a first-term National Assemblyman is banned from running for reelection because of his wife’s illegal campaigning for him, what should he do? He may try to complete his tenure honorably with exemplary legislative activities and prepare to return to his original profession. Rep. Kim Choong-hwan of the Grand National Party had a different idea; he decided to rewrite the law with the support of sy

In a press briefing Monday, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon apologized to the public for translation errors in the Korean language version of the Korea-European Union Free Trade Agreement. With the Cabinet approval of a corrected version on Tuesday, the bill for the ratification of the trade pact will now be submitted to the National Assembly for the third time, an embarrassing record in the country’

Conservative Utah has bucked the national GOP trend of embracing hard-line ― and arguably inhumane ― laws meant to make states inhospitable to illegal immigrants. Two weeks ago, Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed into law a bill that will grant work permits, and a path to legal residence, to undocumented immigrants and their immediate families.And conservative Arizona, which last year passed the ant

The outpouring of goodwill from Korea in the aftermath of the unprecedented tsunami was supposed to usher in a new era for Korea and Japan’s bilateral relationship. When the Japanese ambassador personally appeared in a live interview with an anchorman on KBS about two weeks ago, his fluency in Korean, understanding of Korean culture and sincere appreciation for the assistance from here endeared hi