From the medieval ‘Song of Roland’ to a novel about human cloning—and a lot of greatness in between. Last year’s big literary ruckus in France, which pitted President Nicolas Sarkozy against fans of the 17th-century novel “The Princess of Clèves,” served as a reminder that classic story-telling can still raise pulses. Mr. Sarkozy’s proposal to [...]
Archive for March, 2010
Literary Liaisons
Posted in Literature on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
About That Playboy in My Drawer . . .
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
If America wants to tilt the balance of Muslim sentiment in its favor, it needs to stand up for its principles, its liberties and its friends—Israel, Playboy and Lady Gaga included. It’s time to make a personal and professional admission: I keep a copy of the Feb. 2007 issue of Playboy in a desk drawer [...]
A Second Big Bang In Geneva?
Posted in Physical sciences on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
The Large Hadron Collider could unlock the secrets of genesis. Champagne bottles were popped Tuesday in Geneva where the largest science machine ever built finally began to smash subatomic particles together. After 16 years—and an accident that crippled the machine a year and a half ago—the Large Hadron Collider successfully smashed two beams of protons [...]
Would the Founders Love ObamaCare?
Posted in Editorials and opinion on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
The resistance to ObamaCare is about a lot more than the 10th Amendment. The left-wing critics are right: The rage is not about health care. They are also right that similar complaints about big government were heard during the New Deal and the Great Society, and the sky didn’t fall. But what if this time [...]
Trouble by the Spoonful
Posted in History on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
The world’s favorite sweetener was once at the heart of the slave trade. Your Java Chip Frappucino at Starbucks will never taste quite the same after you’ve read Elizabeth Abbott’s “Sugar,” a sprawling, often fascinating, sometimes annoying history of the world’s favorite sweetener. If you always wanted to know what kind of dessert chefs served [...]
Iran Sanctions Are Failing. What’s Next?
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion, Politics, tagged Iran on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
Has the U.S. abandoned plans to target the Iranian regime’s access to banking and credit and to isolate Iranian air and shipping transport? While recent reports to that effect have been strenuously denied by the administration, it has become clear that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s promise of “crippling sanctions” and President Barack Obama’s “aggressive” [...]
Where the Tea Partiers Should Go From Here
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
Five commitments that could make a difference this fall. Democrats are taking aim at the tea party movement. In a recent fund-raising email, the Democratic National Committee called those who attend tea party events “narrow minded . . . nut jobs” and “vile two-bit wing-nuts.” Democratic leaders routinely denigrate tea party participants and President Barack [...]
Chávez’s Gag Orders
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics, tagged Venezuela on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
It’s a crime to criticize El Jefe. ‘It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once,” wrote 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume. “Slavery has so frightful an aspect to men accustomed to freedom that it must steal in upon them by degrees and must disguise itself in a thousand shapes in [...]
The ObamaCare Writedowns—II
Posted in Economy and business, Editorials and opinion, Health on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
Democrats blame a vast CEO conspiracy. So the wave of corporate writedowns—led by AT&T’s $1 billion—isn’t caused by ObamaCare after all. The White House claims CEOs are reducing the value of their companies and returns for shareholders merely out of political pique. A White House staffer told the American Spectator that “These are Republican CEOs [...]
The Demons of Pope Benedict XVI
Posted in Religion on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
Stories of abuse in the Catholic Church have dominated headlines in Germany in recent weeks, following similar scandals in the US and Ireland. Victims from other countries throughout Europe have likewise begun to come forward recently. The case of an American priest who abused deaf children for years has shaken the Vatican. Detailed information about [...]
Evolving Sexual Tensions
Posted in Biological sciences on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
The female sage-grouse, left, and her decorative male counterpart. Males and females are different. This is so obvious that, at first, it hardly seems worth pointing out. But in fact, it is remarkable. It is also the cause of a profound sexual tension. The problem is, often, the pressures on males and females are [...]
China Convicts Itself
Posted in Computers, Editorials and opinion, tagged China on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
Beijing needs to commit to the global economy China tactfully reminds the world every once in a while that its specialty is masquerading weakness as strength. In convicting iron-ore salesman and naturalized Australian citizen Stern Hu of bribery and stealing commercial secrets this week, China passed a verdict sure to frighten but not a verdict [...]
Sarkozy Searches for Friendship with Obama that Has Eluded Him
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics, tagged Sarkozy on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
L’Americain in Washington Nicolas Sarkozy: The French president during his speech on Monday to American students at New York’s Columbia University With his power wobbling at home, the timing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Washington couldn’t be better. The French president’s meeting with Barack Obama will provide exactly the images he needs in France. [...]
‘Berlusconi’s Only Political Project Is Himself’
Posted in Politics, tagged Berlusconi on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
Silvio Berlusconi on the campaign trial. Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right coalition emerged victorious after regional elections in Italy this week. However, most German papers argue that this success has less to do with the prime minister himself than it does with the increasing strength of his ally, the anti-immigrant Northern League. Many on the Italian left [...]
Wishing Doesn’t Make It Law
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Law on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
When noncitizens are convicted of aggravated felonies, federal law makes it relatively easy to remove them from the country — and it should. But the law is not a weapon for overzealous immigration officials who want to deny immigrants fair deportation hearings. The Supreme Court hears arguments on Wednesday about the removal of one such [...]
Springtime for Arms Control
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
A new START with Russia, but the same old proliferation. The second “T” in START, the nuclear arms deal President Obama struck with the Russians late last week, stands for “Treaty.” That means two-thirds of the Senate is obliged to sign off on the accord. The U.S. would benefit from a full and close Senate [...]
Genetic shock
Posted in Law on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
A surprising court ruling in America may loosen the drug industry’s grip on important genes PERSONALISED medicine has proved an elusive dream. Since the decoding of the human genome, biotechnology companies have claimed that by matching a person’s genetic make-up with specialised treatments, they can tailor drugs to maximise benefits and minimise side effects. Alas, [...]
The party’s over for RNC head Michael Steele
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
What a difference $2,000 in a lesbian bondage strip club makes. Then again, the latest Republican National Committee scandalita (Press three for Spanglish: “Small scandal”) is, alas, just that — the latest in a string of problems plaguing the RNC when it should be stocking champagne for November. Who are these goofballs? The responsible committee [...]
This Time We Really Mean It
Posted in Conflicts and wars, Editorials and opinion, Politics, tagged Afghanistan on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
This newspaper carried a very troubling article on the front page on Monday. It detailed how President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan had invited Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to Kabul — in order to stick a thumb in the eye of the Obama administration — after the White House had rescinded an invitation to Mr. Karzai [...]
Barack The Good
Posted in Editorials and opinion, Politics on March 31, 2010 | Comments Off
The big government liberalism that Mr. Obama uses to make himself history-making also alienates him in the center-right America of today. It has to be acknowledged that, in his battle for health-care reform, President Obama has shown real presidential mettle. He did what it took to win his way. He put every ounce of his [...]
In Therapy, Cellphones Ring True
Posted in Health on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
Though the interruption may be jarring, I rather welcome the twang of bluegrass or the toll of church bells coming from a patient’s cellphone during a psychotherapy session. Here’s why. A psychiatrist’s office is a place for confidences, so I have taken care to make it a private space. My consulting room is separated from [...]
Tales From Inner Space
Posted in Literature on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
The Stories of Ray Bradbury”—a 1,112-page Everyman’s Library anthology to be published April 6, a few months ahead of its author’s 90th birthday on Aug. 22—is filled with fictional wonders. Among them: time-travelers who take refuge from a fearful future in an anxious past; a children’s playroom where the videotronic lions have real teeth; an [...]
The Claim: Eat Six Small Meals a Day Instead of Three Big Ones
Posted in Health on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
The notion behind eating smaller, more frequent meals is simple: spreading out one’s daily calories over six meals stimulates the metabolism, keeping it going at a faster pace and thereby burning more calories. Some studies have found modest health benefits to eating smaller meals, but often the research involved extremes, like comparing the effects of [...]
Forsaking ‘Authenticity’
Posted in Arts and Entertainment on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
There was a time when any self-respecting recording of early music advertised itself as “authentic.” Concerts of medieval or Renaissance music were exercises in time travel, with “historically informed” performances on “period instruments” promising to take the listener back to the way music sounded half a millennium ago, complete with quaint tunings and archaic pronunciations [...]
Deciding the Arctic’s Future Behind Closed Doors
Posted in Energy and Environment, tagged Arctic on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
The future of the Arctic is the subject of Monday talks in Canada. Diplomats from Finland, Iceland and Sweden are upset; indigenous groups are furious. Five countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are meeting behind closed doors on Monday to discuss the region’s future. Many of those who have interests in the Arctic have not been [...]
Let the Sun Shine In
Posted in Literature on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
Whether or not the planet needs saving, sometimes scientists do. You ever see those old film clips of the early days of airplane flight? Wild contraptions of mismatched parts, flapping and shuddering as they stumble down the runway toward a cliff’s edge. Bird men who want to fly like swallows, plummeting to earth like turkeys. [...]
When Your Looks Take Over Your Life
Posted in Health on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
Is there a part of you that you hate to look at and perhaps try to hide from others? Do you glance at your image in distress whenever you pass a reflective surface? Many of us are embarrassed by or dissatisfied with some body part or other. I recall that from about age 11 through [...]
After Mating, Male Pipefish Get Choosy
Posted in Natural sciences on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
Researchers found that male Gulf pipefish preferred to carry eggs for attractive females. Pipefish, like seahorses and a few other related fishes, are unusual in that it’s the male that gets pregnant. The female deposits eggs in a pouch in the male’s body, where they are fertilized and protected and receive nutrients as they develop. [...]
Board Members of Top German School Resign
Posted in Law, tagged Germany on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
Abuse Scandal Widens Germany’s idyllic Odenwaldschule: Thirty-three pupils were allegedly abused by eight teachers between 1966 and 1991. Most of the governors of the German Odenwaldschule boarding school, which is no religious affiliation, resigned over the weekend following allegations that teachers sexually abused pupils between 1966 and 1991. The principal has promised a full investigation. [...]
The Rules in China
Posted in Economy and business, Law, tagged China on March 30, 2010 | Comments Off
After a Chinese court sentenced four executives of Australian mining company Rio Tinto to lengthy prison terms for bribery and stealing commercial secrets yesterday, Canberra was quick to respond. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith pointedly stated, “As China emerges into the global economy, the international business community needs to understand with certainty what the rules are [...]
