Reports that the public is losing “faith in science” have caused a lot of chin stroking, head wagging and even some and finger pointing among the intelligentsia — especially since the studies point to a particularly sharp decline among conservatives.Via Meadia isn’t so sure all this is on the right; the last time we looked, […]

The $125 billion Spanish bank bailout announced this weekend is more of the same: another temporary dose of pain meds that (we hope) prevents a market meltdown for a while but does not address the underlying conditions.Fair enough, in a way; Via Meadia has no desire to see a full blown European financial panic and […]

The American left as we have come to know it suffered a devastating blow in Wisconsin last night. The organized heart of the left gave everything it had to the fight against Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker: heart, shoe leather, wallet and soul. The left picked this fight, on the issue and in the place of […]

The Middle East is looking pretty dismal for the Obama administration right now. That peace process he was going to revive between Israelis and Palestinians? No US president since Richard Nixon has gotten less done on that front. The Arab Spring that was going to open a new era in US-Arab relations and turn power […]

I should have been more suspicious. There’s a big birthday looming on the Mead calendar; June 12,1952 saw my squalling and undignified entrance into the portion of this vale of tears known as the State of South Carolina.But I strolled down to Smith and Wollensky last night without a care in the world, expecting a […]

Ever since the struggle in Syria began, the Obama administration has consistently underestimated Russia’s commitment to the Assad regime. Even last week we were hearing hopeful noises from Washington about possible moves on the issue in Moscow.The roots of Russia’s support for Butcher Assad go deep. This is much more than nostalgia for Russia’s last […]

As the British celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s sixty years on the throne, Americans congratulate them and share the celebratory moment. She isn’t, thank goodness, our queen, but she is a symbol of some enduring British qualities and accomplishments that are worth remembering and celebrating at a time like this.This year Queen Elizabeth passes George III […]

Up until now, the Europeans have responded to the existential crisis of their currency union with a series of temporary measures: like a doctor treating cancer with painkillers. The pain goes away for a while, but the underlying condition gets worse.While we should never underestimate the capacity of European bureaucrats to fudge a decision, there […]

Good news from the Metropolitan Opera, sort of.In a moment of stark idiocy, the powers that be at the Metropolitan Opera decreed that Opera News, a magazine published by the Met and sent to its patrons and donors, would no longer run reviews of opera productions at the Met.The problem, apparently, was that some reviews […]

It may be a holiday weekend in the United States and much of Europe (where the Monday after the feast of Pentecost is often celebrated as a holiday), but the world’s politicians, central bankers and financiers are too busy quaking in their boots to bask in the sun.The problem is Spain, which dropped two stink […]