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COMMENTARY

Aug 20, 2012

Measuring a society's value

By Takamitsu Sawa

Guan Zhong, an ancient Chinese savant, once stated that people learn to behave with good manners only when they have sufficient clothing and food.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 20, 2012

Why do American junk food giants feel the urge to force-feed us tidbit sermons on social issues?

By Petula Dvorak

Since when does serving up junk food give someone a license to preach?

COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT

Aug 19, 2012

Monster parents make matters worse for their children and teachers

By Roger Pulvers

In the West they hover and swoop. In Japan they stalk and are known to strike. We all have them and some of us have been them. And in recent years the media, both social and antisocial, have put them under the magnifying glass of criticism.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 18, 2012

U.S. religious liberty feeling the weight of so many faiths

By Michelle Boorstein

In the United States, Muslim women trying to maintain modesty should get female-only hours at the public pool, right?

COMMENTARY

Aug 18, 2012

'Extreme' choice makes Romney presidential

By George Will

When, in his speech accepting the 1964 Republican presidential nomination, Barry Goldwater said "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue," a media wit at the convention supposedly exclaimed, "Good God, Goldwater is going to run as Goldwater."...

COMMENTARY

Aug 17, 2012

Ryan invites a 'conversation'

By Robert J. Samuelson

The selection of Paul Ryan — chairman of the House Budget Committee — as Mitt Romney's vice presidential candidate has the potential to turn this dreary presidential campaign into a meaningful debate over the size and role of the federal government.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 16, 2012

Spillover could force Washington to consider how to end Syria's war

By Kenneth M. Pollack

"The beginning of wisdom," a Chinese saying goes, "is to call things by their right names." And the right name for what is happening in Syria — and has been for more than a year — is an all-out civil war.

COMMENTARY

Aug 16, 2012

Civilians sweep up in Egypt

By Gwynne Dyer

Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi's spokesman did not mince words. He said that the "retirement" of all the senior military commanders in the country represented the completion of the Egyptian revolution. And guess what? The rest of the officer corps accepted Morsi's decision.

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 16, 2012

Five myths about Obama's economic stimulus

By Michael Grunwald

President Barack Obama's February 2009 stimulus bill, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was a political disaster. It helped fuel the Republican revival of 2010 and now stars in Mitt Romney's ads. The president even stopped uttering the word "stimulus."

COMMENTARY

Aug 15, 2012

Economics of austerity don't add up

By Gregory Clark

Do Europe's budget-cutting austerity-minded planners understand simple math? They say they have to embrace austerity policies to reduce excessive national debt. But those policies inevitably cut tax revenues more than they cut spending. National debt increases rather than decreases. Worse, recovery from...

COMMENTARY

Aug 15, 2012

India and Pakistan: Come and dream with me

By Ramesh Thakur

This week (Tuesday and Wednesday), Pakistan and India are celebrating their conjoined independence days. Their rivalry has sabotaged India's tryst with destiny as a global power and Pakistan's ambition to be the leading light of the Islamic world. Will 2047 mark 100 years of solitude in bilateral relations...

COMMENTARY / World

Aug 15, 2012

Iran is not the cause of Syria's worsening crisis

By Ali Akbar Salehi

We humans often make the mistake of not learning from history, even when it is recent. Civil war in the Levant is not a thing of the distant past. With Syria descending into worsening violence, the 15-year Lebanese civil war should provide frightening lessons of what happens when the fabric of a society...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.

That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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