Outside the Beltway

I must confess to having only paid peripheral attention at first, but it is clear that there is a major story here that requires attention.

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the arrogant French aristocrat whose career was ended by a courageous chambermaid, shedding light on a corrupt social system? A funny thing happened on the way to the slammer.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, says fundamentalist Christians are a far bigger problem than Muslims. And, no, he’s not anti-religion.

My latest piece for The Atlantic, “Is the U.S.-European Relationship Really in Decline?” is posted.

Turkey has had elections, and the ruling AKP has retained a majority in parliament. The next major issue appears to be constitutional reform.

Despite what appear to be the fond hope of European central bankers that it will just all go away, something needs to be done. But what?

Holland is going to make it harder for tourists to smoke marijuana.

Former Serbian commander Ratko Mladic has been arrested for alleged war crimes committed in the 1990s.

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

Ben Stein seems to have been out to lunch when he wrote his column about Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Some French politicians and intellectuals seem offended that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being treated like a common criminal.

The free world rallied around the United States after the 9/11 attacks–but not all back the killing of the man who ordered it.

Britain’s Prince William marries Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, giving her a ring of Welsh gold.

Singing the 1974 Carl Douglas classic “Kung Fu Fighting” can get you arrested in England.

France’s top court refused to allow French citizenship for 10-year-old twin girls born to a surrogate mother in the United States.

Former French president Jacques Chirac is being tried on corruption charges stemming from misconduct as mayor of Paris.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum thinks we’ve been too hard on the Crusaders.

Frank Jacobs explains how “in German, you can tell with some degree of certainty which general area someone hails from by the way they tell the time at quarter past ten.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made public documents which confirm his predecessors role in the release of the man convicted of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103.

A new Wikileaks revelation indicates that the U.S. may have paid a heavy price to get a deal on New START.

European subsidies have given Airbus a competitive advantage over America’s Boeing in commercial aircraft salesboein. The reverse is true on military aircraft.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was greeted with protests from some EU parliamentarians when he addressed them as its rotating president of the European Council.

Is the West’s string of luck about to end?

Joe Ratzinger, the future pope, lobbied hard against Turkey’s membership in the EU.