Outside the Beltway

The Vatican has announced that it will recognize Palestinian statehood, but this is not going to resolve the underlying issues that prevent a Palestinian state from actually coming into existence.

Chinese analysts are telling their American counterparts that North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is far more sophisticated than previously believed.

Australia has an interesting new idea about how to encourage parents to vaccinate their children.

President Obama thinks that it would be a good idea if everyone were forced to vote. He’s wrong, and his idea is most likely unconstitutional.

The State Of The Union Address was more of the same, and the same will be true of Washington going forward.

Even with a House and Senate majority, the GOP is unlikely to get what it wants in its current immigration battle with the President.

Was Man Haron Monis a terrorist, or just a lone nut who had latched on to the rhetoric of ISIS to justify his own delusions? In the end, it hardly matters.

A hostage crisis has been unfolding overnight at a cafe in Sydney, Australia that has apparent links to international terrorism.

Russia’s own government is projecting that its economy will slip into recession next year. How that will impact Putin’s current belligerence remains to be seen.

Vladimir Putin’s latest actions seems to have exhausted Germany’s patience.

If the President now believes he can act unilaterally on immigration reform, why did he spend the last five years saying that he couldn’t?

The latest ISIS video is horrible and barbaric but we should not take the bait they are offering before considering the consequences of our actions going forward.

Vladimir Putin’s reception at the G-20 Summit in Australia has been less than warm thanks to recent events in Ukraine.

All of the major sports leagues are trying to stop New Jersey’s efforts to legalize sports gambling. They should not be allowed to succeed.

For the ninth time since 1974, the next Governor of Maine will likely be elected with less than 50% of the vote.

Iraq’s problems cannot be fixed by the United States.

Some words from the past, apparently uttered mere hours before the world changed forever.

No surprises so far.

The English-speaking and Scandinavian countries are very different.

A US-EU free trade zone is a no-brainer. But the devil is in the details.

More problems for the planned 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The saga of Malaysian Air Flight 370 continues to be just weird.

Is 435 the right number?

Once again, a poll shows that large numbers of Americans, and most Americans, reject Evolution via Natural Selection as the explanation for humanity’s origin. How do we explain that?

The Economist reports that “The coffee insurgency” is winning.

The U.S. position on China’s new air defense zone is exceedingly clear. The question is where it goes from here.

We spend more per capita than any other country in the world and yet we are outperformed on a key metric, life expectancy, by a large number of countries

Will this new Australian oil discovery shake up world politics?

The latest revelations about National Security Agency surveillance outside the United States have caused quite an uproar overseas.

The American taxpayer spent a lot of money today paying their employees not to work.

While periodic, strenuous exercise is better than nothing, constant movement is much better for our health.

The architect of President Obama’s re-election campaign is going to work for the Tories.

In response to North Korean saber rattling and the rise of China, Japan is reassessing it’s military posture

Marine Harriers dropped four unarmed bombs into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week after missing another target.

The complicated issues surrounding U.S. aid to Egypt.