[Mark Lynas] Why nuclear power is still a good choice

What a strange turn of events. Instead of uniting the environmental movement in renewed opposition to nuclear power, the Fukushima disaster in Japan has divided it still further. An increasing number of green advocates, including some very prominent voices, have declared their support for nuclear power as a clean energy option, even as radioactive water accumulates and the timeline for cleaning up

April 14, 2011

[Dick Polman] Seven reasons why odds favor Obama

Hey, President Obama has formally announced his re-election bid! I’ve added the exclamation mark to help ratchet up the excitement.It has been a long and difficult slog since Inauguration Day, so I’m going to assume that the looming inevitability of another presidential campaign is about as welcome as the prospect of trace radioactive elements in your milk. Still, attention must be paid. If you’re

April 14, 2011

Sports bolster spirits in time of national crisis

Japanese professional baseball’s regular season starts Tuesday as the 12 teams of the Central and Pacific leagues play their openers. The pennant race begins, though belatedly, while wounds from the March 11 catastrophe remain fresh.As the nation faces a difficult time, players are urged all the more to do their best to give hope and vigor to disaster victims and the nation as a whole.Both leagues

April 13, 2011

[Laurence Kotlikoff] U.S. squabbles over peanuts to tame elderly

The time to disagree agreeably is over for health care policy in America.U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress last week approved a measly budget cut of $39 billion and no tax increases. That leaves us with a massive deficit equal to 9 percent of gross domestic product and a debt-to-GDP ratio that will exceed 90 percent within six years.Our politicians touted this deal as the biggest compromise

April 13, 2011

[Michael Smerconish] Birthers’ conspiracy plot: Plants are legion

Every time I hear Donald Trump talk about President Obama’s birth certificate, I think of O.J. Simpson.The conspiracy theory invented by Simpson’s defenders was every bit as loopy as the fantasies concerning Obama. Remember the O.J. defense ruse?Years before the murder, conspirators would have had to incite Simpson to commit domestic abuse, laying a foundation for a future motive.Several weeks bef

April 13, 2011

[Peter Lovenheim] Social experiment: Know thy neighbor

When I was growing up in upstate New York in the late 1950s and ‘60s, people didn’t exercise in public the way they do now. You didn’t see adults jogging, biking or power-walking on the street.Except one. Nearly every day, a middle-age woman of slight build walked rapidly through our suburban neighborhood, usually with her head down. No one knew her name, so we called her the Walker. She usually w

April 13, 2011

Let’s call Mexico’s drug cartels what they are

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, gets it. When drug cartel thugs order mass kidnappings, explode bombs, murder scores of public officials, behead victims or hang them from overpasses, and post signs in border-area cities warning of more violence if they don’t get their way, that’s not mere drug trafficking. That’s terrorism.Finally, someone in Washington is taking action in response to the unpre

April 12, 2011

Empower the FCC to protect Internet access

Even the Federal Communications Commission’s timid assertion of rights and protections for consumers on the Internet continues to inspire the wrath of Republicans.The U.S. House of Representatives cleared the way for a resolution disapproving of the FCC’s net-neutrality guidelines adopted in December. Debate and a vote on the resolution, a formal device used by Congress to block actions taken by f

April 12, 2011

[Jonathan Alter] Shutdown dance just a warm-up?

The root canal Americans experienced over the averted government shutdown may seem painless compared with the operation that’s coming: debate over raising the debt ceiling followed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan to overhaul the government.The political fates of President Barack Obama and most of Congress depend on the outcome. While the stakes for the 2011 budget skirmish has

April 12, 2011

[Lindsey M. Burke] Value of scholarships in U.S. school system

Imagine being a low-income parent in the District of Columbia. As a parent living below the federal poverty line in one of the country’s most expensive cities, the options available for your child’s education are limited.There are the D.C. Public Schools, which rank 51st in the nation on measures of academic achievement, but first in terms of school violence. And there are D.C. Public Charter Scho

April 12, 2011

[Albert Hunt] Ryan’s ‘courageous’ budget cuts need reality test

Paul Ryan is John McCain, circa 2000, or Barack Obama in the last presidential election or Bob Strauss and Jim Baker for their entire careers: the darling of the Washington commentariat.The chairman of the House Budget Committee, who released a budget last week that calls for dramatic spending cutbacks to politically sensitive programs such as Medicare, has been called a “rebel with a cause” by th

April 12, 2011

Excessive self-restraint may hinder recovery

It will soon be one month since the Great East Japan Earthquake struck the nation on March 11. The prevailing atmosphere in Japan is one of serious and sombre jishuku (self-restraint).Various artistic activities, sports events and even traditional festivals have been canceled or postponed.A great many people died in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. An even larger number are still missing, an

April 11, 2011

[Gregory Rodriguez] Obama: Black and more so

It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race ― black ― last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads.The president also bucked a trend. Last month, the Census Bureau announced that th

April 11, 2011

[Jameel Jaffer] National security: When secrecy is a weapon

In a recent interview with Newsweek magazine, former CIA lawyer John Rizzo spoke with surprising candor about the CIA’s “targeted killing” program. He discussed the scope of the program (about 30 people are on the “hit list” at any given time), the process by which the CIA selects its targets (Rizzo was “the one who signed off”) and the methods the CIA uses to eliminate them (“The Predator is the

April 11, 2011