We should all be Egyptians today. We should all be in solidarity with those thousands of courageous people who exercised fundamental rights to speech and assembly and moved a dictator to declare that he is finished.The days and weeks ahead will be difficult for these custodians of a treasured world culture. There is a risk that the democratic tide will ebb and that extremists will seize power. The

Viewpoints Feb. 8, 2011

Inspired by Tom Paine, Americans have fermented revolution around the globe. From Prague to Tiananmen, expanding the will of the people has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. But this principle is increasingly contradicting key components of America’s international agenda as well as running up against the realities of dampened influence.For example, George W. Bush vigorously backed Ukraine

Viewpoints Feb. 8, 2011

In these days of tiger-mother hysteria about raising children with academic backbone, President Barack Obama has weighed in with yet another cause for paranoia. The president dropped India and China into his State of the Union speech, just long enough to say they are educating their children earlier and longer.Generally, school days are longer in Asian countries, and vacation breaks, though more f

Viewpoints Feb. 8, 2011

No sooner had President Hosni Mubarak announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election than the protesters who brought him low rejected his gesture. As a result, it’s still unclear whether Mubarak will leave abruptly or after a period of transition; that, ultimately, will be up to the Egyptian people. But either way, the country appears to be on the verge of a post-Mubarak order. It’s not too soon to p

Viewpoints Feb. 7, 2011

The tale of the Stuxnet worm is one of those seemingly good-news stories that grows more worrisome over time.Security experts first became aware of the mysterious Stuxnet malware last summer, but it wasn’t until months later that they agreed on its likely target: Iran’s secretive nuclear weapons program. The worm hid itself benignly in personal computers, spreading (often through USB drives) until

Viewpoints Jan. 30, 2011

WASHINGTON ― Just like children forced to take castor oil hated the experience, millions of Americans loathed the intrusive body-scan and pat-down security measures imposed at U.S. airports last fall.Surprisingly, though, the revulsion period was briefer than first assumed as travelers realized the added security rules may, after all, be good for them.The real question is, of course, how much safe

Viewpoints Jan. 30, 2011

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is apparently trying to burnish his credentials in the race for the GOP presidential nomination by encouraging states to default on their debts. Gingrich is the leading cheerleader for the idea of letting states declare bankruptcy to evade problems with unfunded public employee pensions and other benefits for future retirees. Those problems are real, but letting

Viewpoints Jan. 28, 2011

President Barack Obama had been readying himself for Tuesday night’s State of the Union address since the Nov. 2 election, the electorate’s repudiation of big government and big spending. Obama had to respond to what he admitted was a “shellacking.” So he agreed to extend President George W. Bush’s tax cuts, recruited centrist Democrat William Daley of Chicago as his chief of staff and, on Friday,

Viewpoints Jan. 28, 2011

Koreans appear to be taking an increasingly narrow definition of the family. According to a recent survey, only 23.4 percent of Koreans consider their paternal grandparents to be part of the family while 20.6 percent recognized their maternal grandparents as family members. Five years ago, 63.8 percent of Koreans counted their paternal grandparents in while 47.4 percent viewed their maternal grand

Editorial Jan. 27, 2011

A controversy has flared up over President Lee Myung-bak’s promise on Monday to help domestic corporations set up R&D centers in Seoul and the adjoining Gyeonggi Province. Meeting with the heads of the nation’s top 30 conglomerates, Lee said, “Corporations need high-caliber staff to increase exports and expand investment. Having R&D centers in the capital area would help attract talented researche

Editorial Jan. 27, 2011

With startling arrogance and audaciously twisted reasoning, two appellate judges ignored more than 100 years of legal precedent, invented a new definition of “residency” and ordered Rahm Emanuel off the Feb. 22 mayoral ballot.With the election just four weeks away, the appellate panel voted 2-1 to reverse the decisions of the Chicago Board of Elections and a Circuit Court judge. It’s an adventurou

Viewpoints Jan. 27, 2011

After a failure by international mediators, Lebanon’s political factions are trying to resolve a political crisis that threatens to turn violent. It’s a worthy effort, but no agreement should spare the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.Lebanon’s latest crisis was precipitated by the withdrawal of the Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies from a coalition government, causing it

Viewpoints Jan. 27, 2011

It doesn’t take much to rally the troops in the “mommy wars.”The latest call to arms has been sounded by Amy Chua, a mother of two girls, Yale University professor and author, most recently, of “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” a memoir of parenting.In a pithy, take-no-prisoners style, Chua lets readers in on the secrets to raising children who will validate their parents’ decision to bring them

Viewpoints Jan. 27, 2011

Rahm Emanuel as a poor innocent victim of ruthless insider Chicago politics?It seems to be the approved narrative. Especially now that he’s been knocked off the mayoral ballot in Monday’s ruling by the Illinois Appellate Court because he didn’t meet the state’s residency requirements.Now Rahm will have to troll for sympathy, and demand that the rights of the people be respected. You know, the regu

Viewpoints Jan. 27, 2011

When the White House invited me to the state dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, I knew that I was being used as a symbol ― to signal a tougher approach on human rights. The Obama administration was widely seen as having flubbed the November 2009 summit in China. In the lead-up to his visit, President Obama had refused to meet the Dalai Lama, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had i

Viewpoints Jan. 27, 2011