There is no magic wand that will bring down the price of gasoline, which has once again crossed the $4 mark. But there is a long-term solution that will inoculate us from higher costs in the future.The Obama administration can’t do much to lower the price of a gallon of gas, but it is on the cusp of a crucial decision that could help consumers come out ahead because they would need less gas.Offici

Viewpoints April 20, 2011

Despite the anti-Semitic ranting of Mel Gibson, the public gulf between Roman Catholics and Jews has narrowed during recent decades. It started with overtures from Pope John Paul II between 1979 and 2000, during which time he visited Auschwitz and Jerusalem. After following his predecessor to Auschwitz in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI slammed Holocaust deniers in 2009, then set off on an Israel trip. An

Viewpoints April 20, 2011

The coming Friday, April 22, marks the first “Saemaul Day” since the National Assembly passed a bill in February to commemorate the anniversary of former President Park Chung-hee’s launching of Saemaul Undong or the New Community Movement in 1970. But actual celebrations will be deferred to May as related authorities feared misunderstanding about their motivation in connection with the April 27 by

Viewpoints April 19, 2011

The six-party talks for the denuclearization of North Korea may be resumed sometime this spring after a hiatus of more than two years. South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed in Seoul last week that they would pursue direct inter-Korean talks as a prelude to reopening the six-way talks. This concurs with China’s recent proposal for a three-sta

Editorial April 19, 2011

Yet another joint government-civic committee is about to be formed to take charge of identifying Korean cultural articles overseas and start working for their return home. President Lee gave the instruction upon the return of Joseon era books last week from France after they were plundered from a royal archive on Ganghwa Island during an attack a century and a half ago.Like the 296-volume Joseon “

Editorial April 18, 2011

The April 27 by-elections to pick National Assemblymen for three districts in Gyeonggi, South Gyeongsang and South Jeolla provinces, the governor of Gangwon Province and to fill vacancies at several local autonomous bodies are about a week away. Neither the ruling nor the opposition party sees a clear lead in any of the parliamentary and gubernatorial contests, and both consider these polls as a b

Editorial April 18, 2011

As one month has passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, moves to provide employment assistance to victims of the disaster are spreading nationwide.Companies in the railway, video game, food, medicine and financial service sectors, among others, have come out with job offers for victims of the March 11 catastrophe. About 170 corporations have posted job offers with an online employment infor

Viewpoints April 18, 2011

In case it wasn’t clear already, we now know what the 2012 election will be about: how fast to cut federal spending, whether to raise taxes and what to do about healthcare, especially Medicare.President Obama’s awkwardly named “deficit reduction framework,” unveiled Wednesday, has the usual list of flaws of any long-term budget proposal. It doesn’t tie up every loose end. It includes a couple of “

Viewpoints April 18, 2011

In the week and a half since the Chinese government detained artist Ai Weiwei on suspicion of “economic crimes,” Western governments and the global arts community have condemned China’s repression of free speech. Regular Americans, too, should care about China’s habit of stifling information that it doesn’t like to hear. China is applying the same habit to another type of speech, economic speech.

Viewpoints April 18, 2011

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget is the first sensible, long-term fiscal blueprint to come out of Congress in decades. You could say it’s a budget of the grownups, by the grownups, for the grownups.As such, it deserves what even President Obama says is needed, an “adult conversation” on the country’s financial health.Not that there hasn’t already been comment on Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity.” House

Viewpoints April 17, 2011