Mexican food and beer. That’s what retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor suggests might pull this fractured nation back together again. Those were the tools she used to reach consensus in the 1970s when she was a leader in the Arizona legislature.“I’ll tell you what I did,” she said last week at a conference in Washington, sponsored by Arizona State University’s Center for Social Cohes

Viewpoints June 23, 2011

Several weeks into December last year, my parents suggested I might like a Kindle for Christmas.I was sitting in my room at school, and my eyes darted to the bookshelf on my left. From the silence on the line they could tell I wasn’t enthusiastic; I muttered something about not needing another gadget, mostly because I couldn’t find a way to shape my reluctance into words. The conversation was tact

Viewpoints June 23, 2011

In the waning minutes of last week’s Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney was opining about Afghanistan when he uttered something that, in past years, would have been condemned by virtually all Republicans as dovish blasphemy.He said: “I also think we’ve learned that our troops shouldn’t go off and try and fight a war of independence for another nation.”It’s rare to hear a Republican front-

Viewpoints June 23, 2011

A random glance at newspaper front pages shows that few encouraging stories are making the headlines these days. Instead, they are filled with corruption scandals involving public officeholders, never-ending animosity among ostensibly irreconcilable political adversaries, looming economic disasters ― you name it, it’s there.Few bright spots are in sight at a time of political transition. Instead,

Editorial June 23, 2011

The legislation process is under way to cut university tuition fees. Similar efforts are being made by the administration. But it will be no less important for the administration to close private universities and colleges whose lifeline is nothing but government subsidies.On Wednesday, the parliamentary committee on education approved a bill banning the transfer of collected tuition fees to reserv

Editorial June 23, 2011

It was the kind of insular, issue-driven, black-on-black debate that ordinarily doesn’t attract the media spotlight, even on the slowest news day. But thanks to the unprecedented profile of Barack Obama, the most famous black person in modern history, this one got hot.Last month, in an interview with Chris Hedges on Truthdig.com, Princeton professor Cornel West gave a scathing assessment of Obama’

Viewpoints June 23, 2011

“Roaring into space on two mighty blowtorches and a magnificent column of steam, the space shuttle Columbia was given a go-ahead Sunday to complete the 54-hour mission that is expected to open a new space frontier. The liftoff ― the world’s most spectacular space launch ― awed veteran space watchers at the Kennedy Space Center here.” ― Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1981.Thirty years ago, space shuttl

Viewpoints June 22, 2011

Thanks to modern technology, peering into private lives all around the world has never been easier.When Su Lin, the San Diego-born daughter of Chinese parents Bai Yun and Gao Gao, had her first medical exam, eager viewers proclaimed that she was the cutest baby ever. When a mother of three died in an airplane accident, leaving the father to care for the family alone, thousands of people across the

Viewpoints June 22, 2011

As social and political debates on cutting university tuition fees rages on, the restructuring of higher education has emerged as an urgent issue. There is a need to strengthen university finances in general and concentrate state support on more viable institutions. While the Board of Audit and Inspection is checking the financial, personnel and academic affairs of all 200 four-year universities,

Editorial June 21, 2011

North Korea again blared out warnings of “merciless retaliation,” this time against the move here to pass the North Korean human rights bill at the National Assembly. Their language grew harsher as with a change in activities in the South that they consider to threaten the stability of their system.Jopyeongtong, Pyongyang’s mouthpiece on South Korean affairs, said the bill represented Seoul’s atte

Editorial June 21, 2011