Should the government require companies to label food that contains genetically modified organisms? Last November, California voters rejected a ballot initiative that would require such labeling, but bills that would do so were recently introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate. Invoking “the right to know,” a lot of people support those bills. In the abstract, the argument for compulsory labeling seems exceedingly powerful. But there is a risk that a compulsory label for GM food would confus

Viewpoints May 14, 2013

The United Nations Security Council has made a wise decision to create an ambitious African stabilization mission for Mali. To succeed, however, this mission will need to draw lessons from the other side of the continent, where African peacekeepers have had notable results pacifying Somalia. Their experience suggests how an effective partnership between African nations and external powers, such as the U.S. and European Union, can create the space for promising political solutions. Mali is like S

Viewpoints May 13, 2013

Would you like to build your own gun? There are plenty of ways to do so, legal and otherwise. Last week, a group called Defense Distributed offered you a new one: It published instructions for creating a plastic firearm using a 3-D printer. One guy even fired a real bullet with it. Not long afterward, the U.S. State Department demanded that the group take the blueprints down, alleging that they may violate export-control laws. Defense Distributed complied, but not before at least 100,000 people

Viewpoints May 13, 2013

I’m an immigration lawyer by profession. It makes its way into the conversation every month or so, either directly (as when I’m pleading with my conservative friends to realize that branding someone “illegal” is a political death wish) or indirectly (as when I use examples from my own life to point out how hypocritical the left is ― and has always been ― about human rights.) That column I wrote comparing the young Pakistani girl shot through the head by the Taliban to condom crusader Sandra Fluk

Viewpoints May 13, 2013

President Ma Ying-jeou sat at the head of large conference table in his presidential office, and inscribed on the wall behind him was the name of his nation: Republic of China. Beside that, in parentheses and smaller letters, was acknowledgment that he was actually speaking from the island of Taiwan. Ma was participating in a teleconference, addressing an audience at Stanford University and other U.S. locations.Ma, like every Taiwanese leader for the last 60 years, clings to the conviction that

Viewpoints May 9, 2013

The best way to prevent miscarriages of justice is to let the law be what it is. This is what Shen Deyong, executive vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, says in a signed article commenting on several verdicts that were overturned recently. In one of them, a villager called Zhao Yanjin in North China’s Hebei province was wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment for hiring someone to kill a child in 2001. She was held in custody for a total of 10 years until she was acquitted early this ye

Viewpoints May 9, 2013

The People’s Verdict is in. And the people have delivered their mandate to Malaysia’s ruling party Barisan Nasional to run the federal government for another five years.The margin of 133 to 89 signifies the close fight between the Barisan and Pakatan Rakyat. There will have to be serious soul-searching from both sides for the real reasons for the results, especially when they fall short of their own expectations.Be that as it may, the 44-seat majority is a comfortable enough margin for any gover

Viewpoints May 9, 2013

Almsgiving should be encouraged insofar as it serves its intended purpose, i.e. to help the poor and the needy, and it simply must not be taken for granted. Refusal to give change to someone who asks for it is sometimes justified if the potential giver knows the bum has a rich, big-spender uncle or suspects that the money may eventually go to a “big brother” to finance his bad habits. On the other hand, it must be considered “bad form,” or something worse, if the bum, or his big brother, attacks

Viewpoints May 9, 2013

A bill proposing to give the same investigative power as judicial police officers to public officials in charge of early childhood education and care has been shelved due to pressure from operators of pre-kindergarten institutions.According to news reports, one of the 13 lawmakers who signed up to the bill has withdrawn his name just because owners of pre-school facilities in his district threatened to campaign against him in the next election.Under the law on the operation of the National Assem

Editorial May 8, 2013

An audio file uploaded to YouTube last weekend has clearly shown where the government should direct its economic democratization campaign.The short clip, lasting less than three minutes, recorded a phone conversation from three years ago between a young sales manager of Namyang Dairy Products, the largest company in the domestic dairy market, and an older local distributor of its products.The conversation was about the company’s attempt to unload onto the distributor a larger amount of products

Editorial May 8, 2013