General

For almost a half century, Fidel Castro has bedeviled 10 successive American Presidents with his defiantly socialist rhetoric and dictatorial control over Cuba. In fact, despite coup attempts (Bay of Pigs), CIA assassination plots (exploding cigars) and economic sabotage (the ongoing embargo), American leaders have been unable to humble Castro or undermine his rule. Indeed,… Read more.

An associate popped into my office yesterday afternoon at around 4:20 to alert me to the spectacular images of a commercial jumbo jet engulfed in flames on the TV in one of our conference rooms. I immediately joined others who were watching with macabre anticipation for accounts of the dead. We soon learned that it… Read more.

The presidency of George W. Bush remains beset by fair questions of legitimacy and legality. And, most prominent amongst them are questions about the legitimacy of his own election in 2000 and the legality of the Iraq war (including the no bid contracts granted to Halliburton to provide logistical support for the war). It is… Read more.

Baltimore Oriole Rafael Palmeiro (C) appearing with former Oakland Athletic and St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire (L) and Boston Red Sox Curt Schilling on 17 March before a Congressional committee examining the use of steroids in baseball. Palmeiro vehemently denied – as “vicious, malicious and absolutely false” – the allegation his former teammate Jose Canseco… Read more.

Some companies doing business in China have committed what Pope Benedict XVI condemns as the sin of moral relativism. Their sin proceeds from the conscious decision to make money off a political economy that thrives on human rights abuses – of every kind imaginable. And, the moral relativism stems from the fact that many of… Read more.

President Bush showing that when it comes to his physical fitness initiative he’s prepared to lead by example: Shape-up America! According to the Associated Press, the facts and figures about President Bush’s health, from a physical examination performed on Saturday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland are as follows: Bush, 59, was… Read more.

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There seems no end to America’s entanglement in Iraq and no one has a clue about how this “democratic experiment” will turn out. On the other hand, NASA astronauts are busy today performing spacewalks to repair damaged thermal tiles on Shuttle Discovery so that when it returns to earth in 8 days it does not… Read more.

Now that al Qaeda and other jihadists have given the brotherhood of terrorists a bad name, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has decided that it’s time to lay down arms and foment “troubles” to end British occupation by non-violent political action. Clearly an honourable gesture; but one made dubious, alas, by a rather glaring omission:… Read more.

The U.S. Congress finally passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) – by an unseemly close vote of 217-216 – in the wee hours of yesterday morning after personal pleas by President Bush and an awful lot of pork bartering with the people’s money. Yet the most cynical feature of this political luau was… Read more.