Germany will soon have a new chancellor. It could be Annalena Baerbock from the Greens, once a minor party focused on the environment. She promises a tougher foreign policy, but so far refuses to back the stronger military necessary to implement her rhetoric. The incumbent, Angela Merkel, is not running again. A member of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel’s great political success was stealing the agenda from the longtime rival Social Democratic Party. By making the two leading parties almost indistinguishable middle-mush Merkel gave the nominal right the advantage and has so far served 17 years as chancellor. The CDU…

“It comes from the lab, the lab in Wuhan, and the lab is controlled by the China government,” claimed Dr. Li-Meng Yan, the virologist who fled Hong Kong, in a “Loose Women” interview in September. “This virus is not from nature.” Virologists, many skeptical, are debating her now-famous claim, which she documented in a non-peer-reviewed paper soon after the widely circulated interview. Yan’s view that the coronavirus was cooked in a lab has found growing support, perhaps most notably from Alina Chan, a microbiologist at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Yet whether or not Yan carries the day…

The growing ferocity of Israel’s military offensive on Gaza amid continued rocket attacks by Hamas has largely overtaken the original crisis that triggered it just 50 miles away in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. The current crisis began earlier this month with Palestinian demonstrations against the imminent expulsion of some eighteen families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in order to put Israeli settlers in their place. The expulsions are part of a broader effort by radical settler groups and Israeli authorities targeting the homes of dozens of Palestinian families. Palestinian demonstrators were met with a massive show of force by Israeli authorities who responded with tear gas, stun grenades, sponge-tipped…

John Stuart Mill is a key figure in Nineteenth Century British liberalism. Mill is a giant of liberalism per se, such that subsequent exegesis has been overwhelmingly praiseworthy, indeed idolatrous. Not merely a grand philosopher and theorist, he was an indefatigable contributor to public debate and Member of Parliament during 1865-68. However, Mill’s vision was deeply contradictory. Mill was an integral member of the Radical Liberals, who lamented the miserly electoral gains from the 1832 Reform Act. Yet he remained committed to Classical Liberalism (in spite of his musings on socialism) to the end. Undoubtedly his self-submersion and attachment to the…

Decades ago my sister Maureen often used to call the Republican Party "The Stupid Party." Today, the Party of Lincoln - the Party of Reagan - is again proving her right. Instead of concentrating on retaking the House next year and regaining control of the Senate, the GOP is looking backwards and engaging in intra-party squabbles. Instead of uniting to attack - and stop - President Biden's plans to turn the U.S. into the United Socialist States of America, the GOP is still fighting over the results of the 2020 election. The party's leaders aren't able to take advantage of…