The 2012 debate for a pampered republic: Belt-tightening or more pump-priming?

The 2012 debate for a pampered republic: Belt-tightening or more pump-priming?

Sol W. Sanders   “Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses.” – Juvenal, circa 100 B.C. Thus a Roman satirist […]

Noticing Romney’s unnoticed energy proposal

Noticing Romney’s unnoticed energy proposal

Sol W. Sanders   Stolid Mitt Romney has come up with an energy plan with a stinger in its tail. The mainstream media, fixated on distractions of the Democratic matador’s cape, virtually ignored it. Energy aficionados gave it a ho-hum reception since it calls on hoary common-sense arguments. But the plan contains a magnificent hidden […]

The Cheney precedent: Will Ryan serve as ‘assistant president’?

The Cheney precedent: Will Ryan serve as ‘assistant president’?

Sol W. Sanders   Jack Garner, a Texan whom Franklin Delano Roosevelt chose as his first vice president for “balance,” put it succinctly: The vice presidency was “not worth a bucket of warm p–” (later cleaned up to “spit”). But Garner, ironically enough, helped block FDR’s power grab when that most charismatic of presidents tried […]

‘Playing God’ with birth rates: The soft underbelly of geopolitics

‘Playing God’ with birth rates: The soft underbelly of geopolitics

Sol W. Sanders   Paying a visit to my phlegmatic Punjabi physician in New Delhi in the early 1960s, I found him uncharacteristically upset. Amniocentesis had come to India and some of his patients were asking him to abort fetuses if they were female. Out of moral scruple, he was refusing, losing patients — and […]

Gaffes? No, Romney nailed it, speaking truth to media-bureaucratic power

Gaffes? No, Romney nailed it, speaking truth to media-bureaucratic power

Sol W. Sanders   Poor ol’ Mitt Romney. He forgot politicians are supposed to cater to the media. And when he spoke truth to power of the left-wing comme il faut Anglo-American journalist mob, they came down on him like the proverbial ton of bricks. And so what were all those uncommon observations labeled “gaffes” […]

World unhinged: A bumper crop of bizarre

World unhinged: A bumper crop of bizarre

Sol W. Sanders   Settling in with a drink and interesting talk a few years ago — it would be the last session we had, unhappily — with Ed Seidenstecker, the best of the WWII American Japan scholars, the conversation took a serious turn. As we dissolved in that witlessness that overtakes one in Hawaii, […]

Another ‘leading-from-behind-triumph’: Syria’s ‘nationalist’ disaster makes way for something worse

Another ‘leading-from-behind-triumph’: Syria’s ‘nationalist’ disaster makes way for something worse

Sol W. Sanders   Whatever develops out of the bloody, chaotic mess Syria has become, it is unlikely that the short-term outcome will be good or the long-term prospects much brighter. One has only to recall the dozens of post-World War II coups that preceded the arrival of the Assad/Alawite/Baathist dictatorship in 1970, a dictatorship […]

To hell with comprehensive solutions in general and Obamacare in particular

To hell with comprehensive solutions in general and Obamacare in particular

Sol W. Sanders   Lost in the political fracas in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision, but emeshed in the still expanding bureaucratic jungle — and cost — of Obamacare is a fundamental issue: it is another failed attempt at “a comprehensive solution” to complex problems. It‘s not a new phenomenon. Since the French […]

It’s the oil, stupid: The coming energy revolution

It’s the oil, stupid: The coming energy revolution

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] If we can get your attention off Dred Scott II — the Supreme Court decision on health care costs with its byzantine political implications — something perhaps as fundamental for the U.S. and world economies is happening: a second fossil fuel revolution. The Saudis are pumping oil like mad. […]

Grounds for American optimism in times that require courage

Grounds for American optimism in times that require courage

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] “A policy of strategic ambiguity” is a striped-pants way of saying “keep your opponent guessing”. It can also be a Foggy Bottom euphemism for lack of policy or not knowing what to do in a difficult situation. It has the advantage of keeping your opponent off balance, never quite […]