What do journalist Daniel Pearl, Holocaust victim Anne Frank and now members of the House of Orange – the Dutch Royal family – have in common? They are all posthumous members of the Church of Mormon. According to Mormon Church records recently uncovered by the Trouw newspaper of the Netherlands, a number of now-dead members of the Dutch Royal family, formerly members of the Dutch Orthodox Church,...

Did anybody seriously think that at the Guantanamo trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others the merciless Al Qaeda terrorists who planned an executed the quintessential “high concept” bloody publicity stunt would go quietly into the judicial night — and their own likely executions? If so, they are not seriously thinking that anymore. The trial got off to a rocky start —...

I read Ayn Rand (We The Living, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) in high school and was a devotee until my late 20s. I sometimes think of that period as being the early adult equivalent of the terrible twos: just say “no” to the values and political philosophy of your parents. For the past decade or so I’ve wondered aloud how America’s “Christian” and “family values”...

What are the ramifications of what now appears to be the irreconcilable relationship between the United States and Pakistan? Le Monde columnist Frédéric Bobin, in this very European examination of all that has gone wrong between the two nations, writes that an unsettling future awaits the United States, Pakistan and all of of South Asia, thanks largely to ‘annus horribilis 2011.’ For Le Monde,...

After a lifetime of fighting debilitating shyness and social anxiety I have found a life that permits me to avoid human contact except on the rare occasions when I initiate it. Modern technology is perfect for people like me. I can be social without actually being social, leaving me to focus on what people are doing or saying without worrying or thinking about myself. Facebook has become a useful tool to keep...

Tongue in tanned cheek, John Boehner explains his escalating criticism of Barack Obama: “The president is getting … bad advice. Somebody needed to help him out, so I thought I would.” Actually, Boehner has it backward. For haters of government bailouts, Republicans in general are doing a nifty job of saving the President from his biggest mistakes in office. In 2009, instead of going all out on...

I admit it. I’ve been having a lot of trouble understanding this family values thing. I knew it had something to do with gun ownership and undermining environmental regulations, of course. But its larger meaning had alluded me until this past week, when the family value-loving House of Representatives finally made the term’s meaning crystal clear to us all. To fund government subsidies for student...

Is it fair to say that Iraq’s ‘Green Zone’ politicians, having come to power thanks to American military force, are now using Washington as a scapegoat for their own failure to get the nation back on its feet? According to columnist Abd al-Zahra al-Rukaby of Kuwait’s Al Qabas, Iraqi politicians are nothing but cowardly ‘sheep’ unable to make decisions without American help. For...

There is a war on women going on, it’s been going on a long time, and it’s in the Middle East. Although there’s room to believe there’s some occasional exaggeration–in many traditionalist cultures, women have far more power in the household than is shown to the outside world–there can be no doubt that in the public sphere and at least sometimes in the private sphere it’s...

Is there some logic to the fact that as the date for America’s withdrawal draws nigh, the number of atrocities and scandals involving U.S. troops seem to be increasing? For Germany’s ‘Die Zeit’, columnist Ulrich Ladurner writes that the ‘demon of war’ is enjoying his final Afghan feast, and that if any further gross mishaps are committed by American forces, the departure...

Are we only now beginning to see the consequences of America’s invasion and ultimate withdrawal from Iraq? For France’s Le Monde, columnist Christophe Ayad writes that the Shiite-Sunni civil war set in motion by the U.S. invasion is not only worsening in Iraq, it now threatens to engulf neighboring countries like Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen – with the Iranians and Saudis pouring fuel...

It’s now a cliche that when people to go prison they suddenly find religion. And the religion lasts while they’re in prison — then, in many cases, the newly found religion magically evaporates if they get out and go on to live post-prison lives. But not with Chuck Colson, who during the Nixon presidency was considered one of the Nixon’s most utterly ruthless operatives, a man who once...

I really enjoyed this optimistic piece about the future of America by Barry Ritholtz. And it taught me a new term for people who’ve irritated me for decades: the “Zombie Bears,” i.e. the people who always see doom right around the corner. There are serious long-term problems we face as a society, and much that’s going to have to be examined and re-examined by this generation and the coming...

With Egyptians headed to the polls on May 23 to choose the nation’s first democratically-elected head of state, columnist Dr. Hamdi Radwan of Egypt’s Amal al-Oumma (Voice of the Nation) offers his readers a look at the U.S. presidential race, using it to highlight what is lacking in Egypt’s nascent democratic system. His misconceptions are as interesting as his factual assertions. For Egypt’s...

Here’s a new definition of neo-Nazis: a “civil rights group.” Or so says a Florida Fox affiliate. Footnote: Quite seriously, I am now reading the classic history book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Using this Fox affiliate’s definition, I guess you could say this is a 1,000 page plus book about a guy with a mustache who was associated with a group sort of like...

Are we living at a time in which politicians – American and non-American alike – need to choose their words more carefully? For Russia’s Gazeta newspaper, columnist Semen Novoprudski writes of the dangers of fast-and-loose political rhetoric, and why, for the good of the world at large, all politicians, instead of using divisive Cold-War language, should from now on ‘speak exclusively...

Dear Brave Souls: That is just the signature greeting I use in my work as an author to speak to others on my facebook page and in my spoken word audio and books… because it is how I see most often, and also to offset the proliferation in our cultures of the too often seen, ‘listen here you s.o.b.’ Thus, Dear Brave Souls: There are many festivals and holy rituals at this time of year: One is...

Gary McCoy, Cagle Cartoons This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

This is the kind of “thing” that makes me wonder why we are still in Afghanistan — and makes me sick to my stomach. Apparently this despicable practice “is on the rise in post-Taliban Afghanistan…” According to Dee Brillenburg Wurth, a child-protection expert at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, “Like it or not, there was better rule of law under the Taliban …They saw it as a sin, and they...

WASHINGTON — The Easter season is a celebration of deliverance and the liturgical calendar sets Easter Week up as a kind of catharsis. Holy Thursday and the Last Supper have an ominous feel because they are preparation for Good Friday and the dolorous story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Yet two days later, the tale ends in triumph and resurrection. Whatever questions Christians may have about the...