The Olympic Games are for 'the youth of the world,' but they're organized and scored by countries. It's no surprise that countries treat them as vehi….

A basic rule of life for reporters is that you should spend your time talking with and learning about people who are not sending you press releases, ….

I've learned that I need to spell out, even in cases seemingly so blatant, that in fact I am not taking this at face value and am being 'sarcastic..

Our military plans should be based on the assumption of unpredictability, rather than on carefully drawn, static models of the world..

Societies are healthiest when their radius of trust is broad and when people feel they can influence their own fate..

The demise of Google Reader, if logical, is a reminder of how far we've come from the cuddly old 'I'm Feeling Lucky' Google days, in which there was ….

The air that people breathe in many Chinese cities has become dangerously polluted. Their food supply is subject to constant contamination scandals. ….

There's no longer any surprise in noting that China has grave environmental problems..

I seem to be one of the few people in journalism who never worked or wrote for the 'Boston Phoenix.' I certainly read and admired it, and feel the sa….

Racial prejudice boils down to the deeply anti-American message that some people are born to fail..

Up or out" greatly magnified the careerist emphasis on holding a position rather than doing a job..

In a time of transition for journalism all around the world, it's reassuring to know that some of the old ways endure..

Environmental disaster is the gravest threat to China's continued development. That's according to me, but it is not some wacko view..

For the record, I am sticking with my claim that the simultaneous degradation of air quality, water quality, water supply, food safety, soil quality,….

For a decade or more after the Vietnam war, the people who had guided the U.S. to disaster decently shrank from the public stage..

Considering all the different ways in which China has interacted with the world in the last 50 years, considering all the challenges ordinary Chinese….

No real-world human being brings to the U.S. presidency the range of attributes necessary for full success in the job..

We're now in one of those periods when the reality of intense pressure on the middle class diverges from long-held assumptions of how the American ba….

Over the eons I've been a fan of, and sucker for, each latest automated system to 'simplify' and 'bring order to' my life. Very early on this led me ….

The worst kind of management seeks a single optimum, a one-scale index of efficiency, like the mindless scales of 1 to 10 for grading a woman's beaut….

Successful societies-those which progress economically and politically and can control the terms on which they deal with the outside world-succeed be….