Our nation’s budget process is broken, and fixing it will take political courage, something remarkably lacking in our nation right now. President Bush’s proposed budget certainly did not inspire great cheering this week. In itself, that does not mean much.…
Wherever you go, introspection is valuable
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — The poet Robert Burns’ advice “to see ourselves as others see us” is as valuable for societies as for individuals. Unfortunately, societies examine themselves just as rarely as humans do. Ignoring the obvious is human…
Bush dodged true energy-policy fix
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Bush broached the important subject of the nation’s dependence on imported energy. Unfortunately, his prescription for change embraced trivial or harmful approaches and overtly rejected the…
Does success spring from effort or luck?
People’s opinions differ on whether success in life is the result of individual effort or circumstances beyond anyone’s control. Tony Judt’s masterful “Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945” notes that surveys repeatedly indicate a majority of Americans believe how…