This morning, The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal released the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom, and while the news is good for many countries, it is depressing for the United States. All told, 117 countries, mainly developing and emerging market economies, improved their Economic Freedom Index score. Meanwhile the U.S. dropped to 9th […]
(CNSNews.com) – The Pepsi plant in Baltimore will no longer make soda, and the company plans to lay off 77 people — a decision blamed in part on a controversial new beverage tax in the city, the Baltimore Sun reported on Tuesday. Kristine Hinck, a company spokeswoman, cited the 2-cent tax on bottled beverages passed […]
Hours before Secretary of Defense Robert Gates landed in China, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) staged a test flight of its new stealth fighter, possibly termed the J-20. In some quarters, it is being argued that this flight was deliberately scheduled to upstage the American visit. In the mystery that is Chinese […]
Last night’s BCS Championship game pitted the Auburn Tigers from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) against the Oregon Ducks from the Pac-10. To guard against biases that could have influenced the game’s outcome, officials were provided by the Big 10. If football-crazed fans from Auburn and Oregon can understand why referees from the SEC and Pac-10 […]
The Obama administration is not known for its pro-British track record, but this is by far the strongest indication yet that the current White House has little regard for the Special Relationship and its unique role in modern American history. During a White House photo-op with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, President Obama had this to […]
“You know, my people told me I should never meet with you,” Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir told Richard Williamson, former U.S. special envoy to Sudan, during the Bush Administration. Clearly, it’s no easy task conducting diplomatic relations with Khartoum’s government. Yet two days from the referendum that will likely split north and south, the international […]
This week’s announcement that 13 oil companies can resume activity in the Gulf of Mexico provided some hope the Obama administration might finally begin to approve drilling new permits. It couldn’t come soon enough. Since the administration’s drilling moratorium was lifted in October, deep-water permit issuance is down 88 percent with only two new permits […]
The New Year’s Eve Attack on a Coptic Church in Egypt has left by the last count 23 churchgoers dead. While the Egyptian security is busy trying to figure out what happened and in the meantime beat the Copts that are demonstrating in anger, the Egyptian public has acted, as it usually does, with denial. […]
Montgomery, Ala. (AP) – Mark Twain wrote that “the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter.” A new edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” will try to find out if that holds true by replacing the N-word with “slave” in an effort not to […]
In a twisted response to the devastating assassination of Pakistani Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, several hundred Pakistani clerics and so-called “scholars” signed a statement condoning the slaying and warning Pakistanis against grieving the death of the Governor. Adding insult to injury, several of the country’s clerics refused to lead funeral prayers for Taseer, who was […]
