Sixty years on from a coup that poisoned Iranian-US relations, the CIA has come clean about its role. It may be a small step forward in a difficult process of reconciliation.
Category: Ideas
Please don’t feed the beast
Unnecessary military spending is a cancer on democracy, but it takes a case like Egypt to show the real damage that it can do.
God and the neocons
The Economist's Will Wilkinson does a superb hatchet job on George Will in particular and the whole neocon-theocrat alliance in general.
Politics of race never quite what they seem
You too can have fun comparing election results to people's opinions of the Zimmerman verdict.
David Cameron channels Stephen Conroy
David Cameron commits himself to a compulsory internet porn filter, à la Stephen Conroy and Kim Beazley. It doesn't make any sense, but for certain sorts of policies, that doesn't seem to be an obstacle.
Fundamentalism on trial in Bangladesh
A controversial verdict from Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal has led to violent protests. The background is a complex mixture of war, religion and politics.
Political advertising revisited
Watch a relatively effective piece of government advertising. Think about how much worse it gets than that. Then wonder why political parties can't pay for their own advocacy.
Rudd, reaction and refugees
The reborn Kevin Rudd turns out, unsurprisingly, to be a "conservative" on refugees as well. But leaving aside the morality of his promised toughness, why does anyone think it makes political sense for Labor?
Egyptians rally for preferential voting (well, almost)
Demonstrations against Egypt's president reflect a variety of sources of discontent, but a large part of the problem goes back to the system that elected him.
The tea party fights back on immigration
A new study on the "tea party" movement gives some hints on why immigration reform is such a hard sell in the US Republican Party.
The World is Not Enough 