Rory Stewart has walked 6,000 miles through Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, written two bestselling books, governed two provinces in postwar Iraq and been made a Harvard professor. His current job, as Tory MP for Penrith in Cumbria,UK, seems curiously drab and powerless by comparison. “Anybody running a small pizza business has more power than me,” …
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The New York Times of February 26th reports a drop of 43% in the obesity rate of children between two and five in America, a surprise to everyone. A third of adults and 17% of youths are obese, and the rate for women over 60 has increased, but at least this news is good news. …
21% of British adults say they support paying extra for goods and services to help deal with climate change. 72% admit that their own standard of living is more important to them than helping to solve problems caused by climate change. (RSA/The Times) To suggest that you can throw all that gunk into the atmosphere …
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The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the …
The idea of the nation state only emerged around the 15th or 16th Centuries and came of age in Elizabethan times owing to the ability of governments to keep effective standing armies. There is nothing magical about them, and, indeed, they caused a host of useless wars. Italy still seems like a collection of city …
