It is easier to climb the social ladder and earn more than one’s parents in the Nordic countries, Australia and Canada than in France, Italy, Britain and the United States, according to a new OECD study. But weak social mobility can signal a lack of equal opportunities, constrain productivity and curb economic growth, says a report on the study. “A Family Affair: Intergenerational social mobility across OECD countries” says climbing the social ladder depends on a range of factors such as individual ability, family and social environments, networks and attitudes. But public action... 

“And we fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand. So we’ll fight them there, we’ll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won.” (Applause.) — President George W. Bush Despite plenty of muscular rhetoric, President Bush’s strategy in the War on Terrorism demonstrates a dangerous ignorance of the unique military, tactical, and political aspects of the terrorist threat, and breeds a dangerous and chaotic foreign policy which has only served... 

A number of the President’s critics have opined that he didn’t say anything new in the State of the Union Address and mainly tried to rally Democrats to support him. To the contrary, I think three important aspects of the address are pretty clear. The first is what he actually proposed. Politico has an excellent article discussing the President’s proposals from the SOTU and the possibilities that they might happen. Two examples: Despite the fact that health care reform was the centerpiece of his first-year agenda, it’s on life support at best. He didn’t talk much about... 

Richard Socarides was a special assistant to President Bill Clinton and the senior White House adviser on gay rights from 1997 to 1999. In yet another fusillade of friendly fire from his own base, Mr. Socarides just took aim at the President in Ask Obama About Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in The Wall Street Journal. Many people are wondering about President Obama’s willingness, if not his ability, to follow-up on his campaign promises. Changing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. military is one of the easiest promises he could keep because he can do... 

My list of the dumbest things I’ve heard of has gotten quite long over the years, and I’ve just made a new entry. As I was making my daily scan of the Drudge Report, I came across a headline that I couldn’t pass up. The Drudge link leads to an ABC News report, U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes. Seems that Trijicon, Inc. makes a specialized sight for military assault rifles. The problem is that on each sight they inscribe a notation for a Bible verse. It’s added to the end of the model number on the sight. The notation on one sight... 

Apparently there’s no end to the political dust being kicked up by Game Change, the new book on the 2008 presidential campaigns by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Politicians left and right are being wounded by their own words and the assessments of their own staffs. As anyone who’s turned on a TV or opened an internet browser in the past few days, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is this latest victim skewered in the book. The authors report Reid said to them in an interview that Obama could win the White House because he was a “light-skinned” African-American “with no Negro... 

The Obama Administration’s decision to try some terrorists in federal court as common criminals is controversial. This policy has been applied to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen apprehended in the United States, as well as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others, non-U.S. citizens captured in foreign countries. Other terrorists have also been tried, successfully, in federal courts during previous administrations. These include Richard Reid, a British citizen apprehended in the U.S.; John Walker Lindh, an American citizen captured in Afghanistan; Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian citizen... 

The first refuge of weak leaders is blaming mistakes on subordinates. It’s unacceptable in the military, in corporate hierarchies, and in other settings where the responsibilities and authorities of leadership are understood and practiced. Harry Truman enshrined the concept with the famous maxim, “The buck stops here.” The principle is that a leader is responsible for everything his or her organization does or fails to do. When a U.S. Navy ship runs aground, the captain of the ship isn’t going to point to a junior officer who was serving as OOD (officer of the deck) and... 

According to a report by WBBM, the Chicago CBS affiliate, a kerfuffle over religion erupted a few days ago in the Illinois state capitol building in Springfield. Seems there were a variety of religion-related displays in the capitol. They included a nativity scene, a Christmas tree, a Soldiers’ Angels wreath, a tabletop display from the ACLU defending freedom of religion, a Hanukkah menorah, and an aluminum Festivus pole representing the semi-fictional holiday from the TV series Seinfeld. There was also a sign put there with the appropriate permit by the Freedom From Religion Foundation,... 

Hero dog tries to save injured canine in Chile. By all accounts 2009 was a pretty tough year the whole way around.  Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan raged on with no real end in sight.  A lot of people lost jobs and continue to face financial hardship. The government handed hundreds of billions of dollars over to the richest people in the country who in turn gave it right back to themselves.  The nation experienced a hostile split on the contentious issue of health care reform.  The culture of Reality TV hit new levels of craziness as wannabees actually endangered children and breached security... 

The Senate and House have both passed health care reform legislation. There are quite a few differences in the two bills, and those differences will have to be worked out before a final bill is passed by both houses and sent to the President for signature. At this point it seems likely that the bill will be signed into law in January or February, although it’s not a done deal yet. An important question has arisen from time to time during the seemingly endless debate over health care reform. Is health care a commodity like food, clothing, and housing — all essential needs of life that... 

How can it be tragic to be innocent? Perhaps when someone has been wrongly convicted of a crime and spends many years in prison, sometimes on death row, only to be freed when it’s found that he didn’t commit the crime. I recently read John Grisham’s The Innocent Man. This book was a departure for Grisham, who normally writes fiction about lawyers and the legal system. It recounts the case of Ron Williamson, who along with his friend Dennis Fritz was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering a young woman. Williamson was sentenced to death, Fritz to life in prison. The convictions...