If you Google "food scarcity," you'll find hundreds of thousands of links. It's everywhere -- including at the recent G8 Summit in Japan. Even as the members there enjoyed seven lavish courses and a "G8 Fantasy Dessert" -- you can't make this stuff up -- food scarcity was all they...

"Finish your supper, Francie, children are dying in China," I heard growing up. It didn't make sense to me then, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's retake this week makes even less.

He's now scolding Brits for not eating every last pea on their plates: Britons all need to...

As about 30 countries scramble to protect their citizens from hunger by limiting food exports, the title of a front-page New York Times article calls out: "Hoarding Nations Drive Food Costs Ever Higher."

But where does responsible government action end and hoarding begin? (If the Irish government had...

We know Hillary Clinton is smart, and we so can assume that for some time she has known, as well as anyone, that it is virtually impossible for her to become the Democratic nominee for President in 2008. So what could explain her continuing to battle, risking her party's approbation?...

As commentators vie to predict the impact of Obama's March 18, 2008, "race speech" on his candidacy, it's easy to fixate on what it tells us about Obama the person -- his steady courage, his nuanced thinking, his mastery of imagery and storytelling. All are important attributes to...

Can you help me? I just finished Al Gore's The Assault on Reason and I'm baffled. Gore has written a brave indictment of America's retreat from democracy. In masterly prose, he kept me rapt. Then, just as my heart was soaring because finally, finally, a political leader is telling me...

Among progressives, a big ah-ha of 2005 was the need to get serious about "framing" our message. But here we are, 2006 is moving on and we still aren't doing the hard work of honing our message with the words we use.

We have a language of Marxism, historian Lawrence...

Thomas Friedman, are you listening?

I sure hope so. This week, a U.K economic research outfit flattened your "flat earth" myth.

Your 41-weeks-as-a-Times-best-seller The World is Flat celebrates revolutions in transportation and communications that have "leveled the playing field" so poor people are now rushing on to...

As Iraqis go to the polls this week in their starter-kit democracy, maybe we should do a gut check here at home. How is our democracy doing?

The picture isn’t pretty. Washington scandals, a broken voting system, a timid media, and a costly, increasingly unpopular war creating as many enemies...