Every year, by April 30, the secretary of state presents to Congress the annual Country Reports on Terrorism.

A central component of this report is the list of countries designated as State Sponsors of Terrorism -- the countries that pose the greatest threats.

Currently, there are four countries...

I have just returned from two weeks in Cuba, and am now convinced that America's sanctions against Cuba (as governed by the Trading With the Enemy Act) are not only outdated and ineffective, they're exacerbating the difficulties faced by countless innocent Cubans -- Cubans who are not in any way...

The name "Miriam" stems from the Hebrew word for "bitter" (mar), and Miriam has every right to feel that way.

"Miriam who?" you might ask?

My point exactly.

I'm talking about the biblical Israelite heroine and prophetess, without whom Moses never would have been born and the Israelites would...

If you are hoping to combine your love of pagan holidays and a more unusual take on politics, this is the year to do it!

This is not, of course, a new idea. There are sure to be as many people outfitted as the President or Governor...

THIS JUST IN: Contemporary writers are no longer influenced by classic literature -- or so claim a team of mathematicians from Dartmouth and Wisconsin in a recently published paper entitled, "Quantitative patterns of stylistic influence in the evolution of literature."

But, aspiring writers, don't be fooled: This study...

The nominees for Literary Review's annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award have been announced. The Bad Sex in Fiction award was established in 1993 by the magazine's then editor, Auberon Waugh, in order to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual...

Writing is like sex: The best way to learn is by doing. Studying other people's techniques can be helpful -- but only to a certain extent. At a certain point, you have to grab your preferred medium and dive in. Your first experience will probably not be very satisfying. You...

The distinguished literary scholar Marjorie Perloff is upset with me. She has written and published multiple responses to my recent article, "In Someone Else's Words," which I published here on The Huffington Post as well as in The Crimson, in which I criticized Professor Kenneth Goldsmith's...

The number of writers who repurpose other writers' words and call it legitimate original artwork (not to mention the number of advocates for such a practice) is -- very disconcertingly -- on the rise.

Kenneth Goldsmith, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, is a vocal advocate of the practice....

I can't remember a time when I didn't know about rape. And I can't remember how I learned. I just know it was there, always there. Being raped altered and shaped my mother's identity, and I always knew that.

When I was nine or 10, maybe 11, and I...

Slaughterhouse-Five has been removed from the English curriculum in a Missouri school district because of its inappropriateness. Score one for censorship. Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning young adult novel about a teenager struggling with the aftermath of rape, has also come under attack for what one man calls the "soft...

"Hi, my name is [Insert Name Here], and I went to Harvard. Want to have drinks/dinner/sex?"

If you're a guy who wants to use your Harvard degree as a way to pick up women or a woman who wants to meet rich and successful Harvard grads, there's a brand new...

As this year's high school seniors choose colleges, parents might be surprised to learn that Harvard, Yale, and other elite schools have more permissive attitudes toward underage drinking than many others--and alcohol-related hospitalization rates are rising. Is it smart policy or reckless negligence?

Smart policy, I think.

Check out

This post is dedicated to Mr. Hershey Kaplan, born April 4, 1997.

When I was six years old, what I wanted more than anything else in the world was a dog.

My parents were hesitant. My parents had never had dogs, had never raised a puppy. They told me to...

Norma and Alejandro immigrated to the United States from El Salvador over ten years ago. They have three children, all of whom are younger than twelve. Norma works at night as a custodian for Harvard University, and Alejandro has devoted a lot of his time, recently, to dealing with newly...

Note to my generation: this exhibitionism has gone too far. On Facebook, we share personal details with hundreds (or thousands) of "friends." By simply logging on to my Facebook home page, I can see where you went last night, what group of friends you were with, what shirt you...

On Wednesday, the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill saying that fertilized eggs have all of the rights of a human being. The bill defines any organism containing a single human cell as a human being.

In other words, abortion could be charged as murder....

Now that President Obama has asked Mark Dybul, who served as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator since 2006, to step down, who will succeed him? I hope he taps Harvard Medical School professor Jim Yong Kim.

It's a crucial position, overseeing all international AIDS programming and funding, including the President's...

The SAT is a learnable, beatable test. You can learn exactly what skills will be tested, and you can learn what tricks the College Board might sneak into the multiple choice questions. Now, with the inclusion of Score Choice, the SAT is going to be even more beatable.

Beginning with...

Last Tuesday, history was made. My college campus exploded; hundreds of students converged in Harvard Yard and began taking literal victory laps around the Yard. Groups shouted, "Yes we can! Yes we did!" Among the undergraduate community, there was great excitement and a real sense of optimism for the future....