When two Irish bands release new albums at the same time, you know it’s going to be a good week.   The differences between these two bands, their albums and the manner of their release, however, could not be more stark.  U2 is pondering their mortality and trying to live up to their past, a...

The Damnwells have been out of the spotlight for a while.  Since their last album, the stunning breakthrough Air Stereo, the band went on a grueling tour, had their van break down and was unceremoniously dropped by their label (not to name names, but it was Epic–feel free to send hate mail). ...

Of course most QandO readers are smart enough to understand that no matter what our political class says or promises, not much at all changes within the DC beltway. Despite the smiling assurances of ’hope’, change’ a ’new attitude’ and ’bi-partisanship’, it ...

That’s something they’ve been busily doing in Davos. Global investment in clean energy must reach $515 billion per year by 2030 — triple that of last year’s investment — in order to avoid “the catastrophic impact of climate change,â€� according to a report from the World Economic...

And he’s also none to complementary of James Hansen himself:Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist, Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fear soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embar...

The one thing Bill Ayers has accomplished in his life - besides fooling at least some into believing he’s just an everyday education professor - is to prove Andy Warhol wrong about everyone getting just 15 minutes of fame. Ayers is working on his second 15 minutes and is no more coherent this ...

While everyone knows, ultimately it is the President of the United States, usually it is the Secretary of the State who carries the foreign policy ball for the president. Except when the newly seated US ambassador to the UN decides she’s the one speaking for the US:The U.S. ambassador to the U...

And that includes those getting it and those handing it out: Beleaguered Citigroup is upgrading its mile-high club with a brand-new $50 million corporate jet - only this time, it’s the taxpayers who are getting screwed. Even though the bank’s stock is as cheap as a gallon of gas and it&r...

I get a hoot out of things like this. Matt Yglesias:For years now, liberals have had to put up with basic points about the value of not doing stuff that’s hugely unpopular around the world caricatured as the idea that if we just act nicer, al-Qaeda leaders will lay down their arms. The reality, as...

Several days ago Nicholas Kristof started a mini-bruhaha when he wrote a piece in the NY Times entitled "Where Sweatshops Are A Dream". Essentially the gist of the story is don’t knock so-called "sweatshops" until you understand their place in various countries. Or, there are places where work...