Brian Till from Creators Syndicate

Pay It Plastic Generation for 07/23/2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

My generation has strayed a great deal from the tightly managed finances that our parents observe — ask a 20-something to balance a checkbook and they'll likely stare back at you. It's doubtful they have one, but if they do — and manage to find it — they'll probably ask how to turn it on.

At most colleges today, kids are inundated with credit card offers. Every trip to ...

Updated: Wed Jul 23, 2008

Pieces of Palestine: the Middle East's Festering Wound for 07/30/2008

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On June 1, I was standing alongside a highway in northern Lebanon shooting pictures of the ruins of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp; a hundred kilometers to the south, a young man my age approached a narrow checkpoint on the perimeter of the Ain el-Helweh camp. He was wearing a suicide belt, armed with two kilograms of TNT and a kilo of metal. Before he was able to detonate the belt or navigate ...

Updated: Wed Jul 30, 2008

The Debate Both Candidates Want To Avoid: Immigration for 08/06/2008

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

How quickly our broken borders went from an "issue of national security" — in even liberal Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's rhetoric — to a campaign footnote. After the failure of comprehensive reform last summer, the matter has played an alarmingly quiet role in the 2008 presidential election. The reason isn't too complex for the modest political observer to stumble upon: ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008

Obama and the Generation Y Wave for 08/13/2008

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Barack Obama has maneuvered masterfully atop his wave of young supporters. Early on, pundits loudly doubted that "star power" would metastasize when it came time to cast ballots. Applauding from afar — watching on YouTube or joining a Facebook group — was a far cry from civil participation, they pontificated.

But Generation Y showed its face across the country as pr ...

Updated: Wed Aug 13, 2008

Fading Stars of the Olympiad for 08/20/2008

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

After capturing his eighth gold medal Saturday night, Michael Phelps told a gaggle of press that he looked forward to " just sitting, not moving." The same could not be said of Phelps' agent, Peter Carlisle, who's been hustling his client's name to all interested corporate branders.

As the Beijing games wind down, I'd like to reflect on the fleeting nature of Olympic celebrity. ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

Buyers Remorse: The Case for Hillary for 08/27/2008

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

DENVER — When Barack Obama started sliding in the polls a few weeks ago — grinding downwards despite unprecedented press coverage on a seemingly flawless trip abroad — he should have made a game time decision.

The chorus of conversation leaving the Pepsi Center Tuesday night left little unsaid. "Daily Show" correspondent John Oliver assaulted those leaving the ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

Palin-Gate, the RNC, and the Forgotten World Beyond for 09/03/2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ST. PAUL — While America had itself turned inward, enamored with Barack Obama's Invesco Field address and pondering John McCain's choice of little-known Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, the world didn't stop.

An emboldened Russia, fresh off its reassertion of authority over the Eastern Bloc, set to rebuilding its influence in the Middle East by beginning negotiations for ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

The Lost Boys of Generation Y for 09/10/2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"I'm gonna see how long I can go before I have to get a job," declared a recent fellow graduate. Another leaves for New Zealand in a week; two spent the summer working at the race track in Saratoga, N.Y.; and three others moved in together a block from campus. So looks the current breakdown of my college crew, and so fits the sociological profile outlined by University of New York at ...

Updated: Wed Sep 10, 2008

Cuba: Putting a Cold War Relic to Rest for 09/17/2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Fidel Castro said last week that the devastation reaped by Hurricane Gustav reminded him of desolation he witnessed after nuclear bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945. The Red Cross estimates that repairing wreckage left by hurricanes Ike and Gustav, both of which hit the island earlier this month at the height of their strength, will total between $3 billion and $4 billion. The Castro regime pl ...

Updated: Wed Sep 17, 2008

The Wall Street Freshman for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"I'm pushing around 60 million in Euros every day and I have no idea how to balance a checkbook." This is how my conversation started with a 23-year-old hedge fund trader. "I'll be clearin' almost 100k this year," he added, "before bonus, of course. You should write an article about me."

"Before taxes, too," I offered sadistically. He replied with ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

The Wall Street Freshman for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Before taxes, too," I offered sadistically. He replied with ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

America the Ignorant for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At a small salon dinner the other night in Washington, one of America's most respected foreign policy practitioners confessed: "My great fear is that this is a wonderful country that is made up of ignorant people who are voters."

In a new book titled "America and the World," Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser under Jimmy Carter, laments, "the next ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

McCain the Incoherent for 10/08/2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"It's embarrassing," an Italian foreign correspondent relented after diplomacy was pushed aside at the vice presidential debate last week. Not surprisingly, he was — along with others that nodded in agreement — referencing the nomination of Sarah Palin. "There are many qualified, intelligent women in the Republican Party, why her?"

It was the single thing ...

Updated: Wed Oct 08, 2008

The Dishonor of an American Hero for 10/15/2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

During the last week of September, a group of college students at the Christian George Fox University in Oregon — a state that's gone Democratic in the past five presidential elections — hanged a cardboard cutout of Sen. Barack Obama from a tree near a main academic hall. Last weekend in rural Pennsylvania, a man danced a stuffed monkey with an Obama sticker fashioned into a hat in ...

Updated: Wed Oct 15, 2008

The Dying Days of the American Field Trip for 10/22/2008

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At a small primary school in Western Massachusetts, Principal Robert Clancy has taken a spot behind the wheel, serving as bus driver for the school's two remaining field trips; the third annual trip has been cut, and Clancy has taken the wheel to assure that the remaining trips stay alive. It's one educator's efforts to save a great, fading American institution.

For generations, the fiel ...

Updated: Wed Oct 22, 2008

Assault in Syria: Another Mideast Bush Blunder for 10/29/2008

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Earlier this week, a team of U.S. commandos assaulted an extremist safe house along the Syrian-Iraqi border, a measure that, at face value, might appear aligned with American interest. But it isn't; the move endangers more American and Israeli lives than it can claim to protect. I spent several weeks in Syria this summer, and came away with a much greater understanding for both the power and vu ...

Updated: Wed Oct 29, 2008

Ask Us To Serve for 11/05/2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

"I was inspired by Jack Kennedy," a high school teacher replied when I asked what had moved him to join the Peace Corps and work in Cameroon.

A grand, Kennedy-esque call to service flittered throughout Obama's campaign, but never took firm ground. I'm concerned it might never solidify; that nascent campaign ideas, and a critical component of the Obama campaign strategy, may not ...

Updated: Wed Nov 05, 2008

A Generation's Greatest Failure for 11/12/2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

This fall, the British government released transcripts of Cold War era tapes it planned to broadcast if the nation came under attack. "There is nothing to be gained by trying to get away," the pages read. "This country has been attacked by nuclear weapons."

Survivors are urged to save toilet water for drinking, to hoard enough food to last for several weeks, and to av ...

Updated: Wed Nov 12, 2008

The Heart of a Gay Marriage Debate for 11/19/2008

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

SAN FRANCISCO — On Nov. 4, African-Americans, descendants of those whom America's original sin was perpetrated against, came out en masse to elect Barack Obama. In Florida, Arkansas, and California, they also voted overwhelmingly against gay rights, against equality for those whom America's most recent sin has been beset upon.

Today we see a culture war playing out across America, ...

Updated: Wed Nov 19, 2008

Thanks to a Slumdog for 11/26/2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

When Generation Y went home this November to be with family, to celebrate and give thanks, many of us found less comfort and cheer than the holidays usually provide. After we finished midterms and cleaned cubicles, after trekking home aboard buses and planes, many of us found neighborhoods littered with real estate signs, and favorite hometown restaurants and stores shut for good.

Many r ...

Updated: Wed Nov 26, 2008