Full Comment (Free subscription) | yesterday
Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: Fame is a two-edged sword as Tiger Woods is discovering to his chagrin. His post-Thanksgiving car crash is fueling a media frenzy as the golfing great and his wife Elin Woods refuse to answer questions about the incident that saw him drive away from his house at 2 a.m. and...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/24/2009
Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: For reasons known only to himself, Patrick Kennedy, son of Teddy and a representative for Rhode Island, revealed on the weekend he’d been told by the local bishop not to take communion. The reason: his views on abortion contradict the teachings of the Roman Catholic...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: V is for vetting, a process right-wing conservatives ignore at their peril. Instead, they’re quick to trumpet the virtues of anyone who shares their views and looks vaguely presentable. That’s how they ended lining up behind Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/19/2009
Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: U.S. lawmakers are all in a lather over plans to transfer detainees from Guantanamo to the U.S. mainland where -- golly -- they might end up in a prison in Barack Obama's own backyard. This outbreak of “not in my bailiwick” has been touched off by news the federal...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: When in Rome do as the Romans do, even if it opens you to ridicule by your detractors back home. Thus it was that Barack Obama travelled to Tokyo and bowed to the Emperor Akihito. The U.S. President also shook hands for good measure, but that’s another story. His polite...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: It's hard to believe, but as recently as last year most of us had never heard of Sarah Palin. All that changed when she was tapped by John McCain, the Republican candidate, to be his vice-presidential running mate, probably the biggest mistake of his career. Today you would have...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: Africa’s rulers -- all men with the exception of Liberia’s Elaine Johnson-Sirleaf -- are apparently a squeamish lot. A case in point is Rupiah Banda of Zambia, who ordered the prosecution of a newspaper editor for publishing “pornography.” Chansa Kabwela’s...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: Roger Clemens doesn't want to discuss allegations he used drugs to enhance his performance. Mark McGwire virtually disappeared rather than answer similar questions. Barry Bonds doesn't talk much, period. Andy Pettitte and Alex Rodriguez just wish the issue would go away. But Andre...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: Judging by the clips on the evening news, most Americans are out there protesting against Barack Obama's plan to ruin the "best health care system in the world." Evidently this requires ritual denunciations of Canada, whose terrorized citizens are apparently all flocking...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: Everyone knows a diplomat is an honest man (or woman) sent abroad to lie for his country -- the insight is Sir Henry Wotton’s in the 17th century, but his observation has lost none of its bite. Now, the U.S. State Department wants to ensure its envoys don’t die in...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 11/02/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: The knives are out for Dede Scozzafava, who was running as the official Republican candidate in a special congressional election upper state New York, until the weekend. The moderate GOP-er — she supports gay rights and abortion, but is “sound” on guns and the...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: It took Hillary Clinton to say what much of America has been thinking for some time now: How is it possible that leaders from al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- possibly including Osama bin Laden himself -- could sneak into Pakistan and live unmolested for years, without anyone in Islamabad...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 10/29/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: Michael Bloomberg has been mayor of New York for two terms and got city council to change the law so he could run for a third. Despite every indication he will win again, the mayor seems to lack a certain faith in his record. So once again he is splashing out a huge chunk of his...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: If it’s the first Tuesday in November, the traditional date for presidential polls, there must be an election somewhere in the United States. And this year is no exception, although there are only a few “special elections.” The one that’s attracting all...
Full Comment (Free subscription) | 10/26/2009
Full Comment's Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. Today: There was a genteel riot in London last week as crowds gathered outside the studios of the BBC. No, they hadn’t come to mob a pop star or the Queen. They were there because Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, was appearing for the first time on Question Time...
