Briefing Archive

There’s so much to love about Charlie Sheen’s diatribes that about the only improvement I can think of would be to have Jean-Claude Van Damme be the one interviewing him. Obscured by the spectacle of Sheen’s crash-and-burn party are some very serious critiques of the consensus drug treatment paradigm in the U.S. But there are also some very important insights into U.S. foreign policy and national security. In particular, Sheen’s remarks, which I’m tempted to refer to as the Sheen Doctrine, illustrate one tendency prevalent on the left and another prevalent on the right, while succinctly articulating a major tenet […]

Last week’s nationwide protests by Bolivian bus drivers were the latest in a series of demonstrations that have become a massive administrative and political headache for Bolivian President Evo Morales. Bolivians have developed a growing list of grievances against the beleaguered leader and are taking them to the streets — as well as to the mines and railways — across the country with greater frequency in 2011. Since winning re-election by a landslide in December 2009, Morales has been under mounting pressure from both ends of the spectrum of Bolivian society — the wealthier elites in the east and the […]