Germany joins the EU campaign to identify Israeli-made goods as Jewish
Independent voices from the TWT Communities

The great tragedy of our time is that so few know economic history; thus we have been doomed to repeat the mistakes of a generation ago, and millions suffer.
Years from now, historians may well write that the decline or upswing in the American empire of liberty occurred during the Obama presidency. They will either write that the Obama administration's self-fulfilling prophecy and rhetoric of decline was overcome by the overwhelming greatness of the United States or that the ultimate downfall was caused by the conditions created by this White House.
The former Canadian ambassador to Iran who protected Americans at great personal risk during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis said Monday it was good to hear Ben Affleck thank Canada after Affleck's film "Argo" won the Oscar for best picture.

A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a petition to reclassify marijuana from its current federal status as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use.
Considering the flurry of spending and finance-suppression laws by congressional Democrats and President Obama during the first two years of his presidency, plus the rush of executive edicts, regulations, enormous deficits, mounting debt and the "fiscal cliff," something became painfully clear: This was not a very merry Christmas. Alas, more taxes, regulations, spending and a deeper second recession are coming, which means it certainly won't be a happy new year for years to come ("Obama's hidden-tax heist," Web, Dec. 24).

Four days out, it looks like Mitt Romney. October has come and gone with no surprise, with just a slow, plodding accumulation of signs and portents suggesting that “the One” who has come will soon be gone.

The terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, makes it clear we cannot afford to continue to overlook our many national security issues that have been neglected and must be addressed. Sequestration only compounds the problem.
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's call for peace through strength was right on point ("Romney's peace through strength," Comment & Analysis, Tuesday). The now-defunct Strategic Air Command's motto was "Peace is our profession."

In the upcoming debates, Mitt Romney will need to present as stark a choice as Ronald Reagan did 32 years ago.

Incumbent presidents usually lay low during their opponents' nominating conventions, but not so with President Obama, who will wage an ambitious campaign next week to coincide with the Republican National Convention.

Every four years around the time the presidential primaries begin to wrap up, the drumbeat from pundits begins: If only a centrist superhero would swoop in and save the day, espousing bold self-control and a issuing a resounding call to pragmatism. Sorry to ruin the fantasy for you, but Superman doesn't exist.

The dramatic rescue of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia by Navy commandos was a terrific encore to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan nine months ago. However, all the White House-driven publicity for both events has helped turn the once-secret SEAL Team 6 into a household term, with likely negative consequences.

Because the Gipper is not here to say, "There you go again!" to Mr. Gingrich, and because the choice of a new president is so critical to the nation today, it falls on us who served with Reagan and are still around to tell America the truth about Mr. Gingrich and his repeated attempts to thwart Reagan's cornerstone achievement: the defeat of global tyranny in the form of the Soviet Union and the final rejection of communism as a failed experiment.

Now that the last U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq, the question of how to deal with Iran's aggression and its drive to develop a nuclear weapon remains less than clear. At the White House meeting on Dec. 12 between President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, only passing recognition was given to these two issues.
President Carter announced that Iran wouldn't release the American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran until after the November election.
"I think to close out this discussion," he said, "it would be better to put into perspective what we're talking about.