Outside the Beltway

In Scotland, posting stupid things on Facebook is a “hate crime” punishable by serious jail time.

The British government has worked out a deal to block pornographic websites unless households specifically request them.

It’s time to start being concerned about Europe.

NATO is still seen as essential by 62 percent of both EU and U.S. respondents, demonstrating that the transatlantic military bond is still, despite a rough decade, firmly entrenched in American and European views of the world.

A new poll shows that Americans are starting to look East.

A mustachioed German has once again sent the world into panic. This time, it involves euros not tanks.

If you haven’t experienced the joys of peddling around Germany with 15 of your closest friends while enjoying several liters of Munich’s finest, you’re too late.

British courts are handing out swift and harsh sentences for people involved in last week’s riots, including four-year prison sentences for two 20-somethings for Facebook postings in support of the mayhem.

What’s a little thing like freedom of speech when there are shops being looted and burned?

Some thoughts on the riots (especially some US partisan responses to it).

Lost in the hubbub of S&P downgrading the US bond rating is news that the Italian government has the ratings agencies under criminal investigation.

Is NATO prepared for what happens when they win?

I must confess to having only paid peripheral attention at first, but it is clear that there is a major story here that requires attention.

Remember Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the arrogant French aristocrat whose career was ended by a courageous chambermaid, shedding light on a corrupt social system? A funny thing happened on the way to the slammer.

Trevor Phillips, chairman of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, says fundamentalist Christians are a far bigger problem than Muslims. And, no, he’s not anti-religion.

My latest piece for The Atlantic, “Is the U.S.-European Relationship Really in Decline?” is posted.

Turkey has had elections, and the ruling AKP has retained a majority in parliament. The next major issue appears to be constitutional reform.

Despite what appear to be the fond hope of European central bankers that it will just all go away, something needs to be done. But what?

Holland is going to make it harder for tourists to smoke marijuana.

Former Serbian commander Ratko Mladic has been arrested for alleged war crimes committed in the 1990s.

While President Obama has had some amusing gaffes on his trip to London, including getting the year wrong in the guest book and an awkward toast to the Queen, his speech to Parliament today hit all the right notes.

Ben Stein seems to have been out to lunch when he wrote his column about Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Some French politicians and intellectuals seem offended that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is being treated like a common criminal.

The free world rallied around the United States after the 9/11 attacks–but not all back the killing of the man who ordered it.

Britain’s Prince William marries Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, giving her a ring of Welsh gold.

Singing the 1974 Carl Douglas classic “Kung Fu Fighting” can get you arrested in England.

France’s top court refused to allow French citizenship for 10-year-old twin girls born to a surrogate mother in the United States.