Posts By Author » Rachel Marsden

The death of depth
9 Jan 2013 12:02 am

It’s very likely that kids will find this column to be, like, totally stupid, and will conclude that they can write one sooooo much better. They will declare this on their Twitter feed, sandwiched between the hundreds of photos of themselves making that pursed-lips “duck face,” then wait for the “friends” they’ve never met in person to tell them how hot they look.
That’s because compared with 30 years ago, more American students think they’re above average in writing, leadership, intelligence, drive and social skills, according to a BBC analysis of …

Rachel Marsden: What Hemingway can teach us about New Year’s predictions
1 Jan 2013 12:03 am

Predicting events can be a dangerous game. That’s because some people simply project wishful thinking, allowing their personal biases to obscure reality. We see it repeatedly during election season. The key to making accurate predictions is absolute objectivity: observing patterns in a detached manner, drawing inferences and applying them to new developments in order to predict their likely trajectory.
The big problem these days is that this requires the absorption of large amounts of information across an enormous landscape — sometimes straddling disparate points in time and space. This information isn’t …

When terrorists ‘killed’ in drone strikes aren’t really dead
12 Dec 2012 12:11 am

PARIS — Is “killed by a drone strike” the new “alive and well”? If you pay close enough attention, it makes you wonder what’s really going on.
Here’s how this charade usually goes: One or more major news organizations runs a story about some Middle Eastern terrorist being killed in a drone strike, usually in Pakistan. The reports, typically generated by some murky Pakistani intelligence source — are neither confirmed nor denied by U.S. intelligence. The boilerplate response is instead something like, “We can only confirm they were in the area.” …

The folly of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s spy-hiring spree
5 Dec 2012 12:03 am

Wasn’t the U.S. defense budget supposed to be in for some belt-tightening by now? Whereas President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, waged war the old-fashioned way, with troops and tanks, Obama has been busy outsourcing the dirty work of protecting and furthering America’s interests to CIA drones, private contractors, local mobs with ties to terrorists, and even the French.
It was looking as if the Department of Defense could pack up, because the administration didn’t leave it with much to do. But this week, members of that department awoke to …

Bond’s ‘Skyfall’ could be our very real nightmare
28 Nov 2012 12:03 am

Anyone who has seen the latest James Bond film, “Skyfall,” would be hard-pressed to find any traditional espionage tradecraft. More actual spying would have meant less of Daniel Craig running around in a too-tight suit chasing bad guys. When the villain — in this case a cyberterrorist played masterfully by Javier Bardem — is able to turn around and say to Bond, “Why are you doing all this running around and wasting your energy?”, anyone who knows anything about real spying is tempted to yell at the screen, “Because the …

True capitalism can weed out system-wrecking psychopaths
21 Nov 2012 12:04 am

PARIS — A colleague mentioned earlier this week how thankful he is that he can tell anyone who deserves it to go take a flying leap. (Actually, his precise words are unprintable, but you get the idea.) At first glance, such uninhibited opinion-sharing might seem rude and unacceptable, but upon further reflection, it becomes clear how individuals rising up and courageously telling off the creeps who deserve it would benefit society as a whole, and how capitalism in particular is the perfect vehicle for this.
In stomping out brutal honesty and …

The French view of the Petraeus sex scandal
14 Nov 2012 12:02 am

PARIS — French public reaction to American CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus’ suicide-bombing of his own career demonstrates a lack of understanding of the perceived offense in favor of a blind defense of libertinism. It was learned last week that Petraeus had an extramarital affair with his biographer, reserve Army officer Paula Broadwell (who, like Petraeus, is married with children).
Let’s go back in time for some context.
The French never understood why President Bill Clinton was impeached for the Monica Lewinsky scandal following disapproval by those “puritanical Americans.” Sure, he may …

Why we’re still in deep trouble no matter who wins the presidency
31 Oct 2012 12:02 am

PARIS — Regardless of who wins the U.S. presidential election next week, one thing seems certain: Americans are about to learn the same hard lessons recently visited upon the French and the British. That is, whoever ends up being elected head of any given political system will be required to work within the confines of current global economic forces.
Candidates can promise all the economic changes they want within their particular national bubble, but nothing will actually change without the blessing of the global market gods. So then, what’s the solution?
Every …

How the election could go wrong for Romney
24 Oct 2012 12:04 am

PARIS — There’s a good chance that American voters will screw up the presidential election.
“How could you say such a thing when in a democracy the people are, by definition, correct?” you ask.
Because there’s no such thing as collective intelligence, that’s why. Sure, there are individuals within a given society who happen to be informed and intelligent — but it requires work to overcome the sort of inertia that has so many other people in that society pinned to their recliners watching “Dancing With the Stars” while precariously balancing a …

French favor Obama in presidential race — which shows they have much to learn
17 Oct 2012 12:02 am

The people of France have spoken on the subject of the U.S. presidential election. Naturally, you couldn’t care less about what anyone else (let alone the French) thinks about you or your electoral choices, right?
The French aren’t particularly interested in appearing too keen on America, either. A Harris Interactive poll found that 66 percent of respondents either care little about the U.S. presidential race or not at all. However, should a gun be put to their head mid Gallic shrug, 88 percent of them would take Barack Obama, merci, with …

Rachel Marsden: Presidential showdown highlights America’s critical-thought problem
10 Oct 2012 12:04 am

PARIS — America has collective attention deficit disorder, and in one way it’s a bigger threat than terrorism, cybersecurity dangers and the never-ending Middle East drama: Those other problems at least have the potential to be solved.
We witnessed this phenomenon last week during the first presidential debate. Washington pundits and policy wonks tried to sift through the rhetorical sandstorm for logical solid ground amid such concepts as Mitt Romney’s revenue-neutral tax cuts and Barack Obama’s wealth-creation proposition of tossing more money into the fiscal black hole of “new energy.” For …

Rachel Marsden: Romney can win by doing one thing
3 Oct 2012 12:04 am

PARIS — Mitt Romney’s biggest problem in this race isn’t that he’s wealthy — it’s that he lacks the sort of passion that can only be forged by trial and tribulation. It’s one thing to articulate the principles of free-market capitalism and limited government as the solution to the country’s current woes, but they have little effect when they can’t be strapped to an emotional rocket and delivered in surgical strikes straight through voters’ hearts.
Politics will always be about connecting with people. The most ingenious political policy is useless as …

Britain’s backup plan
25 Sep 2012 12:02 am

While news in America continues to be dominated by the usual election-cycle fare of gimmicky talking points, gratuitous finger-pointing and constant bickering over which presidential candidate is best qualified to steer the country into the iceberg, some other countries around the world, such as Great Britain, are thinking ahead to identify possible lifeboats and passing freighters.
There’s a very easy solution to the eurozone crisis: Everyone gets their hands back in their own pockets and stops trying to use the European Union to bless the pickpocketing of the better-off countries in …

The truth behind the new Islamic flashpoints
19 Sep 2012 12:02 am

The CIA claims that it never saw the storm coming, but Canadian intelligence sure did.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird landed in Vladivostok, Russia, earlier this month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and had barely stepped off the plane when he announced that Canada would be pulling its diplomats out of Iran and closing its embassy while kicking all Iranian diplomats out of Canada.
At the time, some thought that maybe the minister had a few too many mini vodkas on the ride over. Several days later, when protests and …

Rachel Marsden: Is Putin the Russian Reagan?
16 Sep 2012 12:02 am

It would seem that we’re now at the stage of global economic lunacy where the worldwide socialist slide is so far gone that the president of Russia is lecturing the world, and particularly Europe, about the risks of socialism.
Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vladivostok, Russia, Vladimir Putin promoted the merits of free-market economics. He said that by pulling the former Soviet satellite states into its sphere after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Europe chose to take responsibility for subsidizing their economic well-being. And now the eurozone …

Rachel Marsden: Tips for adapting to the new global economic reality
5 Sep 2012 12:11 am

By now, it should be pretty clear to anyone with even the faintest pulse that regardless of who ends up winning any future elections, they aren’t going to change your personal economic reality quickly enough to suit your liking. And that’s only if they even manage to find the courage to sufficiently cut through all the lobbyists and special interests to implement any significant ideas at all — which is unlikely in all cases. Forget relying on politicians to determine your fate. Take charge of your own situation. Here’s how:
1. …

Five things Romney needs from the GOP convention
29 Aug 2012 12:02 am

This week’s Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., is a political autobahn. Depending on how Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan play it, they’ll either gain some unfettered mileage in advancing their agenda with the voting public, or slam into a pole in a single-car crash.
Nothing stands in their way except themselves. Not even the liberal media can be used as an excuse — if only because Romney and Ryan should be prepared for it and should know how to handle it. Let’s look at a few things the Romney-Ryan ticket needs …

How Pussy Riot bamboozled the media
22 Aug 2012 12:01 am

If Justin Bieber or the Rolling Stones suddenly decided to stage an impromptu concert in a public place somewhere in America without a permit, would the authorities ignore it and shrug it off? Doubtful. Even buskers performing in the New York City subway system can’t play without formal authorization from the city.
What about taking such a musical performance into a church? If Jennifer Lopez or Madonna just showed up in a place of worship, stripped down to their skivvies and started dancing around the altar, would that fly in any …

Obama sides with an unlikely ally in Syria
15 Aug 2012 12:01 am

A recent intelligence leak confirms something that regular readers of this column already know: that the Obama administration has officially authorized covert support of local “rebel” groups, through government agencies like the CIA, with the goal of destabilizing and subverting the Bashar al-Assad regime. The interesting consequence is that al-Qaeda is among the groups President Obama’s directive now supports.
Just think about this for a minute. The president of the United States, according to an intelligence leak initially reported by Reuters, has secretly authorized support of an undisclosed nature for armed …

How nations can use the Olympic athlete’s mentality to win
8 Aug 2012 12:11 am

Watching the Olympic Games, I find one phenomenon particularly striking. After an event, athletes who literally seconds before had been attempting to trounce one another in competition suddenly start hugging each other.
An outsider might wonder about this coexistence of competition and affection. As a former elite-level swimmer, I can tell you: While it’s every athlete’s goal to win, athletes realize that their competitors are largely responsible for pushing them to their best performances.
When someone like Michael Phelps comes along and blows everyone out of the pool, it forces the rest …

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