Most climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest are increasingly estranged from the challenge of making their own decisions.

It’s no wonder Europe and the United States are facing debt crises and political dysfunction at the same time.

As Europe jogs toward its endgame, the euro could still be saved. But that would require major changes from European leaders.

President Obama and other leaders must press Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to commit to a euro-zone growth package. This is no time to mince words.

To win over Catholic swing voters, President Obama needs to emphasize social and economic justice.

Surfing in springtime, in New York.

A punitive exit tax on the Facebook expat isn't worthy of America.

We do not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the Middle East or elsewhere. We only get to choose what side we are on.

The J.P. Morgan CEO is not a diplomat and does not perform kowtows to the political powers that be.

New evidence reveals a vast, cruel network of prison camps.

A bad legal ruling abets a bad anti-antiterror amendment.

The new Islamist government passes a religious freedom test.

Half-hearted reforms won't work. European countries need to get serious about spending cuts.Talks to form a coalition government in Greece collapsed again this week as a result of the country's belt-tightening backlash. The country now faces an unpleasant dilemma: agreed-upon austerity measures in exchange for bailout funds, or a messy default and exit from the Eurozone. Greece's deteriorating situation raises many questions about whether austerity is the right path for other struggling European nations trying to avoid this same fate.

Why are state schools in trouble? Start with the California Teachers Assn.California's education tailspin has been blamed on class sizes, on the property tax restrictions enforced by Proposition 13, on an influx of Spanish-speaking students. But no portrait of the schools' downfall would be complete without mention of the California Teachers Assn., or CTA, arguably the state's most powerful union and a political behemoth that has blocked meaningful education reform, protected failing and even criminal educators, and pushed for pay raises and benefits that have reached unsustainable levels.

Before we can 'do something' for the poor, there are some things we need to stop doing to them.Individually, the poor are not all that tempting to thieves. Mug a banker and you might score a wallet containing a month's rent. Mug a janitor and you'll be lucky to get bus fare to flee the crime scene. But the poor in aggregate provide a juicy target for anyone depraved enough to make a business of stealing from them.

A third-party effort is viable — just not right now.What happens if you start a political party and nobody comes? Six months ago, a newfangled third party burst onto the scene, full of hope and promise. It was called Americans Elect, and it sought to give voters a choice many said they were looking for: "centrist" candidates who could break the partisan gridlock paralyzing Washington.

Economically, the future of the West now depends on the birthplace of the West.When Germany'schancellor, Hannelore Kraft, met France's president, Francois Hollande, in a sunny Berlin earlier this week, they agreed on a compelling strategy to save the Eurozone. With no elections due in any Eurozone country for the next two years, they were able to stretch the austerity timeline for Greece, Spain and Italy, add some elements of growth stimulus but also keep up the essential pressure for fiscal discipline and structural reform. As a result, even devastated Greece began to glimpse light at the end of the tunnel.

Luther Burbank Middle School's National Teacher of the Year talks about what makes a great teacher -- and it's not teaching to the test.The class clown from Mr. Gadberry's high school art class has made good — and how. Rebecca Mieliwocki teaches seventh-grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School in Burbank — but not next year. Instead, she'll be on the road as the National Teacher of the Year. It took her a long time to get to the classroom — she once worked as a floral designer, doing the flowers for Elizabeth Taylor's private jet — and eventually to the White House, where a fellow teacher, President Obama, crowned her as a national teaching treasure. Before she takes off, Mieliwocki is speaking at commencement at her teaching alma mater, Cal State Northridge — and right here.

Many Afghans have risked their lives for a mission that some NATO members want to pretend is complete"Far too much has been accomplished, at far too great a cost, to let the momentum slip away just as the enemy is on its back foot. To that end, we cannot afford to have some troop-contributing nations pull out their forces on their own timeline in a way that undermines the mission and increases risk to other allies. The way ahead in Afghanistan is 'In together, out together.' "

SCOTT STANTISAnd the winner is...

Before you slap Illinois with that multiple downgrade ...Dear Standard & Poor's,

Since a 2009 trip to Kabul, I have kept a sky-blue burqa in my office as a reminder of the responsibility we have to the women of Afghanistan.

OK, NATO protesters, now what?May I have your attention?

Whatever you do, don't forget the palm greaseHowyoo Dooin NATO dignitaries? Let me teach you the earthy local tongue, how to enjoy the proper sangwiches, and the traditional way to kiss the mayor's hand.

There are two ways to defend gay marriage. Argument A is empathy: One is influenced by gay friends in committed relationships yearning for the fulfillment and acceptance that marriage conveys upon heterosexuals. That’s essentially the case President Obama made when he first announced his change of views. Read full article >>

Europe’s economic struggles are a consistent drag on American growth. A eurozone breakup, in chaos and acrimony, could be a Lehman-like shock of incalculable damage. For years, the stronger European economies have managed to bump along from challenge to challenge — providing bailouts to the improvident in exchange for fiscal restraint and reform, while reassuring credit markets in an elaborate confidence game. But the fundamental problem has never been resolved. Europe is a monetary union without being a fiscal union. Germany has become the continent’s rich uncle, vouching for the credit and covering the debts of distant relations without authority over their spending habits. Read full article >>

The False Equivalency Police are dancing on Americans Elect’s grave, claiming the group’s failure to attract viable independent candidates proves the entire enterprise was misbegotten. What’s more, these critics add, Americans Elect’s flop shows that the whole thing was always a sideshow pushed by centrist pundits whose professional identity is wrapped up in the phony notion that Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame for our current predicament. Read full article >>

“Call me cynical,but I wasn’t sure his views on marriage could get any gayer,” Sen. Rand Paul said of President Obama. Okay, let’s call Rand Paul cynical — but not because of his playground taunt of the president a few days ago at a gathering of religious conservatives in Iowa. Let’s call him cynical because of the monstrous proposal the Kentucky Republican offered on the Senate floor Wednesday. Read full article >>

Mitt Romney was against Bill Clinton before he was for him. There was Romney, campaigning Tuesday in Iowa, praising the nation’s previous Democratic president and casting him as far superior to the current incumbent. Read full article >>

There is a lot to "like" in this distinctively American success story, albeit with a disturbing subtext.

Sophia Nelson: On issues such as same-sex marriage and the economy, moderate blacks have more in common than he might think.

We asked our readers on Twitter whether they had more faith in Mitt Romney or President Obama.

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Displaying them there is an affront to those of no faith and non-Christian faiths in this country.