The New Republic

Six days and one Twitter account after escaping from its cage, the Bronx Zoo's Egyptian cobra has been found. Zoo staff found the cobra by itself in a dark corner of the reptile house, putting to rest local parents' fears that the cobra was roaming the area. If the cobra had left the zoo, though, it likely would have been on its own for a long time, and not just because it was kept in the middle of the Bronx: the worldwide snake population is in "alarming" decline. READ MORE >>

A couple days ago, Senator Ron Johnson -- yet another in the Badger State's seemingly inexhaustible supply of ill-informed Randian fundamentalists -- wrote a ludicrously bad Wall Street Journal op-ed about how the Affordable care Act would have killed his daughter if it were in effect when she had life-saving surgery. READ MORE >>

Colonel Muammar Qaddafi is on the move again in Africa. This time his chosen battleground is Chad, a desert country of 4.5 million people scattered through a territory twice the size of France. The confusion and hesitation evident in French and American reactions to Qaddafi's newest adventure are more understandable if viewed in terms of the three complex fronts on which Qaddafi conducts this war. READ MORE >>

There are so many things wrong with the Libyan intervention that it is hard to know where to begin. So, a few big things, in no particular order: READ MORE >>

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And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris By Alan Riding (Alfred A. Knopf, 399 pp., $28.95) READ MORE >>

Of Gods and Men Sony Pictures Classics Carancho Strand Releasing A French film called Of Gods and Men has had an unusual effect in France. The subject is basically factual—the abduction and murder of seven monks from the Tibhirine monastery in Algeria in 1996, apparently by Algerian dissidents. Most of the picture takes place during the time when the monks decide whether to stay or leave after the dissidents have ordered them to go. READ MORE >>

The night I lost my digital virginity, I was sixteen, visiting family in Paris. One evening, my cousin and I decided to go to a movie. Before I could reach for the newspaper listings, he switched on a box the size of a small television that sat on a living room shelf, unnoticed by me until that moment. The screen glowed blue as he typed in a sequence of numbers. Voilà! The desired information appeared in a flash of light that seemed nothing less than magical. READ MORE >>

Yes, of course. The majority of Muslims are against terror killings of Christians. Maybe even a big majority. But the fact is there is little evidence and, in fact, almost no evidence of revulsion at what has become the distinctive imprint of Islam in the modern world. Alright, I'll note the most important caveat: it is not Islam but Islamists and Islamism that are at fault in this ongoing outrage. READ MORE >>

The average Frenchman will live to 81.5 years of age...and growing. And since France is nearly broke one of the steps -but just one of them- it has to take is to raise both the ages for minimum retirement and for full state pensions. The fact is that the Wall Street Journal editorial page is the site where the argument is made the most honestly and persuasively. READ MORE >>