The problem is that Islam does not have a pope, so there's no one guy to say, 'This isn't kosher'...Not that he would.

The great drama of Russian history has been between its state and society. Put simply, Russia has always had too much state and not enough society.

CNN is getting smarter, and you can feel it in the stories, you can feel it in the depth with which they're covered, the kinds of people in terms of guests who are brought on air, the way in which issues are discussed.

We all accuse Vladimir Putin of Cold War nostalgia, but Washington's elites - politicians and intellectuals - miss the old days as well. They wish for the world in which the United States was utterly dominant over its friends, its foes were to be shunned entirely, and the challenges were stark, moral, and vital. Today's world is messy and complicated. China is one of our biggest trading partners and our looming geopolitical rival. Russia is a surly spoiler, but it has a globalized middle class and has created ties in Europe.

You know, when the cost of capital goes down, when credit becomes cheap, people start taking greater and greater risks.

Politics and power is a realm of relative influence.

Culture follows power.