In many parts of the world, there is a growing concern about the retreat of the United States from global leadership in the economic, political and military arenas. In the international economic area, American leadership in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank is of acute concern. For example, Kevin Rafferty, former World Bank official, writes that ?The United States has lost its way and is rapidly forfeiting claims to global financial, economic, political and moral leadership . . . Not for the first time, Obama has shown he can talk eloquently, but does not have a political clue how to get things done.? Although provocative, Rafferty?s statement is not unique. There is the perception among many of the world?s leaders that the US is disengaged and failing to provide the kind of leadership it has consistently done since World War II.

Largely because of the procedure known as in-vitro fertilization (IVF), thousands of couples across the US are facing an ethical dilemma never faced before in history: What to do with their frozen embryos? The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that more than 600,000 frozen embryos are stored nationwide, in addition to countless more cryo-preserved eggs and sperm. [It is difficult to estimate how many frozen embryos there are worldwide.] IVF produces embryos in a petri dish, where the wife?s eggs are fertilized by the husband?s sperm. [Sometimes donor eggs and/or donor sperm are used as well.] Generally, there are multiple fertilizations and several are placed into the woman?s body in hopes one or more will attach to the uterine wall as a successful pregnancy. The rest of the robust embryos are frozen.

President Obama, the government of Iran, and other major nations including Britain, France and Russia, recently announced a framework for a deal to slow down Iran?s nuclear program and remove the sanctions that have somewhat crippled the Iranian economy. That it is controversial is an understatement. Even after it was announced, there was evident disagreement between Iran and the US over when and how the sanctions would be removed and over details about inspections and verification as the agreement is implemented. This is astonishing in its own right because the announcement is only about a framework; the specific details about implementing the framework are yet to be negotiated and this is to be completed by 30 June 2015.

Since World War II, three major international financial institutions have facilitated (and dominated) the world?s investment in development opportunities in roads, airports and other infrastructure issues throughout Asia (and much of the world)?the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The leadership of these organizations has been restricted to Europeans, Americans and Japanese; China has been excluded. But China has the world?s largest foreign reserves (an estimated $4 trillion) and is quite eager to invest these reserves overseas.

Over the last several months, the advocates of environmentalism, especially those on the left wing of this important movement, have focused on the Keystone pipeline, have lauded the Obama-Xi agreement on carbon emissions, and continue to argue strongly that global warming is caused singularly by humans via carbon emissions. It is time to step back and be intellectually honest about these three issues. An honest appraisal of these three items illustrates that left-wing environmentalism is more about politics and ideology than truth.

The LGBTQIA movement and Religious Liberty are on a collision course within American culture. One of the most recent examples of this occurred in Atlanta. In early January, Atlanta?s Mayor, Kasim Reed, fired the chief of the Fire Rescue Department, Kelvin Cochran. Cochran had written a book, Who Told You That You Were Naked?, in which he condemned homosexual acts as an affront to God. Cochran had distributed several copies of the book to Atlanta workers, all fellow Christians, plus to three other employees who had not requested a copy of the book. Mayor Reed had suspended Cochran for a month without pay in November, pending an investigation into whether Cochran had violated Atlanta?s nondiscrimination policies.

Since the United Nations created the state of Israel in 1947, an offer to create a Palestinian state has been on the table. The proposed partition of Palestine in 1947 involved a state for the Jewish people as their homeland and a state of virtually equal size for the Palestinians. Israel accepted the partition; the Palestinians rejected it, which led to the 1948 war when the infant Jewish state was invaded by Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. There have been three subsequent wars between Israel and these same neighbors (1956, 1967, and 1973). Today, Israel embraces the two-state solution (i.e., a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel).

The United States Constitution declares quite clearly that the job of Congress is to make the laws and the job of the president is to faithfully execute those laws. It really does not grant to the president the power to suspend a law or grant waivers for its requirements. However, President Obama has done just that on many occasions, threatening the sacred doctrine of the separation of powers so central to the Constitution and to the check on despotic power. Columnist George Will writes persuasively that ?Regarding immigration, health care, welfare, education, drug policy and more, Obama has suspended, waived and rewritten laws, including the Affordable Care Act? (ACA).

Since late summer and now into the fall of 2014, a series of tragedies involving young black men and the police have fueled tensions in several urban centers in the United States. In each, emotions and pent-up anger have caused significant strain and, in some cases, rioting within the black community. And the manner in which the national media has covered each one of these events has usually exacerbated the mistrust and tension. For the various constituencies involved, past assumptions and current perceptions have shaped the respective responses to these tragedies. There are also significant differences between each case, making generalizations impossible or at least not very helpful.

As of this writing, the United States, other Western powers and Iran have agreed to extend negotiations on a nuclear deal for seven more months. The ?red line? date of 24 November never seemed very sacrosanct; this ?deal? to extend the deal negotiations shows that. It is quite easy to be cynical about all this, but it does point to a deeper reality about Iran, the Middle East and the US.