The world is suffering the worst global food crisis in a generation, with shortages and record food prices spawning unrest in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. The United Nations has identified 36 countries in crisis, 21 of them in Africa. In Haiti, the poorest of the poor are said to be eating a muddy concoction of dirt, oil and sugar as a meal of last resort.

For someone who engineers “the straight talk express” and someone else who promises “change you can believe in,” the major presidential candidates have shown themselves remarkably adept at the old politIcal art of the flip-flop.

Barack Obama celebrated the week of the Fourth of July trying to address critics who say he is insufficiently patriotic. In the process, Obama almost hit another home run. He sent one into the stands a few months ago with his speech on race. But this time, speaking from Independence, Mo., Obama came up short.