Nevertheless, the thinking by Uruguay's government is the most daring in a growing debate about drug policy in Latin America.

ECONOMIST: A bold, if fuzzy, proposal

But the debate is proving useful by exposing flaws in thinking on both the left and the right, and among voters generally.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

The speech was billed as just one in a series questioning the thinking of the military services, but in retrospect it was something more: the opening salvo in a public debate about the future of the Marine Corps.

FORBES: Gates Challenges Marine Corps' Mission

", a normally pliant Obama loyalist at New York magazine blamed this "fiasco" on a "small cadre of intellectuals eager to shift the foreign-policy debate in general, and the Democratic Party's foreign-policy thinking in particular, to the left.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: The Hagel Democrats

In the third debate, an uninformed observer could have been forgiven for thinking that Mr Bush was the laid-back vice-president cantering home, while Mr Gore was trying to punch his way back into the contest.

ECONOMIST: A decent choice

In any event, many Lebanese intellectuals, who felt they were at last reclaiming a space for civilised debate, are thinking again of leaving the country, as so many have done in the past.

ECONOMIST: Lebanon

The TED Conference kicked off this morning in Long Beach, Calif. with a rollicking debate between two very different-thinking economists over the big conundrum facing the global economy: Have we reached the end of progress?

FORBES: Would You Rather Have Indoor Plumbing Or An iPhone?