It’s official: Friday’s \New York Times\ lead editorial said President Bush’s Thursday anti-terrorism speech to the National Endowment for Democracy “suggested an avoidance of today’s reality that seemed downright frightening.” There is irony here, of course: Bush’s speech was an act of rhetorical terrorism, designed to scare all of us deeply enough to place our …
Something is happening that raises my spirits: ultra-respectable liberal commentators — folks no one can reasonably dismiss as wild-eyed radicals (such as Elizabeth Drew, whom I wrote about on July 5th) — are standing up and speaking truth to power in a forthright fashion that knocks me off my feet. Latest case in point is …
This just in: it really ticks people off when you mess with whatever they perceive as holy. I’ve been reading about the demonstrations around the world against U.S. use of the Koran as an interrogation prop at Guantanamo. Newsweek published an article on May 9 charging that interrogators tried to psych out Muslim prisoners by …
My husband has a cold, which creates tremendous respiratory sound effects in the wee small hours, giving me lots of opportunity for uninterrupted night thoughts (though we’re both looking forward to the return of his good health and uninterrupted sleep). I find myself drawn again to the questions of compassion I wrote about last time. …
The news of the world is so instantaneous, multifarious and bizarre that it provides corroboration for almost any mood. Maybe it’s just my temperament, but when I feel disgruntled, instead of looking at my own choices, I am often tempted to lay it off on man’s inhumanity to man, and the news usually gives me …
I’m taking time off, as I wrote a few days ago, which means that beyond the non-negotiable obligations on my calendar, I’m doing only what I enjoy — nothing that feels like drudgery. One of the things I enjoy most is being reminded to keep my eyes wide open. Time off means that life suddenly …
The headlines from Lebanon have propelled my imagination years into the past, to the period in the late eighties and early nineties when my current ideas about social change first took shape. In news photos, we see massive crowds in Beirut, waving flags and asserting their right to self-rule like so many figures out of …
When you hear the term “cultural policy,” do you have a sudden and irresistible urge to leave the room? Please give me five minutes to tell you why you should care instead. Unesco (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is an essential agency of international cooperation. Through it, nations agree to honor each …
There were problems in our most recent presidential election that prevented some people from voting: poll slowdowns, registration glitches, dirty tricks, and much more. (I don’t mean to be dismissive: there are nearly 29,000 incidents reported in the Election Incident Reporting System database.) But what if, when our next election day rolls around, you and …
According to many reports, the outpouring of donations for tsunami relief in Asia is setting records, especially for online donations. Yesterday, NPR’s “Talk of The Nation” featured a call-in with international aid executives. As I drove around town on my errands, a man telephoned to ask whether American taxpayers were going to have to make …