Democracy: No longer for sale?
Ah, 1961. The year -- certain aspects of it, anyway -- are almost impossible to remember. "Whites only" bathrooms, for instance. U.S. Rep. John Lewis, legendary civil rights leader and...
All Stories
Army of one
The world withheld love and he went to war. He was an army of one -- another army of one, laying out his plans in secret torment, plotting his "day...
The social immune system
Europe has a special worry about a broken, uncaring economy. Things rip apart. More and more people fall into desperation. Some of them decide it's the fault of immigrants. Or...
Money and morality, the parallel between energy and slavery
Step on the gas, step on a man . . . Writing recently in The Nation, Chris Hayes drew an intensely unnerving parallel between the use of fossil fuels as...
The war to end all wars
"Peace, as we have seen, is not an order natural to mankind: it is artificial, intricate and highly volatile. All kinds of preconditions are necessary." -- Michael Howard, "The Invention...
Ten years on, ghost of Abu Ghraib still haunts us
Ten years ago, photos of the crucifixion -- and worse -- were released to the American public. The media still call it "the Abu Ghraib scandal," as though, oops, the...
Monsters in our midst
"It was loaded with meaning and death." Oh lethal, ticklish topic. So many people love guns and swear by them -- many of them people with whom I am otherwise...
Make it hurt
"After Russia invaded Crimea, a senior American official vowed to 'make it hurt.' More than two weeks later, Moscow has given no sign that it feels any pain, and the...
Poster city of abandonment
White flight, corporate flight . . . I grew up just outside Detroit and have felt an ache in my heart for this bleeding city for so many years now....
Asphyxiating education
"The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With...