War spending is out of control and a cause for worry. We get weekly reports of the costs of the war and the burden placed on tax payers. This week the Washington Post reported that U.S. government agencies cannot account for spending in Afghanistan before 2007. This presents yet another point for citizens and the … Read more
Last week, Danny Wilson, our environment columnist, posted a very thorough analysis of a very thorough Yale report about climate change. He notes that Only 39% [of respondents] believe that “most scientists think global warming is happening.” This statistic is by far the most damning, and the most revealing. I agree that this is the … Read more
Part of the Supreme Court’s appeal, at least for me, has always been its sense of mystery. Nine robed justices sit on the high bench, question the lowly lawyers, retreat to their conference room to debate, and a decision finally emerges many months later. What goes on behind the scenes? Few know, but sadly few … Read more
On my first night living in Poland last summer, I asked my host mother, a 44-year-old Polish elementary schoolteacher and mother of two, her opinions of President Barack Obama as we sat in her rural farmhouse eating slabs of unidentifiable meat on rye bread. She gave me two responses, meaning, she pointed to the two words in … Read more
In my last post, I chided Harvard writers for the way they tend to write about the Tea Party. I said that our focus was too small. But that raises the question: What are my counterexamples? For this post, I thought I’d highlight some excellent writing on the Tea Party done by some of the … Read more
Last week, the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies released a report called Americans’ Knowledge of Climate Change. The document is the result of an extensive analysis of how well Americans grasp the practical and scientific nature of climate change, and by the fifth page, the authors have declared the quality of the knowledge … Read more
The Martin Peretz issue, it seems, is not going away. At least, that’s what the Undergraduate Council would like us to believe. Most students and faculty have moved on, for better or worse, and most probably aren’t aware of the UC’s latest legislative achievement: a bill that “fully condemns” the University’s decision to accept donations in Peretz’s honor. But the … Read more
When Sarah Palin’s first interview with Katie Couric aired, I laughed along with everyone else. I remember marveling at how inept a decision the McCain camp made in selecting Palin as his running mate. How could anyone take this woman seriously? Then when the Tea Party first emerged in early 2009, I thought, alright: there are some … Read more
I’d like to believe that there’s a place in our politics between caricature and indifference — between judgement (ie, praise, censure, etc), on the one hand, and dismissal, flat out rejection, on the other. As an editor of this magazine and as a student, I cherish the writing that avoids these fates: the writers that write about … Read more
Life time appointments to the Supreme Court are a double-edge sword. On the one hand, it is more difficult for public opinion to cloud the Justices’ readings of the Constitution. Without elections of the Justices, they are free from political pandering and saved from the possible problems of campaign contributions. Public opinion is inconstant, but … Read more