Politics & Power 483

Natural disasters and security threats seem to beg for a response that is massive, coordinated, and centralized. If so, how can the consolidation of state power be tempered and the…

Men cut off from their origins and alienated from their selves become desperate, and desperate men do desperate deeds.

Even as he denounces the conservative justices for activism and for creating "legislation" from the bench, as well as the general conservative movement for a "double standard without apology" .…

We have for so long asserted that we are a force for good in the world and that our efforts are in the service of "democracy" that we can no…

A homogeneous global consumer culture flattens its victims. And, perhaps in the same vein, our meanderings around the dying furniture capital of Yecla turned up nothing: virtually everything on display…

We need not rely with some desperation on the Hope that is a gift, if we can gin up optimism of our own sort.

Obama is suffering because whether or not it is true, he seems not to understand what is going on around the country. Whether or not it is true, he seems…

This will not last. Greed consumes everything, until it finally consumes itself.

In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton abortion decisions. Together, they represented a serious defeat for the unalienable right to life, the…

Here are some portions of my analysis of Sarah Palin and populism that are not included in my book review essay that appears in The American Conservative.

Claremont, CA. They call it the “Superman Syndrome.” People who use methamphetamine often believe that they are capable of doing impossible things. Like flying. Or walking through walls. Or earning…

Kearneysville, WV. The health care bill has passed the Senate, but it is yet to be seen if the House and the Senate can agree on a bill to send…

Events of the past several years up close could be compared to individuated and discrete dots, each circumscribed by itself alone, each self-contained and even comprehensible. The housing bubble. The…

If my friend Ike lived in Britain they’d call him a “one-off.”  An avowed anarchist who thinks that things started going downhill when humans invented agriculture (and thus the need…

Not a Single Cube of Ice In November of 2008, the cargo ship Camilla Desgagnés delivered supplies to the Arctic village of Kugluctuk. It did so by traversing the Northwest…

Often the politics of the local turns on the “who” as much as the “where.” Switzerland showed as much very recently.  The country enjoys some goodwill among the sort of…

Kearneysville, WV. Tis the season to be jolly. And the jolliest fellow of all is that rotund elf in the red suit. He’s happy. He’s spry. He binges on cookies…

It is autumn in Amsterdam and damp. The twilight is coming. I await a streetcar to take me home through the labored-over canals, the old working-class neighborhoods on the Amstel.…

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.  Something is not right on The Porch.  But on my porch, things are just dandy, so smoke 'em if you got 'em boys!  Puff puff puff and…

Moorpark, CA. We are told to be careful with our words, to be aware of how our words might make other people feel or of how we might be misunderstood. …

The Manhattan Declaration is almost a month old and it still a statement I regard with great ambivalence. My discomfort owes partly to the name. As a native of Southeastern…

Since Caleb wants to argue about it, I will comply. This is a post that I wrote back in November; nice to see it get some attention now... Jacob Weisberg…

Erie, PA. Presidential speeches are evaluated in two basic areas, style/delivery and substance. President Obama’s Afghanistan speech was well delivered. The president appeared serious, determined, candid, and was articulate. Coming…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS The debate over health care reform in the Senate has moved into overdrive, with one possible compromise following another in rapid succession. The…