Apropos of the earlier discussion on flood relief in Pakistan, the Brookings Institution has a detailed comparison of the differences between Haiti and Pakistan, between earthquakes and floods, between relief pledged and individual donors. Here is just one piece of their report. Haiti is in second
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The question raised about the ICC center at 51 Park Place goes further.
At the request of Bob Nunz, take a look at money flowing into other projects:
Here's Frank Rich in Sunday's NYTimes: "The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/opinion/29rich.
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Everyone will be there: "Anniversary of WTC Attack To Prompt Rallies Amid Holy Days" Let's see what the NYPD has to say. http://forward.com/articles/130707/
And the developer speaks: "Islamic Center Also Challenges a Young Builder" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/
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Here's an interesting account of jury duty from the Chicago Tribune.
"Blagojevich holdout explains vote"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-blagojevich-jury-20100827,0,7458628,full.
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Perhaps it's a foolish thought: Is this an issue on which dotCommonwealers of all persuasions and none might agree-- apart from the story's amusing aspects?
"“General Motors did not set out to become a benefits agency that occasionally built a car,” said Arnold L. Punaro, a retired
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How long can you be angry? How far is far enough? Those questions seem to have few answers when it comes to 51 Park Place, former Burlington Coat Factory store, and future Islamic Cultural Center.
Clyde Haberman, intrepid NYTimes columnists, went on Sunday to observe the protest by opponents of
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Patrick Allitt, historian and sometime CWL writer and FCRC panelist, has written widely about conservatives and conservative Americans. He has a witty and informative essay in the National Interest telling us why the tea party will not ascend to the heights of U.S. politics, namely partydom. His
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"Obama a Muslim! Lincoln a Catholic! FDR a Jew! Why Americans Don’t Like Their President's God"
Read all about it: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/08/20/bruce-feiler-obama-muslim-ground-zero-mosque-lincoln-catholic-fdr-jew/ HT: Tom
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Unprecedented floods in Pakistan means the country needs all the help it can get and we should all send our bit.
BUT (you were waiting for that!) here are two items that the UN, development experts, Pakistanis themselves, and, yes Americans ought to be thinking about as the disaster continues
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After so many weeks and arguments about the Islamic Cultural Center in lower Manhattan, I am beginning to wonder if the United States is hatching a plot to secede from New York City
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I almost hate (but not quite) to interrupt the fascinating analysis of what BXVI is up to (if anything), but here are a few items of interest for week-end reading.
Paul Kennedy, sometime CWL writer and Yale professor, has a provocative look at a political no-no word that we might want to
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J.J. Goldberg of the Jewish Daily Forward writes about a side of Tony Judt that we might miss, namely his critique of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Goldberg: "You’ll also have noticed, if you didn’t know already, that he was one of Israel’s most controversial critics. As
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Here is a two-part Daily Show segment that analyzes the situation in Lower Manhattan.
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p /
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Jeffrey Goldberg's long-announced analysis of an Israeli attack on Iran--or maybe not. "The Point of No Return," http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/the-point-of-no-return/8186/
Steve Clemons's somewhat skeptical analysis of the article: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com
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I know many of you are still working your way through The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, but when you finish you might enjoy The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. It will be especially interesting for perennial grad students trapped in dissertations on
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For those following Netanyahu's strategy to end any talk of peace, or any peace at all. A long and serious reflection by Uri Avnery on what PM Netanyahu is up to and a very critical look at the trap Pres. Obama may be walking into.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1280589635
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111TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. RES. 1553
Expressing support for the State of Israel’s right to defend Israeli sovereignty, to protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, and to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran,
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"Why Charles Rangel is surviving"
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40474.html
And there's this: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/why-charlie-rangel-will-likely-survive/
Now that Obama has suggested that Rangel resign, you can be sure he won't, and that if he runs he'll win
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I have been curious about how the citizens of New Orleans are assessing the BP oil spill and its aftermath. I remembered Ann Olivier once saying that she lived there, so I asked her what was going on. Her reply:
Yes, I'm a native New Orleanian, still here in spite of all.
The only impact on
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The fireflies are gone. Two lonely lag-behinds spotted the other evening. They have been replaced by a black bear. He/she made its presence known by knocking over the grill on the deck. A loud bang on the door sent it away ambling down the path to the meadow. Forensic investigation leads to the
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Last night I finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell. I bought it (on Kindle) despite good reviews in the Times Book Review and The New Yorker because it sounded more interesting than they tediously made it out to be. Set in Japan at the turn of the 19th century, on a
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Russ Douthaut has a column that every NYTimes reader should read if only to remind us of the "outer boroughs" and west of the Hudson. On the other hand, he pins his case on one study of elite institutions to explain why white, Christian America is so angry. That's, of course, if "we&
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Obituaries pointing to canonization have been leading New York papers this week. The subject? George Steinbrenner. Joe Nocera steps in with the big question: Was Steinbrenner just lucky?
"The truth is, though, that virtually anyone who bought a sports franchise in the United States in the
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On Tuesday (July 6) the New York Times published a very long article on the tax-deductible contributions of Americans to settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. According to the story, some of these contributions meet IRS rules, while other do not. Most of them, however, are counter to
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Heat Wave! Anyone's/Everyone's best strategies for staying cool if you can't actually escape to Northern Michigan
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"If you’ve lost Rory Stewart, you’ve lost the war. Rory Stewart is a young British conservative, who once walked Afghanistan and later governed the Iraqi province of Maysan in 2003-2004 under Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Government. He is now a Tory Member of Parliament and a
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I've just read the Rolling Stone article that lost McChrystal his job. There's a lot more in it than a bunch of military hooligans bad mouthing their bosses. I think they think this war can't be won, and Michael Hastings, the author, manages to convey why. Worth a read, if you haven't:
"
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General McChrystal has been relieved of his command. A precursor to the end of the U.S. in Afghanistan?
Obama: "A change in personnel, not a change in policy." We'll see.
[Update from GG: We just posted E. J. Dionne's column on l'affaire McChrystal.]
More update from MOBS:
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Why not release the tape of Cardinal George's remarks?
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/helen-osman-accuses-cna-of-fabricating-report-on-cardinal-george-and-cha
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This story about Fannie and Freddie has many interesting details (including the cost of cutting foreclosed lawns in AZ). Among those details is that the two entities (taxpayer supported) continue to favor ownership over rentership with taxpayer support--even beyond interest deduction. A good policy
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Reporting in: thousands of fire flies in the meadow. Remember when they were reported almost extinct (especially from children capturing them in Mason jars
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Whassup?
"Alaska Man Attacked by Bear While Biking to Work" http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/15/us/AP-US-Grizzly-Attack.html?hp
"Mother Falcon Attacks Dog, People in Buffalo, NY" http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/15/us/AP-US-ODD-Aggressive-Falcon.html?scp=1&
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"Mideast forecast: One long, tense summer" (Ha'aretz headline)
"In the stormy aftermath of last week's marine debacle, the whole region seems to be losing what remains of its sanity." (And its subtitle)
Story here: http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/mess-report-mideast
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Joe Nocera is back in Saturday's Times and dissects one of American's Sacred Cows: home ownership.
He begins by citing Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC: “'Sustainable homeownership is a worthy national goal. But it should not be pursued to excess when there are other, equally worthy solutions
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For those following the flotilla story, there are increasing amounts of info and disinfo. Hard to say which is which. The Times's blog, the LEDE has a variety of reports and comments from the people on the boat who have now been released and most of them deported by the Israelis. Here: http://
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Nicholas Kristof has this right; even Nicholas Kristof! "Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems locked in a self- defeating dynamic in which it feels misunderstood and gives up on international opinion. It lashes out with force in ways that undermine its own interests. It is on a
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Things have heated up on the Korean peninsula between North and South. U.S. troops remain from a war that ended over half century ago in negotiations but not peace. In that time the South has developed a robust economy and over time a working democracy. Not the North in which hard times and even
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The travails of the Greek debt crisis are probably not at the top of anybody's worry list--there are so many! But Joseph Stiglitz who has a bent for counter-crowd thinking has this at the Guardian and dares to say things that haven't made it into most of the U.S. coverage.
"Reform the euro
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Judge Richard Goldstone addressed Jewish leaders [in South Africa] at a meeting held on Monday the 3rd of May 2010.
STATEMENT BY JUDGE RICHARD GOLDSTONE
I welcome this opportunity of meeting with you this afternoon.
At the outset let me say that I have taken no pleasure in seeing people
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Two veteran journalists tackle the question of the U.S. Jewish community and Israel.
Here's Paul Vitello in the New York Times tackling the neuralgic subject: "On Israel, Jews and Leaders Often Disagree," I found a bit of egg-walking here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/politics/
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Here is a scenario that most Americans and most Jews don't want to contemplate, but John Mersheimer's analysis in a recent speech deserves everyone's attention.
"The story I will tell is straightforward. Contrary to the wishes of the Obama administration and most Americans – to include
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Anyone here watch the Newshour? Anyone watching Margaret Warner at the Vatican? She interviewed Cardinal Levada the other evening. Thursday it was a selection of people; at least one of them, though not identified as such, was a priest of Opus Dei (Fr. John Wauck). What do you make of this coverage
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MJ Rosenberg has an excited piece (also in need of proofreading--aren't we all?) at TPM Cafe about the dual loyalty debate: "Neocons, Jews & Dual Loyalty."
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/29/neocons_jews_dual_loyalty/#more
This is a tricky topic--one that
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Two energizers for the exhausted conversation:
A Frenzied Pace for Lawyer Behind Vatican Suits
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/us/28lawyer.html?hpw
Paying for the Sins of the Fathers, and of Others, Too
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/nyregion/28about.
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A message from Judge Richard Goldstone to Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun.
"I am happy to inform you that after being approached this morning by the Jewish communal organizations, the following statement was issued by the Director of the South African Board of Deputies, Wendy Kahn:
&
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"New York Senator Chuck Schumer harshly criticized the Obama Administration's attempts to exert pressure on Israel today, making him the highest-ranking Democrat to object to Obama's policies in such blunt terms.
"Schumer, along with a majority of members of the House and Senate,
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This from Politico: "Anti-abortion groups are poised to launch a multimillion-dollar offensive against a collection of former allies — House Democrats who also oppose abortion — in an effort to discredit their credibility with anti-abortion voters and oust them from office.
Four
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Martin Indyk, who I have seen as hawkish on Israel, has some good advice for Israel. Indyk was U.S. ambassador to Israel in the Clinton administration, and has been an active participant in many U.S. efforts at negotiating the Palestinian-Israel conflict. This from Ha'aretz: http://www.haaretz.
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Jeff Anderson, jousting with the Vatican from a small law office in St. Paul
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041803259.html
Jeffrey Lena: California lawyer is voice of Vatican, Pope Benedict in U.S. court
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
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I commented below on Judge Goldstone [of the UN Gaza Report] being barred from/refraining from going to his grandson's bar mitzvah as reported in Ha'aretz. At the end of the week here is the NYTimes story albeit with some more details.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/world/middleeast/17goldstone
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An inspiring and patriotic story from the creator of Harry Potter.
"Nobody who has ever experienced the reality of poverty could say 'it’s not the money, it’s the message'. When your flat has been broken into, and you cannot afford a locksmith, it is the money. When you are two pence
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The American Jewish Committee has released a poll of American Jewish opinion on Obama and various policy areas. The poll was conducted in March this year. I have read varying interpretations of it and would be curious what commonwheelers make of it.
http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ijITI2PHKoG/b.
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What to make of this from Ha'aretz?
"IDF order will enable mass deportation from West Bank
"A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on
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The sturm und drang on dot Commonweal last week may not have great influence at the Vatican; certainly not the influence of those who surround the pope. Whatever Benedict's ultimate actions in the sex-abuse scandal, it is becoming ever clearer that his "advisers," "consultants,&
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Taking Responsibility
What can Europe learn from the U.S. sexual abuse crisis?
http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=
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"You have to wonder if the Roman Catholic Church circa 2010 is what Jesus had in mind as he hung on the cross. Probably not. On the other hand, the current explosion is likely not a surprise to him. According to Luke's Gospel, Jesus was executed as a common criminal--death by crucifixion--
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[Avigdor Lieberman] "does not give many newspaper interviews, preferring public comments and speeches. In Maariv, his radical views were on display. He said, for example, that the only hope for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute was not a negotiated two-state solution but a land swap and
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I'm no fan of Ross Douthat, but his column in the Times (March 29) brings a welcome reality check to the frenzy over Benedict and the crisis. It begins:
"During a frustrating argument with a Roman Catholic cardinal, Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly burst out: “Your eminence, are you not
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A moving lament that most of us non-Italian-Americans don't meditate on often enough:
"When news spread the other day that work crews were draping black steel netting over the facade of Our Lady of Loreto Church [MOBS: in Brooklyn, the one in Manhattan is already "disappeared"]
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Prime Minister Netanyahu has returned to Israel and President Obama is headed for Iowa. We can probably anticipate a cooling-off period. Sooooo this is the end of the series.
Restive Commonweal commentors who found some posts closed have written to tell me that they have more to say. Rather than
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Here is a map of the Israeli settlements around Jerusalem. The green line on the map is the 1967 1948 border. The settlements beyond the green line are in territory intended for a Palestinian state. You begin to see the difficulties! Sorry I'm not techy enough to post the map itself, but here's the
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Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday at the AIPAC conference: “The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years, and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today,” .... Jerusalem is not a settlement; It’s our capital.”
Juan Cole, professor of history at University of Michigan,
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There was a lot of boiler plate about eternal friendship and the bad Iranians in the Secretary's address to AIPAC, but there was also this:
“New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full
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Bart Stupak's brief defense of voting "yes," on health-care reform was a moving moment in yesterday's debate (whether or not someone yelled, "baby killer" is another matter). He got what he was after in banning federal funds for abortion. Will the bishops agree and congratulate
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University of Chicago political scientist, John Mersheimer wrote with Stephen Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Though the two took a lot of heat, the book in many ways opened the current conversation about AIPAC. The credentials and moderate views of the two made it possible to have
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Daniel Kurzer, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, 2001-2005, has an essay in the current issue of The American Interest. It shows the tenuous legality of the West Bank settlements and the views of some Israeli officials with whom Kurzer negotiated that those illegalities are what is undermining
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It's all the Palestinians' fault.Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States (and a citizen of the U.S.) explains why this is not a crisis, and it's not Israel's doing. As my mother used to say, "this takes the cake."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/opinion/18oren.html
A
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Looks like there are moves to step down: Clinton smiling at a State Dept. mike said the U.S. and Israel remained united in ensuring Israel's security (no doubt). Ha'aretz reports that Netanyahu and Biden spoke on the phone long into the night Tuesday with Netanyahu's advisers and the Israeli
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"But as the stalemate continues -- envoy George Mitchell just canceled his trip to Israel -- Democratic critics have begun to question the White House's public pressure on Netanyahu to reverse plans for controversial new housing and make other, unspecified concessions. The pro-Israel group
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On Day 7, our last episode, Joe Petit raised a question about the Palestinian right of return. This raises a fundamental question about the future of the one-state, two-state solution. Here is my take on that fraught subject (corrections welcome).
The question about the right of return points to
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The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story
"On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the
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Reported in Ha'aretz: "U.S. President Barack Obama did not hold back in condemning the humiliation caused to Joe Biden with the Israeli announcement of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem during what was supposed to be the vice president's friendly visit to Israel.
"Instead of
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"Clinton Rebukes Israel on Housing Announcement"
"In a tense, 43-minute phone call on Friday morning, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s plan for new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a “deeply negative
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For those who are confused or concerned or feeling timid about VP Biden's experiences in Israel, here is what the U.S. Jewish Daily Forward has to say in an editorial: "There were the expected handshakes and bear hugs, the slaps on the back and supportive words amiably expressed before the
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It appears that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has refused to participate in the indirect talks that brought Mr. Biden to the ME in the first place. Abbas demands that the Israelis cancel the building plans announced on Tuesday and that threw a monkey wrench into Biden's visit and
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Here is Juan Cole on Joe's adventures yesterday.
"Israel Humiliates Biden, Announces Further Colonization on Eve of US-Brokered Talks
"The far rightwing government of Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel majorly sandbagged Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, demonstrating once again that it
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Biden Calls Ties Between U.S. and Israel ‘Unshakable’
If they really are, does the VP need to say so?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/middleeast/10biden.html
A reality check by Laura Rozen at Politicohttp://http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34098.html
And then...&
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Here is Gretchen Morgenson on why credit default swaps need regulation, and why U.S. taxpayers are still on call to bail out banks who deal in them.
“USING these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is — is counterproductive, and I’m sure the S.E.C.
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In case you missed Thomas Ricks's op-ed: Ricks wrote two terrific books on Iraq while covering the war for the Washington Post. His sources are mostly military, and/but he raises some issues that have dropped from the discussion--like can the Iraqis stave off civil war without a serious U.S.
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Here is a story connected with the Greek credit crisis that in fairly simple terms shows how credit default swaps work and why they are so dangerous...or better put, create a vicious circle of financing debt, repaying debt, and making it near impossible to repay. Headline: "Banks Bet Greece
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Q: Who's giving up blogging for Lent?
4:27 PM A: Many of you it would seem. Blessings on your endeavor
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And in Afghanistan generally? It has not been easy to follow the war news from Marjah, though the Times has its crack team (Dexter Filkins/C.J. Chivers/Tyler Hicks, photo) there. Watching Gen. Petreus yesterday on MTP reminded me what a good briefer he is, but little news or meaty analysis. This
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One of the tasks of professional ethics is to cover for miscreant members of the profession--or so it seems, once again.
"WASHINGTON — After five years of often bitter internal debate, the Justice Department concluded in a report released Friday that the lawyers who gave legal
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In a fit of editorializing and diplomacy, I wrote last week to the music director of our parish. My query: What could be done to encourage the congregation to sing as loud and lustily as the choir? He has written back a long note, which I will study over the week-end.
Since this blog has several
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Gretchen Morgenson, my favorite Times' business reporter since Joe Nocerra went on leave, has a fascinating story in Sunday's paper suggesting that Goldman Sachs not only reaped the benefits of the financial meltdown but that it may have had a bigger hand in bringing it on than we knew.
"A.
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Jean Raber proposes an interesting topic:
"It might be interesting to talk sometime about the difference between lapsed Catholics and those who take up a new denomination. A long-time friend lapsed after a priest abused her brothers years ago. She has a very complicated relationship with the
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Stephen Walt, a vigorous and knowledgeable critic of U.S. policy toward Israel, has called for special envoy George Mitchell to resign his post.
Walt begins his comments by arguing that Mitchell should get out while he retains his sterling reputation as a peacemaker -- not necessarily a good or
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Last week it was Paul Krugman, today it's Bob Herbert:
Mr. Obama may be personally very appealing, but he has positioned himself all over the political map: the anti-Iraq war candidate who escalated the war in Afghanistan; the opponent of health insurance mandates who made a mandate to buy
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Apropos of the discussion below (cf. for example, Unagidon @ 1/24, 11:59 am on the commodification of health care), this in Monday's Times. "Insurer Steps Up Fight to Control Health Care Cost" by requiring hospitals to notify the company of a patient's hospitalization within 24 hours or
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EJ Dionne, WashPost columnist, has put together from various sources what sounds like a plan that might save health-care reform.
He also explains why the House Democrats are so reluctant to sign off on the Senate bill with revisions to come: House Dems don't trust Senate Dems, apparently with
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Bart Stupak (Democrat of Michigan) has achieved a certain notoriety: his amendment to the House HC reform bill prohibited federal funds for abortion. Some weeks back the New York Times published a profile of him. I found his self-description as a Catholic and Democrat interesting and familiar
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The Massachusetts election results are creating a lot of media froth about many inconsequential matters like who lost it and why. The real question is: Will health care reform survive the vote? Should health care reform survive? How
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Adam Nagourney has this in Sunday's Times:
"BOSTON — There may be no better place to measure the shifting fortunes of President Obama and the Democratic Party than in the race being fought here this weekend for the Senate seat that had been held by Edward M. Kennedy."
True? What
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Today's obituary of French film maker Eric Rohmer is a bit run-of-the-mill and off-target. When I first saw "My Night at Maud's" long ago, I was stunned by how Catholic it was--not just because they didn't have sex, but because they spent the whole night talking about why/why not. Of
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Apropos of the discussion a week ago about the Fox demand for larger fees from Time-Warner, this story about Fox's chieftan, Roger Ailes is worth a read.
"Mr. Ailes is certainly making money. At a time when the broadcast networks are struggling with diminishing audiences and profits in news
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Here's an interesting development: "Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it."
"... the institute voted in October to disavow
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This is a minor and local complaint (in the face of war and mayhem), but I was very sorry to see that Fox and Time-Warner Cable have agreed to a contract in which T-W subscribers (we are one) will be shoveling more money to Rupert Murdoch and his idiot enterprise.
"In tense negotiations
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This from the Washington Post (Dec. 26) takes up the issue of who will run the U.S. Afghanistan policy: Obama or McChrystal. Chandrasekaran is the author of The Emerald City about the war in Iraq where he was a correspondent for the Post. The whole story is obviously a series of leaks meant to send
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Adam Nagourney has this analysis of Obama and the Left-wing of the Democratic party in the Times (December 26). In reading it, I was reminded of all the reasons I voted for Obama, and yet I am not surprised by the way he is governing. Nagourney's take is inside DC politics; but there is something
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John Allen has posted this at the end of this week's column (December 18). Bravo!
"I don’t usually respond in public to criticism of my work, in part because writing about somebody else writing about me seems like the dictionary definition of “self-involved.” Recently, however, some
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"ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Parts of the Pakistani military and intelligence services are mounting what American officials here describe as a campaign to harass American diplomats, fraying relations at a critical moment when the Obama administration is demanding more help to fight the Taliban and
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The military spin- down from President Obama's Afghan decision to give them what General McChrystal asked for is sobering to watch.
According to the NYTimes, "General Rodriguez did not back away from [Obama's] timeline, saying that all of the additional troops would be in Afghanistan within
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Some may weary of the translation discussion but Joseph O'Leary brings further light to the matter:
"One of the most horrific statements of Card. George at the recent USCCB meeting was that the Vatican is also insisting that the French translation of the Missal be brought more into line with
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David Leonhardt looks at the cost-containment measures in the health-care bill: "It is abundantly clear that our medical system wastes enormous amounts of money on health care that doesn’t make people healthier. Hospitals that practice more intensive medicine, to take one example, get no
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Fr. Mike Ryan is pastor of the Cathedral in Seattle. He is a genial, smart man and a pastoral pastor. He has some suggestions about the introduction of the new Roman Missal. There has been a good deal of discussion about the translations below http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/wp-admin/post.
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Thanks to Terrence Tilley; he has posted this in the comments section in "Weasel Journalism." It deserves its own post and comments.
An Open Letter to Father Weinandy
Dear Tom,
In the fall semester of 1976 we both began our teaching careers at Georgetown University. Then and now
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John Allen has a piece in the NCR on line that display the worst of his "just the news," but let-me-start-some-trouble approach to reporting the "news." It begins: "Back in 1993, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave an address in Hong Kong to the presidents of Asian bishops
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Dexter Filkins had this to say immediately after President Obama's speech at West Point. "President Obama’s commitment Tuesday night to redouble America’s campaign in Afghanistan left unanswered what is perhaps the most decisive question of all: will the Afghans step up too?"
Whole
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When President Obama speaks at West Point on Afghanistan, he will be speaking above all to a domestic audience; NATO countries will be listening in as will Pakistan; presumably some messages will be delivered to the governing elites of Afghanistan. While the president will no doubt focus on numbers
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As President Obama homes in on the Afghanistan decision, here are some articles you might want to read. I hope he has read them:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091130/roston http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2009/11/peril-in-pakistan-fb-ali.html#more http://blog.
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Has anyone seen the Coen brothers' latest movie, A Serious Man?
We saw it last week-end in our Upper West Side movie theatre. The story opens with a Yiddish language prologue, which many in the audience seemed to understand--leading me to an obvious conclusion: the audience was largely Jewish
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Tom Reese's column on DC and Catholics should be read in full; don't think it got a fair plug below.
Catholic Charities, gays and DC ' s poor
By Thomas J. Reese, S.J.
If you believed what you read on blogs and in newspapers, you would conclude that the archdiocese of Washington is
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Tom Friedman thinks the Middle East Peace Process is over. I read his last paragraph to say that we should stop subsidizing both sides. Is that a message Obama can deliver to Netanyahu when they meet in Washington tonight?
"If we are still begging Israel to stop building settlements, which
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C-Span is broadcasting the House debate on health care. A civic's lesson, for sure, but a sports announcer would help.
And this in the Times (11/7/09): "On Friday night, as the clocked inched toward midnight, lawmakers in the House Rules Committee hearing room were arguing loudly over
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Does anyone commenting here live in District 23? I'd love to know what you all thought about Owens's victory. And why you and your neighbors voted as you did
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Americans put a lot of faith in elections as a sign of legitimacy and democracy--and we have had good reason. With some exceptions, our elections give legitimacy to the winner and are (usually) an expression of the people's will. Should that confidence in elections color our policy in Iraq and
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"Should US Troops in Iraq be held Hostage to the next Election?"
Juan Cole has followed U.S. efforts in Iraq knowledgably and closely. Here is what he has to say about the current election impasse (October 30).
http://www.juancole.com/2009/10/should-us-troops-in-iraq-be-held.
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David Leonhardt, economics columnist, thinks giving social security recipients an extra $250. is money badly spent. "A Drop in the Wrong Bucket"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/business/economy/28leonhardt.html
And in LA, over 65s are being asked to return for their H1N1 vaccine
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"WASHINGTON — A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the military and was a diplomat in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan has become the first U.S. official to resign in protest of the Afghan war, the Washington Post reported early Tuesday.
"
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"NATO Ministers Endorse Wider Afghan Effort"
General McChrystal has consulted with NATO defense ministers in Brataslava. The defense ministers seem to have endorsed his plan for a troop build-up in Afghanistan. The story is careful to point out that this means little apart from the
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John Allen has this to say about the Vatican's announcement on Anglicans: http://ncronline.org/news/what-vaticans-welcome-anglicans-means
"One curious twist is why the Vatican decided to make its announcement before the apostolic constitution was ready for release, seemingly a cart-before-
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This may seem evident but I was surprised to see that there's evidence for:
"Those who lack health insurance now are far more likely to live in states that usually vote Republican — the states whose senators and representatives are least likely to support a law to extend coverage."
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Bill Mazzella has admonished the blogettes for not mentioning the Obama Nobel Prize. So let it be mentioned with Adam Nagourney summing up the reactions and pros and cons, here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/us/politics/10assess.html?hp
The intent [or perhaps intention--per Jimmy Mac below
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Bill de Haas posted this link on Little Acorns/ Mighty Enemies below: POGO’s http://www.contractormisconduct.org/ along with an editorial from the Dallas Morning News making a point we all missed: The legislation defunding Acorn will also defund any government contractor that has fraud or
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"You Can Tell a Lot About People by Who[m] They Choose to Demonize"
An incisive analysis of the attacks on Acorn and the Senate vote to defund them. Take a look.
http://www.anonymousliberal.com/2009/09/you-can-tell-lot-about-people-by-who.html
(ht: Glenn Greenwald)
Update: The Times
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Johnathan Cohn, the exceedingly well-informed health care analyst at the New Republic:
"Somehow, though, health reform is not dead. Despite all of the setbacks and all of the missed opportunities--despite this train wreck of a month--the situation remains remarkably similar to what it was
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Those of you lucky enough to receive First Things in ink will find on the back page of the October issue (not yet on line) an ad "announcing the envoy of the year gala" (being awarded to Archbishop Charles Chaput). You may puzzle at the ad headline:
"Christian voices are far too
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Obama at the AFL-CIO picnic. Let's hope Harry Reid, Max Baucus, and the Blue Dogs hear this, and get off their duffs.
Update: Apropos of the Public Option discussion, here is Paul Krugman: "Why the Public Option Matters"
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/why-the-public
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Dan Barry has been cited over the last week, first for his story of the Boston parish getting up to speed for an important funeral on Saturday, and then on Sunday his account of the funeral (in which he actually used the words Holy Communion on the front page of the NYT).
But today, he has this
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Bernard Dauenhauer has asked that this story from the NCR be posted; it concerns a court decision allowing German Catholics to refuse to pay their church tax and yet remain members of the Catholic Church. A very different system than our own!
The gist of the story: "Leaving the church in
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Bill Moyer has this to say about the Democratic Party and Health Reform:
MOYERS: I don’t think the problem is the Republicans . . . .The problem is the Democratic Party. This is a party that has told its progressives -- who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform -- to sit
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Dan Barry pretty much captures the details of yesterday's funeral and burial: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/politics/30kennedy.
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President Obama has announced that he will name Ben Bernanke to a second term as chair of the Federal Reserve. This would seem to avoid the media frenzy of "will he?" / "won't he?" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/business/economy/26fed.html?hp
I have just finished reading
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"Torture and Academic Freedom": The NYTimes has this blog debate on the question of UC Boalt School of Law withdrawing John Yoo's tenured appointment. Interesting ins and outs of what he violated and did not violate offered by a group of law professors.
Kathleen Clark at Washington
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Apropos of "Eating up the past" (below), I saw Julie and Julia last night. Really a very charming and witty effort. The Julia Child part is based on her memoir written with nephew Alex Prud'homme and sticks close to the original; the Julie Powell part departs from Julie and Julia in that
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The excellent Kenneth Feinberg, who organized and carried out the post-9/11 settlements with the families of those killed, is in charge of reining in Wall Street. Here's what he's up against: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/business/10pay.
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No doubt there is rejoicing over the return (with Bill Clinton) this morning to the United States of the two journalists captured by North Korea and sentenced to years of hard labor. The release of a journalist by Iran earlier this summer was also good work (probably also by Hillary Clinton's team
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In 1967, living in Paris, I was delighted to find a copy of a book about French cooking in English (I couldn't cook and read French at the same time). The book by Julia Child and her French collaborators has since been hailed as a classic. I still use it for pate brisee (with accents), boeuf
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In the midst of all these important discussions, let the following encounters be noted:
I am in the great city of San Francisco and last evening having delivered myself of a very long talk on how to save the church, two members of the audience introduced themselves: Jimmy Mac and Ed Gleason!
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Gary Sick has an informative analysis of the Revolutionary Guard.
http://garysick.tumblr.com/ (June 28)
It appears there was another large demonstration Sunday in Tehran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/middleeast/29iran.html?_r=1&
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From Israelie novelist and activist, David Grossman:
"Netanyahu's speech, which should have aspired to the new global spirit that U.S. President Barack Obama has generated, tells us between its contorted lines that there will be no peace here if it is not forced upon us. It is not easy to
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Those who continue to follow events in Iran will find this analysis of Iranian voting patterns and possibilities of interest:
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/755/
HT: NYTimes which offered this summary:
The authors cite these highlights of their analysis:
1)
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Who has Netanyahu convinced that he's with the Obama peace plan?
Not TPM's bloggers:
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/ (posted June 15).
They seem to be a bit more skeptical than the NYTimes.
Correction:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/middleeast/15mideast.html?ref=
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Juan Cole has posted this about the announced outcome of the Iranian elections: "Top Pieces of Evidence that the Iranian Presidential Election Was Stolen"
Here: http://www.juancole.com/ [posted June 13]
UPDATE: "Iran supreme leader orders probe of election fraud"
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The Fordham Center on Religion and Culture held a public forum on April 28, “Matters of Conscience," with a distinguished panel discussing conscience exemptions and the role of conscience in making public policy. The transcript should be posted shortly. I found the following observation
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Has the administration astutely taken a detour around the Catholic culture wars in naming Sotomayor to the SC and Diaz to the Holy See?
Here's John Allen's take:
"Yet Diaz is described by colleagues as broadly pro-life, and in any event he has never been among the most prominent Catholic
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This from TPM: Sonia Sotomayor, just named SC nominee is Catholic--according to Beliefnet (they should know) a practicing Catholic. She joins five other Catholics: Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/religion_and_the_court.php?ref=fpblg
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Stanley Fish, who often seems to take delight in being perverse, has an amused, amusing, and sympathetic reflection on Terry Eagleton's Reason, Faith and Revolution.
"When Christopher Hitchens declares that given the emergence of “the telescope and the microscope” religion “no
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Related to several posts of the last weeks: Dennis O'Brien sent me a copy of a letter he wrote to Cardinal Francis George. I hope the Cardinal (as well as other bishops) takes it essence to heart.
Dear Cardinal George:
Prior to World War II, the Polish government urged Poles not to shop at
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The Washington Independent is running this account of the UND story. Focuses closely on Patrick Reilly and Brent Bozell.
http://washingtonindependent.com/40303/few-conservative-catholic-groups-fuel-obama-notre-dame-
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The kabuki dance around accountability for the torture memos, torture itself, and much else is captured in this account at the Congressional Quarterly.
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000003098436&cpage=1
Why is Congress dragging its heels about investigating
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Bradley Burston writes regularly for Ha'aretz. He has been visiting Rome, including the church of St. Peter in Chains, which houses Michelangelo's magnificent statue of Moses. Running with a metaphor, he contemplates Moses, the ten commandments, the Israelis and Palestinians, and the occupation of
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The WH has released four of the "torture" memos prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel for the CIA.
Here is the first and shortest! (those lawyers must get paid by the word) concerning techniques to be used on Abu Zubaydah. The legal beagles here can clarify, but the constant
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On April 8, I received the following from Gene Palumbo, an old friend, now living in El Salvador. He raised a good question, for which I have a response.
Here's his complaint: "I don't understand why you terminated your post ("Pew Meditation"). It was chugging along, getting
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Jane Mayer "About a year ago, a book came out in England that made a fascinating prediction: at some point in the future, the author wrote, six top officials in the Bush Administration would get a tap on the shoulder announcing that they were being arrested on international charges of
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Just back from the Palm Sunday liturgy. Every year I forget that half the church is full of people who don't otherwise go to Mass, and every year I forget that they will be there.
Our pastor welcomed them all, as he should have, at the end of Mass encouraging them to come more often...and of
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Archbishop Wuerl honors Communion stances of local bishops
Catholic News Service
Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl is following the lead of local prelates regarding the reception of Communion by Catholic elected representatives and government officials whose views may conflict with Church teaching.
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From our friend , Barry Hillenbrand, retired correspondent for Time magazine, recently teaching in southern Africa:
“Had dinner the last two Saturdays with a Johns Hopkins Global Aids Educator (MD, MPH) who runs some sort of Hopkins AIDS program. Her view was that the trend line, in Africa (
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Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will
Jeffrey Goldberg interviews Benjamin Netanyahu, newly minted prime minister of Israel. Well worth reading. And pondering.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903u/netanyahu
(ht: TPM)
This assessment in Haaretz on an Israeli war with Iran: &
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Apropos of the decision of Bishop D’Arcy to absent himself from the Notre Dame Commencement, the following lament was heard from an old friend in the clergy: “As for Bishop D'Arcy and his decision and many similar actions by hierarchs, I wish some bishop would stand up on the floor of the
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Just below there has been a vigorous discussion about New York State legislation to lift the Statute of Limitations on sex-abuse cases essentially on religious institutions and organizations. http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=2955
There are many interesting questions raised. Here's one
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Ha'aretz the Israeli newspaper on-line is always refreshingly frank about the country's politics. Here from one of their columnists, Akiva Eldar:
"The last elections gave Netanyahu the mandate to destroy the remaining vestiges of the Oslo Accords, to ramp up settlement construction, and to
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"The publication late last week of eyewitness accounts by Israeli soldiers alleging acute mistreatment of Palestinian civilians in the recent Gaza fighting highlights a debate here about the rules of war. But it also exposes something else: the clash between secular liberals and religious
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I have distracted myself today by finishing David Lodge's most recent novel, "deaf sentence." It is moving and witty. The protagonist is a retired linguistic professor going deaf. Lodge sets forth the issues (p. 13):
"Deafness is comic, as blindness is tragic. Take Oedipus, for
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Have you seen an ordinary American rise up in rage at the AIG bonus fiasco?
Over the last several days, I have read in the newspaper of record and heard on TV, the phrase "populist rage," "angry Americans," and here "the fury of ordinary Americans bubble up" from Ms
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The NYT has posted a 2000 op-ed piece by Charles Freeman printed in its pages. Tough but realistic about Israelis and Palestinians, and truer today than when it was written.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E7DB173EF93BA25753C1A9669C8B63
And this gets at some of the choppy
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Bob Imbelli must be traveling so I post in his absence Joe Nocera's homily this A.M.
"Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims "
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/business/14nocera.html?_r=1&ref=business
Wait till you get to the lady who is suing the SEC for Madoff's sins!
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The New York State Legislature is considering a bill that would lift the statute of limitations on civil suits concerning child sexual abuse. The sponsor of the legislation had this to say:
"Senator Thomas K. Duane, a Manhattan Democrat and the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, said he
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A furious battle has been going on over the last couple of weeks about the appointment of Ambassador Charles Freeman to head the office of the NIC, the entity that writes our country's National Intelligence Estimate. He has withdrawn his name apparently under pressure and/or rejection by the Obama
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"Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid defined the terms of his relationship with the newly elected president when he announced in early January: "I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him."
"Like many of Reid's pronouncements, the statement did not come out quite right.
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Some guys can spot a deal when they see it.
Ex-Leaders of Countrywide Profit From Bad Loans
"CALABASAS, Calif. — Fairly or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most lists of those who share blame for the nation’s economic crisis. After all, the banking
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Bob Herbert raises some anxious and pointed questions about Afghanistan and the administration's yet-to-be enunciated policy.
"We invaded Afghanistan more than seven years ago. We have not broken the back of Al Qaeda or the Taliban. We have not captured or killed Osama bin Laden. We don
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President Obama makes sense, at Camp Lejeune, out of the hash that Iraq has been. Stirring.
"There are many lessons to be learned from what we've experienced. We have learned that America must go to war with clearly defined goals, which is why I've ordered a review of our policy in
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"You don't mess with Joe" Biden was wearing ashes today. I guess that settles it
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Over at TPM, George Lakoff has a few ideas about how to hear Obama's national address this evening (2/24/09). His notion of Obama and bi-conceptualism makes some interesting claims about Republicans (and Democrats).
"The third crucial idea behind the Obama Code is biconceptualism, the
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Jim Kelly a wonderful, intelligent, and stalwart pro-lifer has an article in the "other magazine" (Feburary 16): Why the Pro-Life Movement Should Return to Its Roots.
He writes:
"The movement can do this by explicitly recognizing its three-part history: (1) the radical
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"I was going to dub the new financial plan TANF 2 — temporary assistance to needy financial institutions, without, you know, any of the means-testing or work requirements involved when poor people get help.
"But Jamie Galbraith (private communication) has trumped me; he says it’s
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Walking to the subway this morning, I thought of the 598,000 people who lost their jobs in January. [UPDATE: not being a math whiz! I have just realized that's [over] half a million jobs]
Here are the details:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/business/economy/07jobs.html?_r=1&hp
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The New York Times reports on the recent Turkey-Israel rift. Worth a read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/world/europe/05turkey.html?_r=1&ref=
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Americans don't pay much attention to certain countries, and Turkey may be one of them. But as this story in the Asia Times makes clear, the words and actions of its prime minister are having a big impact in the Islamic world.
"In particular, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's public
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"While I respect the opinions of those who oppose abortion, I do not understand why those same leaders would oppose policies proven to reduce abortions. Modest estimates put the number of undesired pregnancies averted in California at over 108,000 with over 41,000 abortions prevented within
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Bernard Avishai is a reasonable man and he has a peace plan for Israel/Palestine. His conclusion
"The point is, if we have learned anything from this past year it is that things that "cannot go on" eventually can't. The current carnage in Gaza is nothing if not a wake-up call:
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Some of you may want to read John Mearsheimer's assessment of Israel-Gaza, published in the American Conservative (are they the only ones who would print it?).
"Another War, Another Defeat: The Gaza offensive has succeeded in punishing the Palestinians but not in making Israel more secure.&
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From Bob Woodward at the Wash Post
"The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks,
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Daniel Levy reports the following at TPM; And the inestimable Juan Cole does as well.
"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shamefaced after President George W. Bush ordered her to abstain in a key U.N. vote on the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.
&
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Recommended from our parish pulpit yesterday. Aaron David Miller's advice to Obama:
"If Obama is serious about peacemaking he'll have to adjust that balance in two ways. First, whatever the transgressions of the Palestinians (and there are many, including terror, violence and incitement
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One sign of shifting opinion on Israel's military policy is the increase in U.S. media presentation of critical or questioning news, features, and opinions about the invasion.
The NYTimes blog: The Lede has a short interesting piece on the different representations in English and Hebrew on the
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Any thoughts on where this is going. What is the end game here?
Glenn Greenwald asks some pertinent questions:
Though the ins-and-outs of Israeli grievances and strategic considerations are endlessly examined, there is virtually no debate over whether the U.S. should continue to play such an
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Shoe-Hurling Iraqi Becomes a Folk Hero function getSharePasskey() { return \\\\\\'ex=1387083600&en=54c2a169e2434120&ei=5124\\\\\\';} function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent(\\\\\\'http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/world/middleeast/16shoe.html
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Here's more on torture, etc.:
"A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services committee said that top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bear major responsibility for the abuses committed by American troops in
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Over the week-end, I was talking to a friend who expressed surprise at a picture on the front page of the NYTimes (December 5), showing IDF forces dragging settlers from a house in Hebron. The removal had been ordered by Ehud Barack, the defense minister, and former pm. My friend at first thought
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NYTimes (December 4, 2008):
"Although the couple, who live in Brentwood, Tenn., have known for years that they wanted no more children, deciding what to do with the extra embryos has been a dilemma. He would have them discarded; she cannot.
“There is no easy answer,” said Ms. Best, a
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Rove Defends Bush: He's Not Worst President of the Last Fifty Years.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/03/rove-defends-bush-hes-not_n_148153.
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In the current issue of Commonweal, I look at the web of legal opinions, administrative statements, and permission engendered by the Bush Administration. These “legal” but probably unconstitutional scraps cover a range of issues, most notably the detention and interrogation of terrorists and
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Last night someone told me that the rumor sailing around DC is that George W. Bush will become a Catholic upon leaving office. Anyone else heard this?
Will definitively establish us as a church of sinners
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Is the embryonic stem cell debate in the U.S. a misplaced one? This story reenforces my sense and reading that adult stem cells are far more likely to produce viable medical results than embryonic stem cells. Any fair-minded scientists care to comment?
"PARIS -- Physicians at four
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"Anyone constructing a list of the big losers on Tuesday would probably include the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops. Will that fact be candidly addressed when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops meets next week in Baltimore?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/us/politics
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Douglas Kmiec has this account of a conversation he and a number of others had with Barack Obama:
"Not to understand that there is more than one rather indirect and elusive judicial way to address an intrinsic evil understates the ingenuity of the devout. Describing the abortion decision as
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The Forward carries a profile, "The Operator: The Double-Life of a Military Strategist," by Laura Rozen of Edward Luttwak, the man who agitated us so much a few weeks back. He's more than a scholar and public intellectual--a bit of Indiana Jones in the man.
In passing there's a
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John McGreevy posted about New Yorker's reputation for being rude. The discussion has been friendly and far-flung. Here:
http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=2030
The discussion continues: In today's NYT, we have two takes on really, really rude and what happens when you are really,
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E.J. Dionne has a column on Douglas Kmiec's recent five minutes of fame for endorsing Obama and being refused Communion.
Dionne: "In an interview over the weekend, Kmiec argued that 35 years after Roe, opponents of abortion need to contemplate whether "a legal prohibition" of
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Here is a story with a Q and A in which Bishop Naumann gives an account of his discussions with Governor Sebelius and his decision to ask her not to go to Communion.
http://cjonline.com/stories/052308/bre_communion.
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On May 11, I was surprised to see an obituary for Nuala O'Faolain. I knew nothing about her except what I had read in her memoir, Are You Somebody?, a touching and devestating account of a mean and meager Irish upbrining. She died of lung cancer at the age of sixty-eight. At the end of her life
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Posted by Kristina Chew on May 20th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Greetings from Kristina Chew, Jim Fisher’s wife.
There is quite a discussion going on at my weblog, AutismVox, about the autistic 13 year old over whom a Minnesota priest has filed a restraining order.
http://www.autismvox.com/
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This story from the Jerusalem Post probably represents the view of Elliot Abrams (I would bet the unnamed official in the story). True or not, it is hard to say, but it does look like a cat and mouse game between parts of the Bush Administration and parts of the Israeli right-wing and military. And
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One of the unexpected bits of news yesterday was Douglas Kmiec's report that he (a pro-life, conservative, law professor who is supporting Obama) had been barred from Communion. He joins Kathleen Sebelius in the small but growing group: "not at my Communion rail."
Here is a response
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Todd Gitlin posts from Jerusalem at TPM. He is attending an international conference organized on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary. His observations are very much worth a look:
Gitlin: "I've been wondering all day whether what's going on between the US and Israel on the one hand
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The National Abrotion Rights Action League has decided to endorse Senator Obama to the chagrin of Emily's List, pro-choice, etc.
"Naral did not wait long enough to satisfy Emily’s List, which promotes female candidates and has been a longstanding backer of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
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Chicago approves. How can he lose? Here's the story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/us/politics/11chicago.html?hp
Update: NYT's subhead: Pragmatic Politics Forged on the South Side That's why he can win
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About 10,000 feet below the posting of Veni...., Joe K. asked about historic times; I briefly mentioned May '68; but here in today's Times is a fuller account. Seems like only yesterday.
40 Years Later, an Uprising in Paris Is Still a Puzzle
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/us/10beliefs.html
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David Ignatius, who always sounds well-connected though not necessarily prescienct, writes in today's WashPost
"Saber rattling from the Bush White House may seem almost routine, but pay attention to the comment last week by Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
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Sometime back, someone asked about McCain's Catholic Committee, here's a list:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/05/mccains-catholic-committe_n_100277.
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Just read this in John Allen's post... an interview with Mary Ann Glendon: U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
Allen: It wasn’t just his affection for Americans … Americans also showed a surprising degree of affection for him, didn’t they?
Glendon: Yes, and I thought all of that suddenly
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An argument for Obama from a pro-life Catholic; he wrote earlier on Slate supporting Obama; here he further explains his reasoning. Worth a read:
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=27820
Here's his original endorsement in Slate:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/convictions/
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When the supercilious Allesandra Stanley and the serious Bob Herbert agree at opposite ends of the NYTimes about the Reverend Wright, you have to wonder if we are not approaching the end times.
Or.... maybe Al Sharpton has become Wright's communication director.
Poor Obama--two crazy
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Elliot Morris's "documentary" film, "Standard Operating Procedure" opened yesterday in New York. The focus is on Abu Gharib and the soldiers who were convicted for abuse. I went late afternoon so I could write something for Commonweal, the print version.
A good deal has
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I posted this earlier, but am afraid we were distracted by the walkability issue. So excuse my posting this again. Virtually everything reported in this article is unconstitutional, illegal, and unethical. Sober up!
I wrote: "A stellar piece of investigative journalism by David Barstow on
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There was much nonBenedict news this week-end. You may have missed the Green Issue of the NYTimes Magazine (let us not inquire into that carbon footprint, or even its bs footprint). But amazingly enough, there is a long set of short pieces about what we can all do to "save the planet." It
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The Supreme Court, 7-2, including all the Catholics, upholds Kentucky death penalty drugs.
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-5439.pdf
Let's see: Will the pope be visiting Roberts et al?
Update: Yup, they are. Dinner at the WH. The menu: morel-encrusted diver scallops,
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View from the Pew (of the great event). You sit back: Relax and Enjoy!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/weekinreview/13barry.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview&oref=
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This from the dean of the Berkeley School of Law, finding Yoo had bad ideas and gave poor advice, but not quite enough to question his ability to teach law.
"What troubles me substantively with the analyses in the memoranda is that they reduce the Rule of Law to the Reign of Politics.
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Samantha Power is lecturing on her recent book; she was at Columbia University on Tuesday.
"To the delight of many in the crowd, she even hinted that she could be part of that hypothetical [Obama] cabinet. "Because of the kind of campaign that Senator Obama has run," Power said
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Just this A.M., I was wondering about moral hazard: Aristotle? Heidegger? Rorty? Apparently none of the above. The insurance and bail-out industry according to David Leonhardt. Here in admirably brief compass: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/business/18hazard.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=
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In addition to its very, very complete coverage this morning of Eliot Spitzer's downfall, the NYTimes carried what I consider a related report: 25 percent of U.S. teenaged girls have one or more sexually transmitted disease.
In addition to an account of the CDC's report, the Times deployed
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The departure of Samantha Power from the Obama campaign has kicked up a small dust bunny in the media. She's been called naive for her remarks to the Scotsman and to the BBC. In a less media-saturated world no one would have ever heard about them. But we did.
It is a tribute to the Obama
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Forgot to post this yesterday: "Priced out of the Market"
..."the price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago, and corn prices are up by a quarter. Global cereal stock have fallen to their lowest level since 1982...."
Why? http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/
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George Will throws a stone!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703205.html
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There's a lively discussion going on about the November election set off by Wm. Kristol's NYTimes column yesterday. The discussion is going on at Pat Lang's site: http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2008/02/kristol-on-obam.html#comments
Lang comments that Kristol's column contains
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The new head of the German Bishops Conference on celibacy:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3135174,00.html
And when the media doesn't have any other issues with the Church, you can always make one up: St. Pat's Spat Pits Church Vs. Cities function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=
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Superdelegates--their history and purpose--came up in a post below. Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann give a succinct explanation in Friday's NYT: "Delegates of Steel."
Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/opinion/15mann.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=
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Virginia:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/index.html#VADEM
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/index.html#val=VAREP
Maryland:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/epolls/#MDDEM
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/
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The Chronicle of Higher Education has this (presumably an ad) in their Feburary 15 issue.
"In recent years, universities across the country have been targeted by outside groups seeking to influence what is taught and who can teach. To achieve their political agendas, these groups
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Washington, D.C., and surroundings vote today (Mark Shields has called them the Crab Cake Primaries; here in tribute to Sponge Bob is a slightly altered version).
And here is E.J. Dionne on what's up for the two Democratic campaigns. He is on the mark, as usual, for the challenges each faces
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Jim Dwyer has the whole story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/nyregion/09about.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Jim+Dwyer&st=nyt&oref=slogin
Everyone over 50 years of age will understand.
Update: I have been corrected and told that many Catholics under 50 had nuns.
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Not to make merry in a season of repentance, but last night after reading from the lenten sermons of Leo the Great, I picked up Diaries and Letters, 1930-39 of Harold Nicolson edited by his son, Nigel.
Here a letter from father (in Persia, aka Iran) to son (aged 9 at home in England).
16th
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Gail Collins, the sane and witty NYTimes woman columnist, has a good analysis of the gender tendencies in the Democratic primaries.
Vis a vis the Clinton/Obama contest, she writes, "Senator Kennedy has been a champion of many issues that women care about. But when he ran unsuccessfully for
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A while back Joe Komanchak posted on Murray's invovlement in JFK's Houston Speech to Protestant ministers. The Fordham Center on Religion and Culture (disclosure: I am co-director) had a session on January 16 that looked at the speech. A great session.
Shaun Casey who has a book coming out on
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Everyone appears to have their NYTimes this morning, so I hope y'all read Katharine Q. Seelye on Bill Clinton, "Back in the Thick of Politics."
She gets the controversial remarks and she gets the dynamic duo strategy, but she also gets why some Democratic voters love it."While
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Is it possible that the Gazans who walked into Egypt through the breaks in the wall constructed by Israel have created facts on the ground? Hard to say. And who can see the consequences? But there is something bracing about their willingness to walk through the wall for "fresh air" as one
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In case there's still an issue about who did what on civil rights legislation, here's Joseph Califano, who was LBJ's special assistant for domestic affairs:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402079.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Headline: It Took a
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Not sure anyone noticed, but in his New Hampshire victory speech Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, intoned several times, "Yes, we can!" Resounding cheers and chantback followed.
"Yes, we can!" is the signature rallying cry of PBS's kid's favorite, Bob the
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A faithful friend of Commonweal has died. This from Mary Ann Hinsdale
Posted by Mary Ann Hinsdale ( Edit )
on January 13th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I don’t know where or how to leave this, but I hope someone at Commonweal writes about Philip Kaufmann who died Jan. 8th. I am at the
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This from Mat Bai, who covered Obama in New Hampshire, for the NYTimes:
"The problem here is that Obama’s pattern of support in New Hampshire, should it be repeated elsewhere, would place him squarely in the tradition of your classic liberal insurgent—this year’s Bill Bradley or
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Andrew Kohut, the reliable Pew pollster, has an op-ed piece in Thursday's Times that seems like the probable explanation for the polling failure in the Clinton/Obama race in NH
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/opinion/10kohut.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Update: Eugene
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As those near and dear--and not so near and dear--will attest I have never been a Hillary fan. I'm still not. My horror goes back to an article in the Harvard Education Review (circa 1970s, maybe) on children's rights. It was clear she didn't know a thing about children and parents--probably she
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Just watched Meet the Press. Tim Russert and two political consultant, McMahon and Murphy were spinning like mad against Hillary. Do I detect a woman-can't-really be president message here? Some questions: If Obama and McCain wind up as the nominees, does anyone think Obama can beat McCain? Could
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Post below begging to hear from Iowa has turned up a caucus goer--or as we have been calling them caucusasians!
UPDATE: David Cochran, 2nd Iowan reporting in, is on comments below. Sound like a rousing blow for discussion, debate, and democracy!
Here's Koch's report:
Posted by William
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David Gibson must still be recovering from New Year's Eve. So let me post my question myself: If not to William Kristol as the Times's right, right-wing, con, neo-con columnist, to whom should the Times have offered the slot that would have had the respect of the paper's readers
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The caucuses, hard to believe, are coming up Thursday. Anyone from Iowa on the CWL blog? Call in! Let us hear how it's going. Are you going to a caucaus? Are they sending a limo? Excitement building? Total exhaustion? Been a fascinating year? Can hardly wait for the outlanders to head for New
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The NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) has issued a report on the decline of book reading. Is it true? Or better how accurate is it? I am doubtful. I am a reader; the child of readers; the spouse of a voracious reader; the mother and grandmother of readers (well, one is still working on it; he's
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Catch Eduardo in Sunday's Washpost: optimistic fellow sees "End of Sprawl" in the concurrent housing crisis and fuel price increase. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802449.
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In the course of yesterday's post, "Calling all...," someone referred to an article in America by Dennis O'Brien, which I called to his attention. Here is his reply:
Thanks for the referral. I found the discussion pretty depressing.
(1) Who is a "pro-choice" candidate
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What can be made of this statement (via John Allen) by Archbishop Chaput:
"I think there are legitimate reasons you could vote in favor of someone who wouldn’t be where the church is on abortion, but it would have to be a reason that you could confidently explain to Jesus and the victims of
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This story from the NY Times (11/7/07) about a Justice Dept. official who submitted to waterboarding to see what it was like suggests that the Justice Dept. may have had several different opinions from the counsel's office on the practice, but only one was good enough for the Bush Administration
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Just in case you were wondering about the Obama-Cheney Relationship.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Friday he hasn't reached out to ''Cousin Barack'' Obama since reports that the two share a distant relatives.
In an interview for CNBC's ''Kudlow & Company,'' Cheney
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This just on the BBC
Cheney, Obama 'distant cousins'
They
may be polar opposites politically but US Vice-President Dick Cheney
and Democratic candidate Barack Obama are related, Mr Cheney's wife
says.
Lynne Cheney
said she had discovered while doing family research for
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Father Dennis Desse, President of St. Thomas University, has changed his mind. Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be welcomed to speak at the university. Deese's humble and intelligent letter can be found here: http://www.stthomas.edu/bulletin/news/200741/Wednesday/Dease10_10_07.cfm
Archbishop Tutu's
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This morning's infamous New York Times has the following from our fellow bloggers in Iran. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/opinion/30parker.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin
Does it confirm the view that in their distinctive ways Misters Bush and
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The lead paragraph from today's infamous NYTimes:
Like Mohamed ElBaradei, we want to make sure what he calls the “crazies” don’t start a war with Iran. We fear his do-it-yourself diplomacy is playing right into the crazies’ hands — in Washington and Tehran. Read the rest
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One of CWL's regular commenters posted this at "Why We Might Invade Iran." Sums up some of the horrifying possibilities.
Posted by
unagidon
on September 19, 2007, 4:20 pm
I have been hearing a lot of chatter in the news about Iran becoming the gravest
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Here is a useful, brief assessment of U.S.-Iran relations from the perspective of Shiism. The author of this article, Vali Nasr, is also author of The Shiia Revival, well worth reading.
http://usacac.army.mil/CAC/milreview/English/MayJun07/nasr.pdf
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Thomas Powers, ancienne Commonweal colmnist, had a review of George Tenet's book in the NYRB, July 19, in which he examined Tenet's claims as well as the administration's claims about going to war in Iraq.
A reader writes in the current issue, September 27, that Powers failed to address 
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An assessment of the general's and the ambassador's sins of ommission by knowledgeable reporters.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/19610.html
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Along with Juan Cole, Patrick Lang is the most knowledgable and astute observer of Iraq, especially on military matters. Here is a snippet from (Advice for the Democratic Party) his take on the questions left for Congress by General Petraeus and Ambassador Croker, above all the question of
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General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker probably did better on Monday than anyone--Republican or Democrats--expected. Whether or not they are accurate remains to be seen.
Damian Cave and Allissa Rubin in the New York Times (9/11/07) call Crocker's testimony into question, based in part
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For those old enought to have forgotten and those too young to know:
When General Petraeus Speaks, Don't Listen
by Allan J. Lichtman
On the cusp of General David Petraeus' report on the "surge" of American troops in Iraq we should recall one of the most important if neglected lessons
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Larry Cunningham posted below on abandoning books unworthy of reading. There, Barbara mentions books that are difficult but finally worth finishing. She mentions Jane Smiley's The Greenlanders.
So the question: books so painful to read that they can only be read a page or so at a time.
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Apropos of Jean Raber's post below on Karl Rove's departure from the White House, I watched his "Meet the Press" performance last night. This man is not retiring from politics. He's been set loose to bamboozle the Democrats. David Gregory sitting in for Tim Russert and no mean interviewer
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The following paragraph from the Times (August 22) front page story of the Fed's handling of the subprime meltdown reminds us that even economists must come to terms with the unreal.
"Fed officials would probably prefer to wait until their Sept. 18 meeting, by which time they will
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You don’t have to be Catholic to be... ...opposed to embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).
As Cathleen Kaveny’s post below on Robbie George’s pleas to U.S. Catholics made clear, one can hardly say embryonic stem cell before someone starts quoting Humanae Vitae. I propose that those opposed
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Bob Woodward reports on the testimony of CIA head Hayden to the Iraqi Study Group last winter. Sobering.
CIA Said Instability Seemed 'Irreversible'
By Bob Woodward
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/11/AR2007071102451.html?hpid=topnews
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The appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court started a sidebar debate about five Catholics on the Court and how that commonality would affect their decisions. Given the end-of-term decisions, that now seems a moot point
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At the request of Robert Reid and the permission of William Collier: some comments on Henneberger's op-ed piece
Posted by
William Collier
on June 22, 2007, 2:59 pm
I’m not trying to hijack this thread about Juan Cole’s prescription for Hillary on
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This from Juan Cole on Hillary Clinton's effort to explain Iraq.
If I were advising Senator Clinton on what to say about Iraq, this would be it: "Our troops have fought courageously and with great skill against the totalitarian, genocidal Saddam Hussein regime and its security forces.
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Can anyone point me to the official statements of Amnesty and Cardinal Martino discussed in Paul Lauritzen's post below? Not that I don't trust media accounts
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Commonweal offers summer reading suggestions in its June 15 issue. I'd like to add a book to that list, Cullen Murphy's Are We Rome? (Houghton Mifflin). Subtitled: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. As usual with Murphy, a lot of nuance, wit, and real knowledge (about the Roman Empire
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Alberto Gonzalez is holding on for what seems an embarrassingly long time. Among many possible reasons: Is a replacement hard to find? Suggestions for the president from CWL bloggers (and be realistic
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Lo, those many years ago when I was editor of Commonweal, I remember getting pr releases about partial-birth abortion. I didn't even read the first ones, but finally I did read one and looked at the pictures, and read the description. My dismissive attitude was replaced by curiosity and then
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Saturday's NYTimes carried this op-ed by James Zumwalt, id'ed as former Marine and member of the Committee on the Present Danger (an old Cold War neo-con group--I think).
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/opinion/14zumwalt.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%
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The great thing about blogs and the internet: no sooner do you have a thought about writing something when someone has already written and posted. I had this thought and now Earl Hutchinson has gone to the trouble of actually expressing it: http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/50407/
Thanks
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While the U.S. Senate fiddles with its proceedural niceties, David Ignatius offeres several points for preparing for the worst case outcome in Iraq. Helpful
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/06/AR2007020601527.html
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The best analysis I've seen of President Bush's Iraq speech (not the State of Disarray speech) can be read here (pdf, 36 pp.):
http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/070116_cordesman_bush_plan.pdf
Anthony Cordesman's usual judicious thinking shows how off the mark the "surge" mentality
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As many news stories have commented, Gerald Ford did his country a great favor in taking on the presidency with calm and dignity in the wake of Richard Nixon's resignation. As I recall, there was a great sigh of relief when Nixon went, and Ford stepped up. He undid himself with his pardon of Nixon
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In my post below (Reading for the week) and on Patrick Lang's blog, there has been a furious attack on the very notion of diplomacy. So as a thought exercise I am listing Iraq's neighbors with some brief thoughts about why and how it is in their self-interest to back an area-wide
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Orham Pahmuk's Nobel speech is in this week's New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061225fa_fact1
The author of Istanbul and Snow, etc, has more to say on his family, Turkishness, and writing. Fascinating.
And then closer to home, Patrick Lang offers this succinct
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The commission report on Iraq is worth talking about.
Here it is:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/international/20061206_btext.pdf
Update: Here are the key recommendations:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/middleeast/06report_summary.html This site turns out to be very summary
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Come the Baker-Hamilton Commission Report on Wednesday, there will be spin enough to make the most sober-sided dizzy. That's why it might be worth the effort to look at Anthony Cordesman's briefing (CSIS, November 29, 2006) http://www.csis.org/images/stories/burke/061128_iraq_briefing_transcript.
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I don't get the media hysteria over Rep. Nancy Pelosi supporting Rep. John Murtha for Democratic House leader as she promised she would if the Dems won back the House. Rep. Steny Hoyer won instead and she congratualted him. Hoyer sensibly responded, "let's move on." Why the hysteria and
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This just on the BBC
A senior US state department official has said that the US has shown "arrogance and stupidity" in Iraq.
Alberto Fernandez said in an interview with al-Jazeera TV that there was room for "strong criticism" of US policy.
But he added that the situation
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The front page photo on the print edition of the New York Times (10/18/06) is worth some study and reflection. Bush has signed the bill for interogating and trying unlawful combants. What are these witnesses thinking? Embarassed? Solemnly looking forward to the interrogations that will find the &
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One of the purposes of novel reading is to put oneself in a time and a place and in shoes your not likely to wear in your "real" life. That's why Austin and Dickens are always a great read. And that's also why Orhan Pamuk has become a favorite of mine.
His novel Snow has all the
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A debate with Shlomo Ben-Ami, Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross, Rashid Khalidi, Tony Judt, and John Mersheimer took place at Cooper Union in NYC on September 28. I attended and found it interesting and refreshing. No mention of it appeared in any newspaper I read. Here is a video of the event for those
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The fracas over the Deutsche Oper Berlin's cancellation of Mozart's opera "Idomeneo," produced this interesting factoid in the New York Times (9/27/06).
The bloody head of Muhammad brought on stage at the end of the opera is accompanied by the heads of Jesus, Buddha, and Poseidon. Could
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This from Patrick Lang on Benedict. A very different take than Juan Cole's, equally intriguing.
"Faith, Reason and the University" Benedict XVI
"The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to
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Juan Cole, one of the most knowledgable Middle Eastern/Islam experts, had this to say on Friday about Benedict's talk:
Pope Benedict's speech at Regensburg University, which mentioned Islam and jihad, has provoked a firestorm of controversy. The address is more complex and subtle than the press on
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David Grossman is an Israeli writer whose Yellow Wind I read many years ago--this was a touching and sympathetic non-fiction account of his encounters with Palestinians. I think the book appeared in the late 80s. He has since written several well-received novels as well as continuing his essay
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AMDG (for those worried aboout whether this is Catholic)
Seymour Hersh, who seems to have an inexhaustable supply of leakers and informants, writes in this week's New Yorker about U.S.-Israel cooperation on Lebanon and seems to draw a line from that cooperation to a faction in the Bush
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I am midway through Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas Ricks. The book offers many examples of the incompetence, stubbornness, and ignorant denial of civilian authorities, i.e., Cheney, Rumsfeld, and (last but not least) George W. Bush.
What is unexpected—since the
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Daniel Levy writes on "Ending the Neoconservative Nightmare" in the Israeli Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/746312.html Read the whole thing, but here is a brief quote:
"Finding themselves somewhat bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, the [American] neoconservatives
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Here are the opening sentences of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for the WashPost.
"President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 ultimately may come to be seen as one of the most profligate actions in the
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In a earlier comment on Iraq, I mentioned Peter Galbraith's new book, The End of Iraq, here in brief is his thesis in Tuesday NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/opinion/25galbraith.html?_r=1&oref=slogin It's worth a look, as, of course, is his book.
But now, I am reading Fiasco:
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In the course of the war in Iraq, there have been a few web sources that I have found particularly helpful in getting at many of the issues that bedevil the U.S. and Iraq.
The other day, one of them—Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies—posted one of his
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Something to include in our prayers today.
From Associated Press, April 14, 2006
Quotes from the retired generals who are calling for the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld
"We went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the peace after we
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Here is another observation from Cobra II by Gordon and Trainor:
"The war planning took about eighteen months. The postwar planning began in earnest only a couple of months before the invastion. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Tommy Franks spent most of their time and energy on the least
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I have just finished reading Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor. I heartily recommend it to both opponents and proponents of the war. The authors, respectively the NYT's military corresponent and a retired Marine general, give a
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I wonder if you'all saw this item in this week's Word From Rome: John Allen interviews the Jesuit General Hans-Peter Kolvenbach. Among Allen's questions and Kolvenbach's responses are the following.
Allen: One early controversy of his papacy centered on Fr. Tom Reese from America magazine. What
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Where are the Commonweal Catholics?
Mark Sargent raises an interesting question: Where are the Commonweal Catholics? They are all over the place; I meet them all the time (sorry to say, their numbers are larger than the Commonweal subscription list—but that’s another issue). Maybe the
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Here's a second to Bob Imbelli's Bleak House note.
Yes, see the Masterpiece Theatre production (which has a great pleasure to watch in the winter Sundays of January and February), and then: READ the book or reread the book. For one thing, the performances of Lady Dedlock and Lawyer Tulckinghorn
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What counts as fair in writing history?
On March 1, Donald Critchlow, author of Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism, spoke at the New School University on one of the nation’s leading conservative activists. His fellow historians—Lisa McGirr and Paula Baker—were respondents; I
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