November 19th, 2008
Jörg Haider is out of the closet now that he’s in the grave. “He was the man of my life,” said Stefan Petzner, a former fashion and cosmetics reporter who was Haider’s number two at the far-right political party, Alliance for the Future of Austria, and apparently number one in his boss’ heart before the xenophobic politician died in a car accident last month. Homosexuality and fascism are seemingly anathema, two polar opposites, but like magnetic fields, they attract.
November 16th, 2008
Old Testament morality has returned to the Holy Land. The updated version however, comes with a twist: eye for eye retribution by Jews is exacted on Jews. Such frontier justice is how some West Bank settlers settle matters. It’s called the “price tag policy.”
November 14th, 2008
Below are the five fundamental axioms, or self-evident truths, that govern our existence on this planet: Axiom I (upon which all the others are based): The bounty of our planet is limited. There are only so many raw materials that can be drawn from it and only so much air and land to provide for its inhabitant’s needs and to absorb their waste. To surpass these limits will bring about catastrophic results.
November 12th, 2008
Shelby Steele is one of the country’s most trenchant observers on race. In his most recent book, the conservative scholar discusses “masking,” an “almost automatic” false identity assumed by blacks around whites to offset the power differential and historical baggage that tangles social interaction between the races…
November 10th, 2008
In this vibrant, pluralistic country, a member of a minority managed to reach the pinnacle of political power, demonstrating that, however messy and unwieldy democracy may be, it can make a glorious virtue of those religious, ethnic, and racial differences that so often divide societies. That country is India, a sprawling subcontinent led by a Sikh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But pluralism may be in peril in the world’s largest democracy.
November 6th, 2008
Jeff Flake gets it. His party’s in trouble. Deep trouble. Flake is an earnest, reform-minded Republican congressman from Arizona who, if his party mandarins are wise, represents his caucus’ future. With characteristic bluntness, he summed up the state of affairs following the election. “Let’s face it,” he wrote in the Washington Post, “we Republicans are now, by any reasonable measurement, deep in the political wilderness.” Flake knows that of which he speaks.
November 5th, 2008
It’s Election Day and polls indicate a blowout. The Republican nominee, Colorado Governor Bill Owens, has a large lead over Congressman Richard Gephardt, whose party association has cost him dearly. The country clearly wants change. It’s hardly a surprise. Never before in the nation’s history has one party controlled the White House for four consecutive terms, much less five.
addresses the gap between rhetoric and reality -- between what is and what might be, all analyzed with a keen eye for the absurd.