Three thousand years ago, King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Archaeologists are currently excavating what is thought to have been his palace. The scale is rather small, though some cut stones form an impressive buttress down a steep incline into the valley below. The palace is sited in what has always been a rocky and unpromising landscape far inland from the Mediterranean and with a hinterland of desert and the Dead Sea. Everything found here and in other digs confirms the account in the Bible of the Jews’ emerging from tribal warfare to take their place on the local …
Ancient and Modern
Jerusalem: The Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore (Knopf, 688 pp., $35)
In This Issue
Articles
Romneynomics by the Numbers
Mitt Romney released a 59-point economic plan in September. Very little attention has been paid to its details, which is perhaps surprising given that he is widely considered to be ...
Perry’s Program
Gov. Rick Perry has never been a split-the-difference kind of guy, and being a conservative in Texas means that he’s never much had to. But with his presidential campaign foundering, ...
The Coptic Winter
One of the powerful images that came to define the Arab Spring was that of Christians and Muslims praying together in Tahrir Square in Cairo. That image helped shape the ...
The Billionaire’s Passport
I have a friend who is a billionaire, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. But these days there seem to be a lot more billionaires around.
My ...
Features
Mobility Impaired
What’s the most important issue in American politics? In a narrow sense, the sputtering economy and ballooning deficits are likely to dominate the 2012 election season. But while every election ...
Closing the Achievement Gap
During the recent struggle over collective-bargaining rights in Wisconsin, a number of left-of-center observers, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, pointed out that students in unionized Wisconsin do better ...
Progressivism, Race, and the Training Wheels of Freedom
In 1865, amid the final throes of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass worried that the prospect of fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence, by finally securing to blacks ...
Up from Leftism
Atlanta, Ga. — ‘The first time my name appeared in the New York Times, I was described as ‘an obscure associate professor,’” says Eugene D. Genovese. “I’ve always thought of ...
Books, Arts & Manners
Bad News
Until I read this book, I fondly thought that I was a pessimist; but now, having read it, I realize that on the Cassandra scale of one to ten I ...
Unfriendly Skies
There were two events in the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency that justify the use of the overworked phrase “defining moment”: the assassination attempt after only the tenth week ...
Ancient and Modern
Three thousand years ago, King David captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites. Archaeologists are currently excavating what is thought to have been his palace. The scale is rather small, though some ...
Wrong Track
For all the glory of the transcontinental railroads, it’s not hard to find bad things to say about them. As the first truly national American big businesses, they made quite ...
A Real Camino
This has been an unusually good run for religion at the movies. Dramatizing spiritual experience is notoriously difficult, and filmmakers tend to look for easier paths — the anthropologist’s condescension, ...
Volume Discount
Books were like print-outs, with text on both sides of the paper, fastened together along one side with stitching (in older books) or glue. The pages, or papers, were numbered ...
Sections
Letters
The Brush-off
Kevin D. Williamson’s piece on presidential aspirant Ron Paul (“Ron Paul’s Last Crusade,” September 19), coupled with Jack Hunter’s subsequent retort (October 3), brought to mind my own encounter ...
The Week
‐ Invading Congo? He really is turning us into Belgium after all.
‐ The Cain mutiny against establishment politics rolls on. Cain is a charmer, and he is right to buck ...
C O N F I D E N T I A L
CLIENT: Senior Romney Campaign
TEAM: Bain & Company Campaign Consulting Practice
IN RE: Report from our initial consulting efforts
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Many thanks for allowing BAIN CONSULTING to serve your campaign, and for giving ...
Frigid Pink
Occupy Wall Street gets all the press, but the world-changing assemblies are happening all over, you know. Here in Minnesota the locals formed OccupyMN and took over Government Plaza. It’s ...
Poetry
KING DAVID LEAVES OFF MOURNING FOR HIS SON
I’m dressed. The sky is stone, my path a sea.
I’m going to him, he won’t return to me.
I eat. The shattered waves have ...
Saint Who?
When it’s not explicitly hostile, Western liberals’ attitude to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is deeply condescending. One thinks of Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, pondering the author’s estrangement from ...
Recommended
Biden Signs Executive Order Allowing the U.S. to Fund Global Abortions
The policy was first instated by President Reagan to ensure that taxpayers would not be required to indirectly fund abortions in other countries.
Democrats Are Laying a Trap with Trump’s Impeachment Trial
Beware: Those arguing the Dems are making a miscalculation have got it all wrong.
Exclusive: 48 Senators Promise to Oppose Any Bill that Funds Abortion
Pro-life lawmakers pledge to resist spending bills that don’t include the Hyde amendment.
Cruz: Actually, It Is Constitutional to Impeach and Convict a Former President
Never mind how he voted.
What Happened to Officer Sicknick?
Democratic impeachment managers have a duty to explain how Officer Sicknick died.
Ultra-Woke Illinois Mandates Are Top Threat to U.S. Education
A radical new rule would politicize the classroom and very likely trample the free-speech and religious-liberty rights of teachers.
The Latest
Biden Orders Review of Supply Chain for Semiconductor Chips, Critical Resources
Biden's order will initiate a 100-day review of supply chains for pharmaceuticals, semiconductor chips, minerals and rare earths, and high-capacity batteries.
Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report Proves It’s an Abortion Group
Though the organization claims otherwise, it is the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Limbaugh and His Detractors
His posthumous critics exhibit all the flaws that he avoided.
Sasse Hits Becerra over 'Complete Nonsense Answer' on Nuns Suit
Earlier in the hearing on Wednesday, Becerra claimed that he "never sued any nuns" during his tenure as attorney general.
Becerra Commits to Collecting Health Data by Race: 'It's Time'
Becerra faces extensive opposition from Republicans over his pro-abortion record.
Becerra Fails to Name Single Abortion Restriction He'd Support
President Biden's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services did not identify any restrictions during a Senate confirmation hearing.