IN THE August 13, 2012, ISSUE
The Hollow Republic
President Obama must surely wish he could undo the campaign speech he delivered in Roanoke, Va., on July 13. That was where he offered up the view that “if you’ve ...
Also In This Issue
Articles
The Enemy of My Friend
Presidents who believe in the greatness of America project that greatness in their foreign policy. They cultivate alliances with countries that share American values, confront adversaries that oppose them, and ...
Mass-Murder Group Therapy
I don’t care what the Colorado murderer’s message is, or what his goals were, and for my part he can rot in hell: Forgiveness is central to Judaism but is ...
What Can Capitalism Do for Me?
The presidential campaign has become, almost by accident, a debate about the future of capitalism. What it is not yet, and may not become, is an honest, intelligent, or productive ...
Calling Cal
Republicans often ask what Reagan would do, but it is hard to answer that question about our current budgetary situation. When Reagan won the presidency in 1980, the federal debt ...
Features
Unleash the Mind
America’s wealth is not an inventory of goods; it is an organic entity, a fragile pulsing fabric of ideas, expectations, loyalties, moral commitments, visions. To vivisect it for redistribution is ...
Who Gave Us Obamacare?
‘We can no longer afford to put health-care reform on hold.”
It was on February 24, 2009, a little over a month after he assumed office, that President Obama spoke ...
The Hollow Republic
President Obama must surely wish he could undo the campaign speech he delivered in Roanoke, Va., on July 13. That was where he offered up the view that “if you’ve ...
Penniless in Paradise
San Bernardino, Calif. — On the front door of the San Bernardino city hall is a sign that reads: “Out of Order.” Broke city, broken door: There’s a certain pleasing ...
Books, Arts & Manners
Green Shift
This review should begin with a confession: I badly underestimated Roger Scruton.
When I heard two years ago that Scruton was coming to the American Enterprise Institute to write a book ...
The Obama Failure
The political timing for Debacle is not coincidental, and Grover Norquist and John Lott’s book may well become the most important arrow striking President Obama’s economic policy. They have written ...
Making Sense of Inequality
Not long ago, a former colleague asked me to recommend the best accessible reference on income inequality. I immediately suggested Timothy Noah’s 2010 series of essays, “The Great Divergence,” written ...
A Dynasty Begins
Henry VII is such an unfamiliar historical figure that it is easy to mistake him for a misprint: Oh, they must mean Henry the Eighth. A little basic research establishes ...
A Knight to Remember
Where the Batman movies are concerned, I tend toward the contrarian. I’m one of the few people who prefer Tim Burton’s garish Art Deco caricatures to Christopher Nolan’s broody, self-serious ...
Flash of Light
During Jack Kerouac’s lifetime, haiku went from being a countercultural affectation to a staple of high-school literary magazines. Kerouac wrote good ones, partly because he loosened the 5-7-5 syllable corset, ...
Sections
Letters
Must We Think of the Author to Read?
I admired Ryan T. Anderson’s review of Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition (“Written on the Mind,” June 25), but I found ...
The Week
‐ They’ll stop at nothing, those Republicans — even quoting the president’s words.
‐ At the moment, the Obama campaign’s major message appears to be that Mitt Romney is an outsourcer ...
Funeral Audit
Wandered through a few European museums last month. You find yourself looking at the 435th Annunciation, this time by Giovanni Battisti Garbonzo DiLavatrini, and the eyes start to glaze. If ...
From the Twitter feed of Kim Jong Un, @youthcaptain
Oh, carbs! Why do I love you so much? Why do you taste so nom nom? #losinglbsishardworkevenforasupremeleader
Not sure why @generalriyongho was hiding in my armoire, but he certainly gave me ...
Poetry
IMAGINE THE UNFALLEN
If this old fallen world can look so great,
If even fallen birds can have such state
They land their narrow fingers on a tree,
And make a stem a stage ...
In Search of ‘Why’
The media conventions are pretty much chiseled in concrete by now. If a guy guns down large numbers of people while shouting “Allahu akbar!” don’t worry, it’s a one-off, part ...