Bad Lessons From ‘Won’t Back Down’ Bad Lessons From ‘Won’t Back Down’
A crude and hackneyed film, Won't Back Down peddles an improbable and deceptive message about schools and poverty.
Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Dana Goldstein
I’ve Got the Mitt Thinks I’m a Moocher, a Taker Not a Maker, Blues I’ve Got the Mitt Thinks I’m a Moocher, a Taker Not a Maker, Blues
(Sung by three members of the 47 percent) Well, I work two jobs, and that makes for a kinda long day. And the boss deducts the payroll tax that I’ve gotta pay. With sales tax too, I kinda thought I was paying my dues. I’ve got the Mitt thinks I’m a moocher, a taker not a maker, blues. Well, the wife and I took retirement some years ago. And Social Security accounts for most of our dough. Though we contributed to that so we’d have it there to use. I’ve got the Mitt thinks I’m a moocher, a taker not a maker, blues. Well, I went to Nam while Mitt went on his mission to France. A buddy needed rescuin’ and I thought, “Well, I’ll take a chance.” A wounded-vet pension’s not the salary that I would choose. I’ve got the Mitt thinks I’m a moocher, a taker not a maker, blues. (All, in chorus) Yes, he thinks we’re bums, and work is something we would refuse. Entitlements, he says, are what we just live to abuse. With his fat-cat friends, what he says about us is J’accuse. So some of us moochers would sure like to see him lose. We’ve got the Mitt thinks that we’re moochers, takers and not makers, blues.
Sep 26, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
A Tale of Two Zionisms: On Peter Beinart A Tale of Two Zionisms: On Peter Beinart
Why Israel’s purposes cannot be grasped only through the American Jewish experience.
Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Bernard Avishai
The Open The Open
Where even the shadow has light, there summer is spoken. Where darkness speaks you— a word— you still say light. Where the body is, you say convocation, absolute sun. (translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Mayhew)
Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Andrés Sánchez Robyana
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and Sonu Shamdasani’s The Freud Files; E. James Lieberman and Robert Kramer, editors, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank
Sep 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Elias Altman
How American Democracy Became Commercial Property How American Democracy Became Commercial Property
Election politics today are little more than advertising. But it wasn't always that way.
Sep 20, 2012 / Lewis Lapham
Brooklyn Book Festival, 2012 Brooklyn Book Festival, 2012
This Sunday's Brooklyn Book Festival is one of the country's most celebrated celebrations of books, reading and independent publishing.
Sep 19, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg
A Rallying Cry From the Romney Camp A Rallying Cry From the Romney Camp
“Amid Discord, Romney Seeks to Sharpen Message on His Agenda” —The New York Times We’ve got to go now hell for leather. We’ve got to get our act together, ’Cause even right-wing pundits say That this campaign’s in disarray. With our endeavor such a mess We find it difficult to press Our message that this country needs A man who’s proven by his deeds That he can turn a firm around, That he is someone who’s renowned For skills in management writ large. But wait: that’s who we’ve got in charge.
Sep 19, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan The Unconquered Flame: On Robert Duncan
A new biography shows how the poet Robert Duncan fed a line backward into the labyrinthine history of human imagination.
Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
Shelf Life Shelf Life
Maureen F. McHugh's After the Apocalypse; Joshua Cohen's Four New Messages
Sep 18, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Thier