Help Save Bank Reform Bill Help Save Bank Reform Bill
Senate bank reform bill short one vote.
Jul 12, 2010 / Peter Rothberg
A World Cup Final in the Shadows of History A World Cup Final in the Shadows of History
Many South Africans were cheering for the Netherlands in yesterday's World Cup final—some embracing a connection to Dutch forbears, others to the Netherlands' solidarity in t...
Jul 12, 2010 / Aaron Ross
What Michael Steele Can Learn From Howard Dean What Michael Steele Can Learn From Howard Dean
Embattled RNC chair Michael Steele could learn a few things from Howard Dean's turbulent start at the DNC.
Jul 12, 2010 / Ari Berman
Centcom Commander Loves to Kill Centcom Commander Loves to Kill
Obama and Gates have appointed a Marine general to Centcom famous for saying that he loves to kill. Hopefully, there's more to the story.
Jul 12, 2010 / Bob Dreyfuss
The Petraeus Syndrome The Petraeus Syndrome
As Petraeus takes over in Afghanistan, could success be worse than failure?
Jul 12, 2010 / Tom Engelhardt
UT Agrees to Re-Name Dorm Honoring Klansman UT Agrees to Re-Name Dorm Honoring Klansman
On July 9, Bill Powers, president of the University of Texas, announced that he would accept the recommendation of a 21-member panel to re-name a residence hall honoring William Stewart Simkins, an unapologetic Ku Klux Klan organizer who later became a law professor at the University of Texas, a job he held from 1899 until his death in 1929. The UT administration has been called on several times in the past few years to change the names of several of its buildings, but Powers made little headway on his promise to consider modifications until the Simkins story—and the protests of African-American groups on campus and in the community—garnered national attention. (For background, read this June 13 StudentNation report.) Dr. Greg Vincent, Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement and chair of the advisory panel, said that the renaming was recommended because the dorm’s current title “compromises public trust and the university’s reputation,” and because it was “inconsistent with the core values of [the] university”—which means, of course, that it was making the school’s diversity efforts and inclusiveness look bad. So, while it’s a good thing that Simkins will no longer have an exalted place on UT’s campus, the decision also raises inevitable questions about the other Southern heroes littering the lawns and the extent to which this particular renaming is only a capitulation to public outcry. Whether this qualifies as progress on the Texas campus—whether it will foster a more welcoming environment for minorities —will really lie in the narrative UT constructs for its incoming students and its future. Sara Haji, a Nation intern and freelance writer, is a recent graduate from the University of Texas, Austin.
Jul 11, 2010 / StudentNation / Sara Haji
Biden’s Crystal Balls Biden’s Crystal Balls
Nobody sees the future like Joe Biden—especially when he’s wrong.
Jul 10, 2010 / Leslie Savan
This Week At TheNation.com: Reflections on Lebron, plus two new videos and an event in New York This Week At TheNation.com: Reflections on Lebron, plus two new videos and an event in New York
Reflections on Lebron. Plus: See me in New York on Tuesday.
Jul 10, 2010 / Katrina vanden Heuvel
Nicole Hollander is a National Treasure: Thirty Years of Sylvia Nicole Hollander is a National Treasure: Thirty Years of Sylvia
It was a sad day last year when the Chicago Tribune ignored the pleas and protests of Nicole Hollander fans and cancelled her Sylvia cartoon strip. I guess it got to be too much for the Trib to run a regular feature in which women’s humor was based on something cleverer than Does this Make Me Look Fat? and Will I Every Get Married? Sylvia, who looks like a cross between a tough-talking telephone operator from a 1940s screwball comedy and a gypsy fortuneteller, is shrewd and cynical and drily, wittily, outrageously attitudinous; she writes in the bathtub, explains Rush Limbaugh to her extraterrestrial friend, talks back to her TV (and her cat talks back to her. Even her cat is smarter than the other cartoon cats out there.) The New Press has just brought out The Sylvia Chronicles: 30 Years of Graphic misbehavior from Reagan to Obama. I can’t figure out how to put up pictures here, so take a look at Audrey Bilger”s illustrated review from the Ms. Magazine blog. Buy, read, laugh! And while you're buying Sylvia for yourself, can you help make sure some middle schoolers in Louisiana can enjoy reading too? Read on... St. Bernard Parish, three miles from downtown New Orleans, was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. All its buildings were damaged, and all its schools were destroyed. Amazingly, little by little, the district is coming back, and on August 11, the last of its public schools, Andrew Jackson Middle School, will reopen with 350 students. Just in time for the BP oil disaster, you may be thinking. Yes. This is indeed a community that has been hit by catastrophe. And that’s where you come in. ReadThis is a volunteer organization of people who love books and want to spread the joy of reading. (Truth in advertising: I’m on the board.) We collect new and gently used books for public schools and other underbooked places; we’ve sent books to a pediatric AIDS center, a homeless shelter and to troops in Iraq. This summer, we’ve taken on a big task: gathering 1400 books for the Andrew Jackson Middle School’s library, which was ruined along with everything else. Imagine a school library with no books and no money to buy books! Can you chip in by buying a book or two from the excellent and varied wishlist prepared by the school librarian? It has lots of terrific choices, from Harry Potter to Walter Dean Myers. As a bonus good deed, you’ll be helping the Garden District Book Shop, an independent book store. Find out more about ReadThis here. If you’d like to get involved—collecting books and mailing them to the school, helping out at our table at the Brooklyn Flea on July 24 , or, if by some miracle you happen to be a publisher, donating a box or two shiny new age-appropriate books -- email us at [email protected]. For latest updates, join us on Facebook.
Jul 10, 2010 / Katha Pollitt
Obama and DOMA: Will the President Do the Right Thing? Obama and DOMA: Will the President Do the Right Thing?
A court ruling rejects the Defense of Marriage Act as an affront to the Constitution. Now the question is whether the president and his justice department will defend a bad law.
Jul 9, 2010 / John Nichols