Pro-Lifers Answer My Questions (Well, Some of Them) Pro-Lifers Answer My Questions (Well, Some of Them)
They aren’t very interested in compromise, or birth control—or, for that matter, in engaging much with pro-choicers.
Nov 25, 2014 / Column / Katha Pollitt
The Republican Response to Obama’s Immigration Move The Republican Response to Obama’s Immigration Move
“Be positive,” the GOP’s advised. “Suggest another way to ease the plight Of families and kids already here.” Well, fine, but how about the wacko right?
Nov 25, 2014 / Column / Calvin Trillin
When Will the US Military End its Pattern of Destabilizing Entire Regions? When Will the US Military End its Pattern of Destabilizing Entire Regions?
We continue to see ourselves, as we have since 9/11, as victims, not destabilizers, of the world we inhabit.
Nov 25, 2014 / Tom Engelhardt
In the Awesome World of the Future In the Awesome World of the Future
Personal privacy is so twentieth century.
Nov 25, 2014 / Tom Tomorrow
No Indictment for Darren Wilson, No Justice for Black Lives No Indictment for Darren Wilson, No Justice for Black Lives
Unrest kept Michael Brown’s memory alive, and unrest is the key to justice.
Nov 25, 2014 / Mychal Denzel Smith
Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop
It’s not just Ferguson—here’s how the system protects police.
Nov 25, 2014 / Chase Madar
Plugged Into the Socket of Life Plugged Into the Socket of Life
Behind Richard Pryor’s jokes and barbs was a man yearning to be free.
Nov 25, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Scott Saul
The Osprey The Osprey
or sea-eagle, what the guidebook says is white, grayish brown, and “possessed of weak eye- masks” in its non-migratory island instance, is blue. Blue, riding thermal bands so low over the water it picks up the water’s color, reticulate tarsi tipping the light crests; and picks up one of the silver fish cutting the surface there, so the fish is blue, too, flapping-gone- slack in the grasp of its claws—as only the owl shares an outer reversible toe-talon, turned out for such clutching; as the water, in turn, picks up the sky- depth reflective blue sent down from ages beyond, into which the osprey lifts now without a least turning of wing-chord though “they are able to bend the joint in their wing to shield their eyes from the light”; what I mean is, by the time I tell you this it’s gone: fish-and-bird, this “bone-breaker,” brown or gray “diurnal raptor,” back into the higher trades. Someday, too, this blue—
Nov 25, 2014 / Books & the Arts / David Baker
Transmission Transmission
So he who strongly feels, behaves. —Marianne Moore You find in an alley the mouthpiece of a flute. Gossip alone makes music and suddenly from the pines the birds all fly away. You are devoted to giving clear meaning to one movement. The water in the fountain. Down the fountain. Over it. The prayer chapel but its brick bench. Magnolias in almost bloom. The failure to believe in mathematics is a failure of emotion— you have spent all of your free time. Choral directors describe the torso in terms of the muscles of sound. Your wife paints your two-year-old’s fingernails and the two-year-old says, toes too! Sitting next to an anthill feels like this. They work so hard. And for so little. For salvation. This is the mystery. This is forgiveness.
Nov 25, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Gary L. McDowell
Imitations of Life Imitations of Life
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing as a creature of secrets in The Imitation Game.
Nov 25, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans