John Lennon and George McGovern: Another Side of the 1972 Campaign John Lennon and George McGovern: Another Side of the 1972 Campaign
The McGovern campaign marked a turning point in many lives, including John Lennon’s.
Oct 22, 2012 / Jon Wiener
A Simple Guide to Every Single Republican Tax Proposal A Simple Guide to Every Single Republican Tax Proposal
(As verified by 178 independent studies) Sure, sometimes they call it supply-side, And sometimes they say job creation Is risked if our entrepreneurs Think profits get snatched by taxation. It comes to the same simple credo Around which the party has danced: If rich people pay less in taxes, Then everyone’s life is enhanced.
Oct 17, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin
After the Euphoria: On the Arab Uprisings After the Euphoria: On the Arab Uprisings
What are the new rules of the political game in the Middle East? Nobody knows, but Marc Lynch’s The Arab Uprising is a useful guide.
Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Patrick Cockburn
What Goes With What: On Richard Tuttle What Goes With What: On Richard Tuttle
Richard Tuttle’s sculpture seems to proclaim “No spirit but in things.”
Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Madrigal Madrigal
People snap like asparagus stems. Oh no? She is flying along the base paths and the sun is nestled in her hat. She has the color of a stone roof which clearly enjoys it. If the year could do without spring, I’m guessing it would. The planet, mild analgesic, revolving around a similarly gaseous idea awash in consonants.
Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Charles North
Uninvisible: On Dorothy B. Hughes Uninvisible: On Dorothy B. Hughes
In The Expendable Man, the story of an innocent under suspicion is given a racial twist.
Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Charles Taylor
Breather Breather
(after Henri Michaux) How you work at it. Give it a rest Misfortune. Relax. Better let’s both take a breather. See what the other is all about. I destroy you. My theater my harbor and my hearth. A gold cave. O new horizon (and real mother) I let myself go in your vaster light and amplitude along with the horror.
Oct 16, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Charles North
The Cuban Missile Crisis and Ownership of the World The Cuban Missile Crisis and Ownership of the World
Though the Cuban Missile Crisis was fifty years ago, imperial America and the threat of nuclear war remains.
Oct 16, 2012 / Noam Chomsky
Peter Dreier: ‘We Stand On the Shoulders’ of Social Justice Activists Peter Dreier: ‘We Stand On the Shoulders’ of Social Justice Activists
From Barbara Ehrenreich to Paul Wellstone, changemakers fighting for equality are the real American heroes.
Oct 15, 2012 / Books & the Arts / Press Room
Mitt Doesn’t Think That Nearly Half the People In This Country Are Moochers After All Mitt Doesn’t Think That Nearly Half the People In This Country Are Moochers After All
After weeks of acknowledging only that his “47 percent” remarks were “not elegantly stated,” Mitt Romney now says that they were “just completely wrong.” —News reports He was, he says, completely wrong; To care for everyone is vital. He’s singing now a different song, And “Etch A Sketch” is that song’s title.
Oct 11, 2012 / Column / Calvin Trillin