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Political Culture: When Did Americans Become Such Pussies?
I must admit, I had thought the days were over when Republicans could scare the bejeezus out of the citizenry (and force acquiescence from lily-livered Democrats) with bullshit tricks like “threat levels” and smoking
Read More »Political Culture: Hell Week for Catholics
When the long-awaited, religiously incendiary sequel to The Da Vinci Code arrives in theaters and the anticipated uproar is reduced to a low roar, you know it’s gotta be a rough week for the
Read More »Political Culture: Activist Shmactivist
Any time now – maybe even during the too-few moments between my pressing “submit” and this column going live – President Obama is going to announce his appointee to replace David Souter on the
Read More »Political Culture: Education on the Cheap
The original, furiously populist theme of this column, as I envisioned it last weekend, was “Nationalize the Banks, Now!” Well, as of Monday that was taken care of, so, moving right along … It
Read More »Political Culture: Can Obama Do Anything About Darfur?
In Rod Lurie’s first political potboiler, Deterrence, a U.S. president audaciously entered a nuclear confrontation with a newly aggressive (and surprisingly well-armed) Saddam Hussein. While hardly an original concept in 2000, the year of
Read More »Sugar Water: Jesus $aves
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently offered its one cent to married couples struggling through the current recession. (It used to offer two, of course, but everybody’s cutting back these days.) On its
Read More »Political Culture: Whose Mandate Is It Anyway?
The last couple weeks have served as a brilliant, if butt-ugly, reminder that governance should be judged not on the back and forth of day-to-day events, but on outcomes. When the history of President
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