Joseph Bottum

Appearances to the contrary, this Congress’s health-care reform bill is buried but not yet dead, reports the Los Angeles Times . Democratic leaders “are meeting almost daily to plot legislative moves while gently persuading skittish rank-and-file lawmakers to back a sweeping . . . . Continue Reading »

In the Boston Globe this weekend, the economist Peter Leeson argues that trial by ordeal—testing guilt by, say, forcing the hand of the accused into a vat of boiling water to see whether it burned—was a pretty effective way of judgment. It’s a wild, and goofy, and interesting . . . . Continue Reading »

It was Norman Mailer, I think, who once quipped that most contemporary social criticism is the desperate attempt to find something to say about America that Alexis de Tocqueville hadn’t already said. It can get a little tiresome, the constant Tocquevillian citation in every writer’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Georgetown Wins! Georgetown Wins! Georgetown Wins! Um, sorry about that. But if you suffered through the Hoyas’ collapse last year, you understand why a basketball victory over Duke might seem, to even the most distant alumnus, something to cheer. And, man, did the Georgetown school the Blue . . . . Continue Reading »

Speaking of the Weekly Standard , I should point as well to the fine bit of reporting done by my friend Claudia Anderson , who went out to visit the Center for Afghanistan Studies at—of all places—the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Sitting in on classes and interviewing teachers and . . . . Continue Reading »

In the midst of all the national attention paid to the death of J.D. Salinger , there slipped away with less notice than it should have received the death of another novelist—the author of 60 books and perhaps the most under-appreciated literary talent of the century: Louis Auchincloss, who . . . . Continue Reading »

Our friend, Ralph McInerny, has slipped away, dying at 7:45 this morning. I have no voice or words to speak our loss. Not yet. Not today. An autobiographical essay of Ralph’s appeared here , and several fine poems, including : Effable Where are words when not yet spoken: on the tongue, in the . . . . Continue Reading »

Perhaps, as Joe Carter suggests , J.D. Salinger’s legacy is uncertain. I think better of him than others here seem to, but, regardless, man, could he write. Remember the end of Franny and Zooey ? “I remember about the fifth time I ever went on ‘Wise Child,’ Zooey tells Franny . . . . Continue Reading »

President Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court, and Justice Alito’s reaction, have received a surprising amount of attention—given that Obama had thousands of words, widely broadcast, and Alito had a headshake and two words, unheard, possibly “that’s wrong.” . . . . Continue Reading »

Have you noticed that all the Democratic attorneys general who’ve announced they are not running for Congress this year? The latest: Beau Biden in Delaware. You know it’s a bad year for a party when a state attorney general isn’t trying to get a better job. . . . . Continue Reading »