I recommend heading straight for the poetry. Mary Ellen is certainly right to point out Dana Gioia’s “Majority” as one of the gems of this issue. I also enjoyed Tim Murphy’s bracing advice in ” Farm Boy, Call Kayla ” and Rhina P. Espaillat’s tribute to him . . . . Continue Reading »
The Senate version of Obamacare is actually an already-passed House Bill, HR 3590. Why a House Bill? By gutting the passed bill and substituting the Obamacare plan, it could avoid a conference committee. If the bill passed, it would go back to the House, and if it passed without . . . . Continue Reading »
Major changes in the new Senate Obamacare bill from its House counterpart, in the sections involving assisted suicide. (The bill is actually a gutted and already passed bill from the House—HR 3590—a trick that may be designed to get around the necessity of a conference . . . . Continue Reading »
I have a long piece out in this month’s First Things on the conscience clause issue. I believe that the Culture of Death brooks no dissent and we are witnessing the beginning of requirements for health care professionals to either participate in medical procedures that end human . . . . Continue Reading »
As someone who considers a well-chosen book the best of all possible gifts, my recommended first stop in the December issue must be the special Christmas for Readers section. Among the “ Thrillers and Throwbacks ,” Gyles Brandreth’s Oscar Wilde mystery looks especially promising, and . . . . Continue Reading »
The Senate version of Obamacare will tax elective cosmetic surgery. From the story:The bill levies a 5 percent tax on elective cosmetic surgery. The provision raises $5 billion and was needed to make the numbers work, according to a Democratic Senate aide. The Finance Committee considered the tax . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m a huge fan of Jon L. Breen’s recap of the best crime and mystery novels of 2009. Breen displays a magisterial command over the genre’s canon, and, along the way, he helps less knowledgeable readers such as myself sort out the wheat from the chaff: Few writers today attempt the . . . . Continue Reading »
The December issue is hot off the presses! I know; you’re thinking Where do I start? Let me suggest ” The Needle’s Eye: Why America’s Economic Recovery Needs the Global South ,” by Reuven Brenner and David P. Goldman. . . . . Continue Reading »
And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him till the morning. And he saw that he prevailed not against him; and he touched the broad part of his thigh, and the broad part of Jacob’s thigh was benumbed in his wrestling with him. And he said to him, Let me go, for the day . . . . Continue Reading »
First the Episcopalians, and now the Lutherans . . . The split over gay clergy within the country’s largest Lutheran denomination has prompted a conservative faction to begin forming a new Lutheran church body separate from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Leaders of Lutheran CORE . . . . Continue Reading »
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