There are all sorts of ways you can criticize the understanding of the truths and the people in the president’s Second Inaugural. But it’s impossible not to admire the ambitious move from “We hold these truths” to “We, the people .” It’s arguably progressive, but not that progressive. I just read the speech in a couple of minutes, and so you might have plenty to add or correct.
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…