At the Democratic convention, Bill Clinton declaimed that the world is more impressed “by the power of America’s example than by the example of America’s power.”
At the Republican convention, Sarah Palin declared, “In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”
As the poet R.S. Gwynn remarks, “Ah, antimetabole —gets ‘em every time.”
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…