Requiem for a Shutdown
There is a sadness to brinksmanship: a hollow feeling to the intransigence that this month brought the United States government to a close. To some, it was a moral calling—the need to preserve an idea about the size of government. But this idea was always an illusion, senators asking us to trust a global surveillance apparatus but not a program that preserves the dignity of sick Americans. These images from Faheem Haider grapple with the empty aftermath.
Monday, October 21, 2013For a Better Tomorrow
This week, as House Republicans remain unsympathetic to any kind of deal to re-open the government, our Faheem Haider brings us an annotation of our recent history. We are reminded not just of the bright promise of a few years ago, stalled against a determined opposition, but we see in the features of our current Speaker a pragmatic face of the not-too-distant past: Bob Dole, the senate majority leader who helped bring the last government shutdown to a close—before, of course, running against President Clinton and losing.
The Kids Will Be Alright
In five weeks, the wails of newborn baby boys will swell through a Connecticut delivery room, completing a circle that began two years ago when my husband Lin and I first pitched ourselves into the thicket of gestational surrogacy. Then, starting a family this way seemed fantastical, and came up mostly in late night talks, where the quixotic and the practical softly battle it out. Now, we're about to be fathers to twins. BY MARC LEANDRO
Bestselling Advice For Women From 1774
When Princeton mom and alumna Susan Patton published a heartfelt advice letter in The Daily Princetonian addressed to the daughters she never had, America went ballistic. The thrust of her counsel? A woman’s “future and happiness” is inextricably linked to the man she marries, and Princeton women better marry Princeton men, lest they graduate single and doom themselves to wandering, desperate and alone, in a world full of rakes and brutes. BY ALAN JAY LEVINOVITZ
Redacted Reading
Last year, after reading stories about a Senate investigation into Department of Homeland Security surveillance overreach, I decided to glance at the probe to see if the story could be advanced through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. BY SAM KNIGHT