The Rise and Fall of David Duke

… our shores, acculturates to current norms, and takes advantage of historical opportunities. Some newcomers change the national diet; others the music. Some alter our self-image by feeding back to us cinematic myths of who we never were. The contributions that Holocaust survivors have made to our national character are of a different order. They …

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Custom and Law

… food—one of the customs of shivah is that the community organizes itself to feed the mourners. It’s not exactly a party atmosphere for obvious reasons, and everyone’s first move is to hug my mother and nod somberly, but there’s nothing like the proximity of death to make you feel alive …

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Turning the Tide

… consciousness: “They thrust their snouts out of the water as they swim and behold once more the gray expanse of sea cupped in the paleness of arching sky.” The final part unites the animals in the same feeding and spawning place, incarnating the principle of ecological interdependence. The animals move and live; yet they …

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Roosevelt Redux

… history of the world that ever went to the poorhouse in an automobile.”
Herbert Hoover’s wistful reliance on classic business economics (you might borrow money to feed a mule, but not a child) had failed; he had been duly turned out. Roosevelt had reassured everyone for a time with his confidence that all would …

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A Long Cold View of History

… make us better equipped to deal with the world around us and to act as responsible citizens. But how can we do that if we are blind to the nature that feeds us, that conditions us, and that, even when not creating tsunamis and other awful consequences, imprints itself every day on our very existence?

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What Is It Good For?

… professional conservatives, who define the problem. Two parties monopolize and, as if by prior agreement, trivialize national politics.”
Bacevich breaks down the components that he asserts are feeding this new national militarism—a changing presidency whose emphasis in international affairs is focusing too heavily on the use of military force; a military profession that in …

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The Software Wars

… use my expense account, fly to distant cities for two-hour meetings. Life was sweet.
During this time, my daughter was an infant. Her four a.m. feeding was my job. Since I often had trouble getting back to sleep, I sometimes caught an early train to the office. One of these mornings my office …

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"I Can't Believe I'm Doing It with Madame Bovary"

… audiences. On the strength of that material, I was accepted into the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, which for over forty years has provided guidance and feedback for many aspiring writers, including the composers and lyricists of A Chorus Line, Little Shop of Horrors, Nine, and Avenue Q.
Once a week for two years …

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The Crooner and the Physicist

… rien / Ou bien n’importe quoi—“who says nothing or anything at all.” She watches her troupe drinking cold soup. Brel then makes the sounds of animals feeding at a trough. They all are waiting for her to die so they can inherit her money. Faut vous dire Monsieur / Que chez ces gens-là / On …

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A Sturdy Man

… resumed her writing. Her handwriting was quiet and circular. (Bob’s father never did name his son in the diary; after carefully noting his son’s intermittent feed– ing habits for two weeks, he ends his entries with “Louise and the Boy came home today. The Boy is trying to be real good.”)
Another day …

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