The wire master and his puppets, 1875. Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others were killed when their plane crashed in heavy fog en route to a forest…

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A Christian martyr. Hundreds of thousands of Iranians celebrated the thirty-first anniversary of the Islamic Republic with pro-government demonstrations in Tehran. To prepare for the “disruption free” event, the government…

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After months of negotiation by the bipartisan “gang of six” in the Senate, Senator Max Baucus unveiled his $776-billion health-care reform bill, which is supported by none of the gang’s…

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Barack Obama claimed that the same groups that attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001, were “plotting to do so again,” that the eight-year conquest and occupation of Afghanistan were…

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Caught in the Web, 1860. Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska announced that she would not seek reelection and that she would resign by the end of July. “‘We’re not retreating,'”…

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From a lecture delivered in January at the Gorée Institute, in Senegal. Breytenbach’s essay “Mandela’s Smile” appeared in the December 2008 issue of Harper’s Magazine. First it was the voice. It…

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Notes on South Africa

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Barack Obama was elected the 44th president, and first African-American president, of the United States, receiving 365 electoral votes in an election that saw perhaps the highest turnout among registered…

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How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing

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