Fatima Shaik: Christmas in New Orleans
December 22, 2005 | In These TimesPicture Santa’s sled with a rolling kitchenette attached and you have some idea about the size of a FEMA trailer. >> Read the… More
Fatima Shaik: Masking New Orleans
February 24, 2006 | In These TimesOn Mardi Gras Day, the nation will be looking to New Orleans to see if we are wearing masks. >> Read the story More
October 12, 2005 | Salman Rushdie | Test for East and West
The work room of the writer Orhan Pamuk looks out over the Bosphorus, that fabled strip of water which, depending on how you see these things, separates or unites—or,… More
A Case Minder Enters a Bizarre World
“Your warm sentences is always best sympathy for me. I inform my father about your letters. We honor you and your friends.”This e-mail came to me from Teheran and… More
Home Economics
Lexington, Ky.—When you fly over the Appalachians of eastern Kentucky, you can see the gray scars on the mountains, pockmarks reaching far to the north and east that are… More
Watching As the World Vanishes
It was shameful, everyone agreed afterward, that no one did anything at the time. Because people knew it was happening. There were reports, early on. People saw things, near… More
Poet’s Choice
I attended an event last month in New York City sponsored by the PEN American Center and entitled "State of Emergency: Unconventional Readings." PEN believes that it is urgently… More
The Torturer General
It seems surreal: The president's nominee for the highest legal position in the land is a proponent of torture. In his notorious Jan. 25, 2002, memorandum to Bush, Alberto… More
We Are All Torturers Now
At least since Watergate, Americans have come to take for granted a certain story line of scandal, in which revelation is followed by investigation, adjudication and expiation. Together, Congress… More
Reading Is a Prime Defense Against Assault on Our Rights
As a child, one of my favorite novels was Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." Its subject is book burning — 451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which books catch… More
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