The New Republic

by Eric RauchwayOn seeing Marginal Revolution's item about a beautiful Flash animation explaining ten dimensions and superstring theory (with a narrator who sounds like--is?--Peter Coyote), I was sad to discover it's possibly not very good in terms of actual physics. READ MORE >>

by Casey N. BlakeI recommend Paul Baumann's review of Damon Linker's new book, The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege, in the current issue of Washington Monthly. Linker previewed his argument in "Without a Doubt," in the April 3, 2006 issue of TNR. READ MORE >>

by Alan WolfeCasey Blake deserves a word of praise for calling attention to Paul Baumann's review of Damon Linker's book The Thecons. Like Baumann, a good friend as well as an admirable thinker, I believe both that Democrats have a religion problem and that there are too many writers who find theocrats scary when pathetic might be the more appropriate term. But Baumann singles out two Catholic writers--Garry Wills and Andrew Sullivan--for criticism, and here I think he is wrong. READ MORE >>

by Cass Sunstein READ MORE >>

by Michael KazinHas anyone written a good book or essay about what happens to professors who try to get elected to public office? Some manage to deploy their expertise in practical ways, understanding that appealing to voters is not just a matter of stating positions and raising money. But others seem to think that what works in the lecture hall--or on the page--will also play well out in the streets and the polling booths. READ MORE >>

by Sanford LevinsonWith regard to Richard John Neuhaus, I warmly commend an article in which he addresses the question whether Mormons are really Christians. It's interesting not only in itself, but also, of course, with regard to the likelihood of right-wing (and traditional) Christians to support Mitt Romney. Giving up polygamy does not begin to bring the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints into the Christian camp, according to Neuhaus. READ MORE >>

Apropos my second posting on The Spine ("Patriot Games," September 11), Robert Novak has written a column, "Real Story Behind Armitage Story," published in this morning's Chicago Sun-Times, that expands in intricate and fascinating detail the circumstances of Colin Powell's now-former-deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, becoming a sieve for classified information. READ MORE >>

Thank you, Jack Shafer... He has written an entire column in Slate about my blog, in which he waxes indignant over my use of "$10 words." One word that offends him is "tocsin." I'd say it's not exactly a $10 item but closer to $5. Then again, with the decline in the value of the dollar, everything foreign, especially vocabulary that originates in the Euro-zone, costs a lot more these days. And it seems my use of foreign words deeply offends him. What can I say? READ MORE >>

by David A. BellTwo cheers for Harvard for getting rid of early admissions, in order to "produce a fairer process," as once- and present-president Derek Bok put it in announcing the change. Yet if Harvard really wants to do something to make admissions fairer, it should consider doing away with the most inane and manipulable part of the present process: the application essay. READ MORE >>

I am in New York to welcome my granddaughter into the world. It is an auspicious day: sunny, comfortably warm, but with a cool under-breeze and with many taxis on the streets, since people are taking in the air instead of riding in the city's normal daytime snail's pace traffic. Yesterday was September 11, and the weather, like today's, was as balmy as the 9/11 of history, when a half-million hapless people, most of them dazed and many in near-trauma, were walking, mostly northward, on the long journey home. READ MORE >>