The New Republic

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Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers By Arundhati Roy (Haymarket Books, 230 pp., $20) READ MORE >>

Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshoppers By Arundhati Roy (Haymarket Books, 230 pp., $20) READ MORE >>

Over at the World Cup Blog, Stefan Fatsis is again full of soccer triumphalism: READ MORE >>

Andrew Sullivan has a post mocking the heretofore absence of commentary about the latest dust-up in Israel at TNR. You know, it was Memorial Day. Does the memory of America's fallen heroes mean nothing to Sullivan? Of course it doesn't. Many of these fallen heroes were killed by Sullivan's countrymen in the name of imperialism and monarchy, a heartless ideology of world conquest. This is the classic imperialist/monarchist method of murder, lies and distraction. READ MORE >>

The lines most cited in Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech were those about evil: “Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince Al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism--it is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.” READ MORE >>

At Oslo, in circumstances verging on a speechwriter’s nightmare, Barack Obama gave by far the best address of his presidency. A thoughtful meditation on war, peace, and human nature, the speech also represents a promising reorientation of his administration’s foreign policy. The question now is whether he will adjust his policies to match his words. READ MORE >>

I agree with Chait and, to offer him some fancy synonyms, think this may have been the deepest and most elegaic speech of Obama's presidency. But what a strange one it was. Obama is a man trapped amongst the contradictions created by America's awkward place in the post-Bush world. READ MORE >>

Megan McArdle asks, "Are Guns at Protests Really Dangerous?" in order to argue that they aren't: READ MORE >>