A Satire for Our Times— Funny, Violent, Vicious

Absurdistan is the sort of novel that, if mishandled, could make for a truly fabulous mess. As in Gary Shteyngart’s debut, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, we find ourselves immersed in a fictitious post-Soviet nation, this one bearing a striking resemblance to war-torn Afghanistan. What makes Absurdistan different from his debut is that Mr. Shteyngart has Read More

A Satire for Our Times- Funny, Violent, Vicious

Absurdistan is the sort of novel that, if mishandled, could make for a truly fabulous mess. As in Gary Shteyngart’s debut, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, we find ourselves immersed in a fictitious post-Soviet nation, this one bearing a striking resemblance to war-torn Afghanistan. What makes Absurdistan different from his debut is that Mr. Shteyngart has Read More

Bush’s Crony Capitalism Shows G.O.P.’s True Face

Politically as well as physically, the destructive force of nature can rip away surfaces and expose layers of decay. With the floodwaters of Katrina receding, we can see beneath the veneer of modern conservatism and gaze upon its rotten center.

For in the nation’s capital, at least, that traditional philosophy of society and statecraft appears Read More

Bush’s Crony Capitalism Shows G.O.P.’s True Face

Politically as well as physically, the destructive force of nature can rip away surfaces and expose layers of decay. With the floodwaters of Katrina receding, we can see beneath the veneer of modern conservatism and gaze upon its rotten center.

For in the nation’s capital, at least, that traditional philosophy of society and statecraft appears Read More

Saving Private Profit: The Outsourcing of War

In July of 2000, yachtsmen who were deep-sea fishing in the Atlantic Ocean might have been surprised to see a Canadian transport ship, loaded with soldiers, tanks, armored personnel carriers, more than 300 containers of ammunition and other valuable military equipment, steaming in lazy circles, going nowhere. The Katie, the ship in question, wasn’t owned Read More

Daddy Warbucks Is Alive and Well

The prospects for instilling democracy and staunching terrorism in Iraq have dimmed since our soldiers knocked over that Saddam Hussein statue. While the American military’s triumph over the dictator’s enfeebled and ill-motivated army was pre-ordained, the political triumph of liberal democratic values is not. When American forces depart, what they leave behind may well be Read More

Bushes Buff Up Big Oil, While Amazon.com Oozes

We are pleased to report that we watched not one TV second of the Republican Convention. Not that we aren’t politically responsible: We duly read the transcripts, or as much of them as could be stomached, but four days of audio-visual lies and self-congratulation in the (pressed) flesh is more than we’re up to. In Read More