Democratic Conversation

Saddam Hussein is about to be executed. It’s 2:37 a.m. in France, where I live, Saturday December 30th, and I have CNN International giving me up-to-the-minute info on his walk to the gallows. Naturally, they do not have a camera in the execution chamber, but this does not leave CNN without the opportunity to affect […]

I have stacks of books in my home, books in every room: stacked vertically on shelves in my library, their spines peer out like a bouquet of various eyes; I have stove-pipe stacks of books on my dining room table; book stacks like pillars of an ancient temple surround my laptop; spread like a dropped […]