Commonweal articles from October 2008

Commonweal archives from October 2008

How prolife is McCain?(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2008... In his letter to the editor ("Voting Against Obama," September 12), David R. Carlin writes as if the current presidential election were a referendum on the issue of abortion. It is not. The tenor of Carlin's argument suggests that a John McCain...

The democrats & abortion.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2008... In your editorial "Into the Home Stretch" (September 12), you write, "Although Obama has spoken of the need for compromise on abortion, the party platform seemed to move in the opposite direction." I have not read the Democratic Party...

The worst of our history.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2008... Melinda Henneberger tells it like it is in "Standing Tall: What Michelle Means" (September 12). Racist reactions to Michelle Obama are not her problem. They're ours. In Newsweek (September 1), Jacob Weisberg argues that racial prejudice could...

Not political.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2008... Thank you for your courtesy in sending me your September 12 issue, which included an article by Jack Miles ("Anglican Disunion") that drew extensively on my capsule history of the Lambeth Conference. I think his article provides a helpful...

Good stuff.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2008... It is sometimes the case that certain articles, by their richness and insight, can stand for entire books. Commonweal, in two recent issues, has published two such articles. I refer to John Wilkins's "Hope Without Illusion" (August 15) and...

Lesson learned.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2008... Cathleen Kaveny is correct: "Not only is torture immoral, it doesn't work" ("Bad Evidence," September 12). In 1962, when I was a chaplain in Vietnam with the 101st Airborn Division, the captain of our patrol captured two Vietcong irregulars. He...

Don't vote 'yay'.(From the Editors)
October 10, 2008... Every election year Catholics are asked, by bishops or political activists, to uphold Catholic values when they vote. They are told they must vote with a well-formed conscience, put on the seamless garment of the church's social teaching, and...

Spare every expense, except one: my mother's obituary.(Columnists)
October 10, 2008... When my mother, Patricia McGowan, died in late June, we chose the cheapest coffin for her burial. The funeral director brought the glossy album of possibilities for us to leaf through and without even glancing at it, I told him, "Mom would want...

The fall: original sin & free-market capitalism.
October 10, 2008... Karl Marx, were he still about, would surely be interested in the report that unregulated free-market capitalism has died in a flash, by its own hand. After all, it took seventy years and a cold war to bring down the Marxist economy established...

And baby makes two: why teen pregnancy is on the rise.(Short Take)
October 10, 2008... The McCain-Palin campaign says it's for change, and it certainly delivered change with its abrupt abandonment of the long-standing conservative view of teen pregnancy. For decades, religious conservatives in the Republican Party pointed to teen...

After the Meltdown: what the bailout won't solve.(Issues 2008)
October 10, 2008... We are now well embarked on year two of the great Credit Crunch. And, yes, this is the same crisis that, a year ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said might involve no more than $50 billion in losses, the same one Treasury Secretary...

Dervish.(Poem)
October 10, 2008... Dizzy with confusion and a terrible bliss, the diseased mouse that I find twirling madly at the head of my stairs brings a message despite the pathology of its condition. It falls over, breathing hard for a moment. Then it gets to...

Government is not the problem: thirty years of bad economic policy.(Articles)
October 10, 2008... Conventional wisdom in America today holds that high levels of taxes and government spending diminish America's prosperity. The claim strikes a deep intuitive chord, not only among those on the Right, but also among many on today's Left....

The king's mother.(Poem)
October 10, 2008... The sling, the five smooth stones, the giant slain-- a runner brought the word to Jesse's door. The old man, toughened oak, threw down his cane, stood straight as burnished spear, let out a roar: "My son! My shepherd lad! We shall hear...

White lies of Dover: the limits of darwinism.
October 10, 2008... For what seemed like a generation, the late Carl Sagan was the voice of science on public television. With an exuberant confidence in the empirical method, he showed viewers of the edifying PBS series Cosmos how the procedures of science had...

Costume Drama: 'MAD MEN' ON AMC.(Television program review)
October 10, 2008... Marketing has become the lifeblood of American culture--witness this election season's theatrics, from photo-ops at Middle American diners, to balloon-saturated and laser-laced conventions, to the endless media coverage of media coverage. All...

Unmasked: GEORGES ROUAULT AT BOSTON COLLEGE.
October 10, 2008... When the French artist Georges Rouault died on February 13, 1958, he was given a state funeral and buried at Paris's beloved St. Germain des Pres. For more than two decades, he had enjoyed growing success, especially with American collectors....

A Checkered Past.(Book review)
October 10, 2008... Nixonland The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America Rick Perlstein Scribner, $37.50, 896 pp. "The main character in Nixonland is not Nixon. Its protagonist, in fact, has no name--but lives on every page. It is the...

Expert Counsel.(Book review)
October 10, 2008... How Fiction Works James Wood Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $22, 288 pp. In his brief introduction to this valuable and entertaining primer, James Wood proposes to explore the following central questions about the art of fiction: "Is...

Harry Potter.(Cartoon)
October 10, 2008... "This story about a boy named Harry Potter is interesting, Miss Rowling, but there's just too much Tolkien type fantasy on the market."

How Fiction Fails.(Book review)
October 10, 2008... Exiles Ron Hansen Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $23, 227 pp. The figurative "exile" of religious believers--their status as unsettled pilgrims in a hostile world--was a literal condition for many Catholics in nineteenth-century...

Exit Signs.(After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings are Shaping the Future of American Religion)(Book review)
October 10, 2008... After the Baby Boomers How Twenty-and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion Robert Wuthnow Princeton University Press, $29.95, 312 pp. Today's young adults may be a mystery to many religious leaders,...

Our community, our choice.(The Last Word)
October 10, 2008... Thirty-five years after Roe v. Wade, many Catholics wonder why the country still does not protect the life of every unborn person. The case against abortion seems compelling, so why does it often fail to convince? The greatest obstacle is fear....

Let It Shine! The Emergence of African American Catholic Worship.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Let It Shine! The Emergence of African American Catholic Worship Mary E. McGann, R.S.C.J. With contributions by Eva Marie Lumas, S.S.S., and Ronald D. Harbor "A combination of the history of the liturgical movement in the...

Fordham A History and Memoir: Revised Edition.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Fordham A History and Memoir Revised Edition Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. "Without a dull page, this book provides a rich store of information about the city, the nation, the church, and Catholic education." --Avery Cardinal...

The Creative Retrieval of St. Thomas Aquinas: Essays in Thomistic Philosophy, New and Old.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 24, 2008... The Creative Retrieval of St. Thomas Aquinas Essays in Thomistic Philosophy, New and Old W.Norris Clarke, S.J. Norris Clarke has chosen the fifteen articles in this collection, five of which appear here for the first time, as the...

Hopkins in Ireland: Pictures and Words.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Hopkins in Ireland: Pictures and Words brings together some of the best-known works of Gerard Manley Hopkins with over sixty duotone photographs from the photographer and writer, Michael Flecky, S.J. Growing out of an...

Constructing a Saint through Images: The 1609 Illustrated Biography of Ignatius of Loyola.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Constructing a Saint Through Images The 1609 Illustrated Biography of Ignatius of Loyola Introductory essay by John W. O'Malley, S.J. In 1609 Pope Paul V beatified Ignatius of Loyola. To celebrate the event and to promote devotion...

Adrien Gambart's Emblem Book (1664): The Life of St. Francis de Sales in Symbols.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Adrien Gambart's Emblem Book (1664) The Life of St. Francis de Sales in Symbols A facsimile edition with a study by Elisabeth Stopp Edited by Terence O'Reilly with an introductory essay by Agnes Guiderdoni-Brusle This volume...

Catholic voters, Michelle Obama, Anglican unity.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... INFORMED CONSCIENCE I hope a forthcoming issue of Common-weal will forcefully dispel the notion that Catholics are somehow required by moral imperative to vote as a bloc. Despite the U.S. bishops' document "Forming Consciences for Faithful...

Rome has spoken.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... Your editorial "Bishops & the Election" (September 26) was informative and timely. The "moral right" of Catholics to vote for a prochoice candidate has been endorsed by the pope and the American bishops (with several exceptions). Why has this...

The meaning of 'life'.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... Regarding "Bishops & the Election": One should ask exactly what the "human life" is that begins at conception. Does that mean a human person with a soul? If so, that's certainly a matter of faith, and Sen. Joe Biden, whose comments on the issue...

Candid truth.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... Long ago, many of us espoused the view captured in Camus' remark on the Algerian problem: "I would like to be able to love my country and still love justice." When I heard Michelle Obama's remark, "For the first time in my life, I am really...

Lambeth's legacy.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... I enjoyed reading Jack Miles's article about the Anglican Communion's Lambeth Conference ("Anglican Disunion," September 12). I would have liked him to opine, however, on what actually happened there. I have also been interested to hear...

No easy answers.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... The August 15 issue reminded me of why I enjoy reading Commonweal. I found John Garvey's "Reasons for Our Hope" very insightful and appropriate for my personal walk of faith. I also found "Health Care for All," by Charles R. Morris, to be the...

Shakespeare's Church.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... I was dismayed to see the letter in your September 26 issue from Fr. Peter Mil-ward ("The Extreme Middle"), which mischaracterizes what I had said in my earlier letter to Commonweal ("Via Media," August 15). He states, "Grace Tiffany's...

Liberty and justice.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
October 24, 2008... Daniel Finn ("Libertarian Heresy," September 26) rightly criticizes Fr. Robert Sirico for his comment that "Jesus never called on public authority to enact welfare programs." Jesus had no need to do so; Jewish communities already had welfare...

A myth debunked.(From the Editors)
October 24, 2008... What has often seemed to be an interminable presidential election campaign is now in its final days. With the economy souring and the banking and financial system suddenly paralyzed, recent polls indicate a shift among undecided voters toward...

Another kind of victory: have we reached a postracial America?(Columnists)(Column)
October 24, 2008... As a lifelong Cubs fan, I know that it is way too early to concede victory; just a year ago, social issues still seemed relevant to the outcome of this presidential election. Two weeks ago, I still felt flush enough to purchase a nonessential...

We know the candidates: now it is time to choose.(Columnists)(Barack Obama and John McCain )
October 24, 2008... Hope versus fear, new versus old: Barack Obama and John McCain have placed their bets. These are the terms on which the 2008 presidential campaign will be decided. That's why it's unfair for political bystanders to attack Obama and McCain for...

The politics of salvation: will the election be decided by works or by faith?(Issues 2008)
October 24, 2008... "It's the economy, stupid!" Or is it? This slogan from the 1992 Clinton campaign no doubt seems more relevant than ever after the financial meltdown. And there is, of course, a sense in which the dynamics of the global economy are...

On the Porch, Aphasia.(Poem)
October 24, 2008... His brigade of words was where- wiped out in the bridge's collapse or circuitously cutting a circuit back? He had to give up westerns: it was the silly sobbing at the rescue Scenes or the times the cavalry arrived too...

Help wanted too many workers, not enough jobs.(Issues 2008)
October 24, 2008... Though most Americans don't realize it, for the past three decades real wages in the United States have not risen. In 2007 the hourly wage of the average American worker, adjusted for inflation, was lower than in 1972. What caused this...

'I don't want it'; A prolife doctor's dilemma.(Short Take)(teenage pregnancy)
October 24, 2008... It was 4:15 p.m. when my nurse gave me a "heads up" about the next patient. With a weary expression, she showed me a note affixed to the chart. "Mother is in waiting room and wants the patient to be tested for STDs," it read. I scanned the...

The church bells of Easter: Chekhov & the path of conversion.(Article)(Anton Chekhov)(Critical essay)
October 24, 2008... Most readers regard the sensibility of Anton Chekhov, the innovative Russian dramatist and modern master of the short story, as thoroughly secular, and the famous credo expounded in one of his letters seems to justify this view. "I would like...

This one made of rubber.(Poem)
October 24, 2008... is supposed to help you breathe underwater. This moves the air around. Push the button; see the blades whirl. This thing--all wire and springs-- Is a trap to catch rats. Watch! Don't let it get your thumb. Told a...

Light as a feather: 'I Served the King of England'.(Movie review)
October 24, 2008... In his younger days the Czech film director Jiri Menzel was a tightrope walker, once giving moviegoers a glimpse of his skill when he played an acrobat in his own Capricious Summer (1968). Back then he walked another kind of tightrope, a...

Fanfare for an uncommon man; 'A Man for All Seasons'.
October 24, 2008... St. Thomas More is claimed as a patron by, among others, lawyers, statesmen, widowers, and step-parents--and by people like me who belong to none of those categories. My own devotion derives from having seen Robert Bolt's play A Man for All...

Full stop: Nothing to Be Frightened Of.(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Nothing to Be Frightened Of Julian Barnes Alfred A. Knopf, $24, 288 pp. The novelist Julian Barnes's new book, Nothing to Be Frightened Of, is a memoir about dying, death, and the fear of death. Since nobody remembers his own...

Someone else's pain: The Forever War.(Book review)
October 24, 2008... The Forever War Dexter Filkins Alfred A. Knopf, $25, 384 pp. Dozens of books have appeared about the U.S. invasion, occupation, destruction, and inept reconstruction of Iraq. Generals, ordinary soldiers, journalists, government...

Catholic answers.('A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division', 'Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life')(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Render unto Caesar Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life Charles J. Chaput Doubleday, $21.95, 272 pp. A Nation for All How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the...

Acts of apostles: Home.(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Home Marilynne Robinson Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25,325pp. Marilynne Robinson is, above all else, a novelist of transfigured reality. In her fiction, the everyday is made eternal through humble, reverent attention to places and...

Highly contagious: Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life.(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Acedia & Me A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life Kathleen Norris Riverhead Books, $25.95, 352 pp. If the word "monks" wedged into the title above sets off a warning bell for you, I am sympathetic. You too may be tired of the...

A battle of wills: Sovereignty: God, State, and Self.(Book review)
October 24, 2008... Sovereignty God, State, and Self Jean Bethke Elshtain Basic Books, $35, 480 pp. In a 1970 letter to the editor of Commonweal, a graduate student named Jean Bethke Elshtain defended Jesuit priest and social activist Dan...

Work of human hands.(The Last Word)(Essay)
October 24, 2008... My grandfather was a baseball player. I learned this as a young boy when he snagged a blazing line drive hit into the stands at an Oneonta Yankees game--and in the pastures of his farm when aunts, uncles, and cousins would ride out in a wagon...