Blumenfeld’s search for the assailant is the core narrative behind Revenge: A Story of Hope, but the detective story is only one part of this meandering, intermittently fascinating book. For Blumenfeld isn’t interested merely in finding the terrorist who fired the bullet; she has an equally obsessive need to understand her own motivations, and to […]

On a Friday afternoon late last year, press secretaries from every recent administration gathered in the Ward Room of the White House at the invitation of Ari Fleischer, press secretary to President Bush. There was no agenda. It was just one of those unexpectedly nice things that seemed to transpire during the brief period after […]

For critics across the political spectrum, Joe Klein’s character’s assessment of the fictional governor of a small Southern state (who, in the film version of Primary Colors, did go on to win the White House) summed up the Clinton presidency even before Monica Lewinsky. Liberals thought he was faithless for his stances on deficit reduction, […]

It has been called a bonanza, a movement, a spate, a tide. “This is the age of memoir. Never have personal narratives gushed so profusely from the American soil as in the closing decade of the twentieth century. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone is telling it,” announced William Zinsser, the granddaddy of […]

But if you drive through any military base and end up at the base exchange—the military department store (complete with home and garden shop and liquor store) —what do you see? In addition to clean-cut men and women walking purposefully past manicured lawns along clean streets, do you notice anything incongruous? Take a good look […]

Colon’s 10-minute address to the U.S. House of Representatives Commerce Subcommittee on Health and Environment last July marked the end of a long, painful journey. Colon, along with countless others, has been fighting for accountability in the use of federal AIDS funds. For him, that fight is deeply personal. Colon is living with AIDS; his […]

When these binders arrive loaded with genetic information, young men and women, often recent chemistry or biology PhDs, examine them against the PTO’s requirements. The examiners initially reject most submissions but subsequently accept about half after the applicant makes suggested revisions. If approved, the submitting company gets 17 to 20 years of monopoly rights to […]

Initially, the church said it would remove the street and build a landscaped park that would “bring a little bit of Paris to Salt Lake,” complete with reflecting pool. The city planning commission approved the deal on condition that the new plaza be regulated as a public park. But the city council signed off on […]

As a result, America’s education debate is as surreal as it is hypocritical. Our nation’s leaders speak and act as though the future of American education will be determined in Washington, and routinely promise to make education reform one of their major priorities in office. Yet the actual role of the federal government in education […]

Bill Clinton’s scandals were supposed to end on Jan. 20. But days after leaving office, he was taking hits for his late-night pardon of financier fugitive Marc Rich, and absconding with White House furniture. Congress was threatening to pull the plug on his plans for a pricey New York office suite, and Wall Street firms […]