online archive

The war on terror, American government, drugs and doctors

From Human Rights and Human Welfare, a roundtable on Outsourcing the War. A review of The Pentagon: A History. A review of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner. We don’t really need to plunge into the arcana of imperial Rome to appreciate what America’s doing wrong. But it’s fun watching Cullen Murphy try (and more). An excerpt from Does American Democracy Still Work? by Alan Wolfe. Should we dispense with the Electoral College? Sanford Levinson, Daniel Lowenstein and John McGinnis debate.

An interview with Bruce Barry, author of Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace. The folly of the Fairness Doctrine: Liberals better think twice before welcoming government controls on speech. In a post-9/11 world, where security demands are high, personal privacy does not have to be sacrificed, says computer scientist Latanya Sweeney, who discusses a few ways to save it. The Power Broker: An interview with Anthony Kennedy. Bad Heir Day: How Sandra Day O'Connor became the least powerful jurist in America. On the wrong side of 5 to 4, liberals talk tactics: One way to win back the Supreme Court: Sweeten the message and market it. Hardly Working: How Alberto Gonzales' incompetence became a defense for his wrongdoing.

For the fourth time in 20 years, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has asked lawmakers to reform mandatory cocaine sentencing policy. Might this be the year Congress listens? Drug abuse causes hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses and untold personal heartache. How to limit the damage? Start by ditching the "brain disease" model that’s popular with scientists and focus on treating addicts as people with the power to reshape their own lives. Doctor Evil, a study of caregiver as lifetaker: Bad medical professionals are a staple of both history and fiction. Physician, Heal Thyself: Doctors are not immune to religious mania. An expert helps explore the link between healing and killing. Bin Laden's Army: A one-time jihadi looks at why so many radical Islamic groups include doctors and engineers—and how their involvement threatens the religion itself.