Robin Lindley interviews UW History Professor Vicente Rafael on his new book The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte (Duke University Press).
Texas Federal District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk recently banned prescribing and distributing the abortion pill mifepristone as unsafe. However, after a four-year review, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certified the pill safe in 2000.
All modern poets are likely to have been inspired to write poetry by reading “Shakespeare’s” verse. If such poets have been following news about “Shakespearean” attribution, they should have a few questions that cloud this inspiration. Were these “greatest” poems of all time (given the 4 billion “Shakespeare” books in circulation) actually written by an actor without a formal education? Are the hushed arguments regarding plagiarism in Passionate Pilgrim indicating that the most beloved poet stole his work from others? The linguistic, structural, biographical and other types of analysis in my British Renaissance Re-Attribution and Modernization series (BRRAM) answers these questions correctly with a purely fact-based approach for the first time.
The right to life takes precedence over the right to bear arms. The Second Amendment to our Constitution should be repealed/replaced. Here is a proposal.
Connell’s portrayal of Mrs. Bridge is a grim reminder that true evil, is banal, seemingly mundane, and often so steeped in good manners that evil actions are rarely identified as evil at all.
David Graeber & David Wengrow’s 2021 book, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), is a heavily documented (revisionist) history of humankind, but it is also surprisingly flawed.
I examined the factors that should go into making responsible decisions around risky ventures in our current environment in my column last month and concluded: “The general shape of risk has not changed that much in the past 15 years, but every time is new. There is no shortcut or quick fix to making consequential decisions at the right time. The elements that go into risk management are unchanging: careful, patient, and meticulous thinking.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg inherited a years-long grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump, as a presidential candidate in 2016, paid to cover up an alleged 2006 affair that could have damaged his campaign.