Rule XIX—the suddenly infamous Senate edict that Republicans invoked Tuesday night to silence Elizabeth Warren—began 115 years ago with a fistfight in the Capitol.In February 1902, the Senate was debating a treaty to annex the Philippines when Senator Benjamin “Pitchfork Ben” Til … | Continue reading
During the 1990s and again over the last several years, the United States engaged in an intense, wide-ranging argument about the contested concept of political correctness. For its most incisive critics, political correctness was a problem insofar as it elevated deference to poli … | Continue reading
There are many ways that American culture tells women to be quiet—many ways they are reminded that they would really be so much more pleasing if they would just smile a little more, or talk a little less, or work a little harder to be pliant and agreeable. Women are, in general, … | Continue reading
Earlier in Stephen Colbert’s tenure on CBS’s Late Show, it might have been unusual to see the host deliver a resigned, almost angry assessment of Donald Trump’s political approach, but that was what happened on Tuesday night. “So many beanballs are coming over the plate that you … | Continue reading
When it comes to size, nearly all the known black holes in the universe fall into two categories: They’re big, or they’re really, really big. Stellar mass black holes weigh up to a few dozen times the mass of our sun, and supermassive black holes can weigh millions or billions ti … | Continue reading
A novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet, James Baldwin was a writer with an arsenal of artistic talent and moral imagination. His signature style was his prose—startling in its intricate design and depth of perception, and fierce in its determination to dismantle the racial as … | Continue reading
In recent days, the tweets of President Donald J. Trump have largely set out to target those—the media, “so-called” judges, the University of California-Berkeley—whom the president feels are interfering with his agenda or America’s greatness writ large. But on Wednesday, Trump of … | Continue reading
One of the most striking aspects of Tuesday night’s dramatic encounter between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren was how little real drama there was.The Republican leader forced Warren to sit down for impugning Senator Jeff Sessions, P … | Continue reading