Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
Well, they did it: they broke the government. Congress failed to agree to continue funding the federal treasury into the new fiscal year, which began October 1. So now 821,000 federal employees have some time off, while the remaining 2.4 million continue to operate essential services. “Essential services” include things like the CIA, the Internal Revenue Service, and the NSA … >>
If a group of Republican members of Congress gets its way, large parts of the US government could stop functioning next week. National parks and museums will close. The military won’t get paid. Passports won’t be issued. Government loans to businesses and home-buyers will stop. Safety inspections could be less frequent. That’s the threat, anyway. A last-minute deal is still … >>
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — American philosopher George Santayana (1863–1952) “Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.” — American historian Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989) Americans love historical reenactments. In the Deep South, actors at historic mansions dress up as plantation owners and Southern belles. On both … >>
Sometimes, no matter what you do, people just get on your nerves. Wouldn’t it be nice to get away from everybody and move to a house in the woods, where you’d have peace and quiet? This isn’t a farfetched idea. Henry David Thoreau did it. Grizzly Adams did it. In fact, thousands of people have done it in recent years. … >>
Few things are certain in this world, but there’s one prediction I can make: When the Mayan apocalypse comes and goes this weekend, life will continue as it always has. Unfortunately for the United States, this means that mall shoppers, moviegoers and schoolchildren will be gunned down on a regular basis. It sounds cruel and cynical of me to say … >>
One of the highlights of my USA ’08 Special Report for Spotlight Online was a review of all the different music videos that expressed the election campaign in song. Will.i.am’s “Yes, We Can” video, along with Barelypolitical’s Obama Girl series, started an avalanche of user-made songs and parodies about all the candidates that kept us entertained for a year. There … >>
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, in The Life of Reason (1905) Seven years to the day after America’s worst natural disaster, history almost repeated itself. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina had crossed Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, hitting New Orleans and devastating large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Last … >>
One of the brilliant themes in George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 is the way that the government of Oceania always succeeds in distracting people from the real problems they face — like shortages and malnutrition. When cocoa supplies are disrupted, for example, the government is forced to cut each individual’s chocolate ration from 30 grams a week to 20. But … >>
John F. Kennedy was America’s first Catholic president. But in order to become that, he had to reassure people that the White House wouldn’t be taking orders from the Vatican. Rick Santorum hopes to become the second Catholic president. Although he’s far more Catholic than Kennedy pretended to be, he won’t have to reassure anyone. In recent years, Catholics have … >>
It’s an odd thing to say, but this column began because of a mistake. Well, not a mistake exactly, but an unforeseen event. In the November 1999 issue of the magazine, to accompany an article someone else had written about George W. Bush, I introduced six of the other candidates for president. One of the most promising, in terms of … >>