Favorite A woman rests next to anti-abortion posters in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Getty Images “Once a fetal heartbeat could be detected, typically around the sixth week of pregnancy … ” When I read this phrase in the New Yorker, referring to Texas’s first abortion ban,…
All posts tagged Voices
The Debt Limit Is Just One of America’s Six Worst Traditions
Favorite The dome of the U.S. Capitol is reflected, on Jan. 6, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Image Imagine that your family has a generations-long tradition that requires that for every 10th dinner, you search your neighbors’ trash cans like raccoons and eat whatever garbage you find. Usually none of you asks why…
The Yemen War Can Be Over — if Biden Wants It
Favorite Yemeni tribal figures from Abyan province wait to get their military commander freed from prison in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 30, 2023. Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images I’ve always thought of the famous John Lennon refrain, “War is over, if you want it,” as mostly a thought experiment meant to shake us out of the…

Josh Hawley Won’t Let Go of His Manhood
Favorite Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Across the ages, right-wing politics has had an enduring fixation: manliness, whatever that means exactly. You may remember that Hogan Gidley, the press secretary for former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign, declared that Trump…

Tragedy in Texas as Pandemic Border Policy Ends — and a Rush to Judgment
Favorite A man lights a candle at a memorial for eight migrants who were struck by a car and killed waiting at a bus stop on May 7, 2023, in Brownsville, Texas. Photo: Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images The man who crashed into a group of mostly Venezuelan migrants in Brownsville, Texas, on Sunday — killing eight…

I Really Think You Should Read Tucker Carlson’s Last Speech Before Fox Fired Him
Favorite Tucker Carlson gives a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala in National Harbor, Md., on April 21, 2023. Photo: Leigh Vogel/The New York Times/Redux Soon the quadrillion online takes on Tucker Carlson’s firing by Fox News will be forgotten. Someday, Carlson himself will fade from human memory. Eventually people will think about…

With Pentagon Leak, the Press Had Their Source and Ate Him Too
Favorite Members of law enforcement assemble near the home of Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira on April 13, 2023, in Dighton, Mass. Photo: Steven Senne/AP Tracing the concept of homo sacer from antiquity to modern life, philosopher Giorgio Agamben cites the ancient Roman lexicographer Festus, who defined the term as someone “whom the people…

Elon Musk Wants to Cut Your Social Security Because He Doesn’t Understand Math
Favorite Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., departs court in San Francisco, California, on Jan. 24, 2023. Photo: Marlena Sloss/Bloomberg via Getty Images If there’s one thing you can say for sure about Elon Musk, it’s that he has a huge number of opinions and loves to share them at high volume with…

As Texas Judge Stalls, the Abortion Rights Movement Won’t Wait
Favorite Anti-abortion and abortion rights activists protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 20, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images A week before U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk was expected to order the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approval of the abortifacient mifepristone — effectively banning one of the…

No, Trading Flesh for Prison Time Is Not "Bodily Autonomy"
Favorite Illustration: Jess Suttner for The Intercept Your liver or your liberty? Choose one. This is the proposition that a bill in the Massachusetts House of Representatives puts to people locked up in the commonwealth: Donate bone marrow or an organ or two, says HD 3822, and the Department of Correction will cut 60 to…