2019 Books of the Year
Great books tell stories. Here’s our pick of vivid and insightful new releases for better understanding America, world events, history, science, and theology
FLIGHT AND FIGHT
If you can't beat 'em, flee 'em?
Colorful Davis challengers are not just shades of gray
First came the drama: the seemingly impossible task of collecting enough signatures to force a recall vote against California Gov. Gray ...
Red (face) alert
Despite a long-running no-terror streak, the federal security agencies reeled from a week of bad publicity
TO BECOME A BETTER MAN
Embarrassed by reports of his gambling habit, BILL BENNETT breaks a three-month public silence.
Coyote hunting
As Congress considers legislation to deal with undocumented workers, border-patrol agents fight smugglers who risk the lives of their human cargo
Voices
Joel Belz
One-way Traffic
Why is it that institutions and organizations of all kinds regularly drift from the right to the left, from orthodoxy to heterodoxy, from faithfulness to unfaithfulness, from discipline to permiss...
Janie B. Cheaney
Quantum faith
Just when you thought you had a handle on quantum mechanics, along comes quantum computing. Without going into detail (because I don't understand it, to tell the truth), quantum computing is based...
Marvin Olasky
Pre-emptive surrender
In Fort Apache, a Western directed by John Ford in 1948, Henry Fonda is a martinet Army officer sent West against his will and full of disdain for the Apaches he would be fighting. He comments to ...
Notebook
Culture
Culture
Spotlight
IN THE SPOTLIGHT No other group has mirrored the ups and downs of the Baby Boom generation like the Beach Boys. After achieving fame as creators of the soundtrack to an American dream fuele...
Culture
Horse Power
Seabiscuit (rated PG-13 for some sexual situations and violent sports-related images) is likely to have its ardent admirers. It's a fine film that recounts a fantastic, true story. Aside from a br...
Culture
Bestsellers
BAD BOYS II: THE SOUNDTRACK Various Performers 1 week on chart Style Mostly rap, some R&B. Objectionable material All 11 rap cuts (abundant profanities, obscenities, racial epithets). World...
Culture
Nuclear fission
In all the societies of the world, anthropologists have noted certain "cultural absolutes." One of them is the institution of marriage. This exists in many, sometimes twisted, forms-but no culture...
Dispatches
The Buzz
In Brief: Legal briefs
The federal court system continues to wrestle with the Ten Commandments. Days before a decision of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to bar an Alabama display, the 3rd Circuit upheld one in P...
The Buzz
Quatables
"Oh, man, I loved the music. I loved it. I dearly loved it." Legendary record producer Sam Phillips, who died last week at the age of 80, in a 1993 interview. Mr. Phillips, who discovered Elvis...
The Buzz
In Brief: Far from Rome
When will most politicians who are Roman Catholics start voting like true Catholics? By informed accounts, that question has been batted around in Rome with increasing frequency-and frustration fo...
The Buzz
Quicktakes
Getaway limo Cornelius Weekley had no idea he was driving a getaway car. The limo driver was taking Ricky Beale, a regular customer, to the San Francisco airport when Mr. Beale asked Mr. Weekley t...
The Buzz
In Brief: Golan depths?
So much for the so-called James box. Maybe. Israeli police last month arrested antique dealer Oded Golan on charges of forgery and fraud, and they claimed he may be part of an international...
The Buzz
In Brief: When better isn't good enough
Even with the retirement of David Robinson, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs should be better next year. Even so, it might not be enough for a return to the NBA finals. This off-season, wh...
The Buzz
Seminary & State
A Texas appeals-court panel ruled on July 24 that Tyndale Theological Seminary & Biblical Institute in Fort Worth must pay a fine of $173,000 for issuing 34 degrees without permission from the...
The Buzz
In Brief: Too Close for Comfort
Not satisfied? Neither are these guys. George Steinbrenner's New York Yankees dropped two in a row to the hated Red Sox, and even though the boys in pinstripes held on to a game-and-a-half lead in...
The Buzz
In Brief: Around the horn
Even if the NCAA changes its rules about conference championship games, the Big Ten will stay just the way it is. Passing up possibly millions in revenue, the conference won't put an end-of-year c...
The Buzz
In Brief: Bits and megabytes
A new PDA called the iQue 3600 can help wandering drivers find their way home. This $550 device is the first Palm-based handheld to include integrated GPS hardware. It includes navigation software...
The Buzz
In Brief: Hanging up landlines
An Internet startup called Vonage wants to replace your local phone company. It offers cut-rate service by routing calls over its customers' Internet connections. Vonage claims its sound qu...
The Buzz
In Brief: Vote fraud 2.0
Some say electronic voting can prevent another hanging-chad catastrophe. But many techies are skeptical, however, saying this opens the door to a new type of vote fraud. Some computer secur...
The Buzz
Mailbag
We cannot The U.S. Supreme Court's blatant disregard of legislative process in its stunning reversal of Texas' anti-sodomy laws was far more than a warning shot; it was an attack on the soul of...
The Buzz
In Brief: Lawrence aftershocks
The gay advocacy legal-defense group that won the landmark sodomy case on the last day of the Supreme Court term this summer is working to consolidate and "extend our reach even further." Lambda L...
The Buzz
Top-Story
1 the bush doctrine(s) Full-fledged news conferences are rare in the B...
The Buzz
In Brief: And the delay goes on
With no Supreme Court vacancy this year, senators are continuing the battle over the president's other federal-court appointments. Each of the four Michigan-based vacancies on the U.S. 6th ...
The Buzz
Blogwatch
The blogosphere remains largely jubilant over the news that Uday and Qusay Hussein are dead. "Lexington Green" of the Chicago Boyz blog (chicagoboyz.net) hoped that the brothers' deaths would disc...