The second issue with the new format.
A. Must Read Articles
1. David Hart, "A Perfect Game"
An essay about the wonders of baseball. Marvelously done. Hart is a wonderful writer, and the subject is sublime. Somebody really needs to write a paean to football, an even better sport and thus meriting an even greater hymn of praise.
2. Glen Loury, "Why We Didn't Overcome" Review of Freedom is Not Enough by James Patterson
Loury is always worth reading. His falling out with the conservatives a few years back was an intellectual tragedy--and completely pointless and needless. Podhoretz wrote a hit piece on him in National Review, which was a real shame all around. This essay is far more than a book review; it is a nice reflection on why the discussion on race in America is so pathetic. Loury notes that the Left's attack on the Moynihan report was "a brand of intellectual thuggery that became all too familiar afterward." And thus discussion (you know, talking and that sort of thing) became impossible in matter relating to race. Someday, one hopes, it will again be possible to have a polite, informed discussion about race in this country--until then, I am afraid that many, far too many, people will continue to suffer.
B. Flawed, but worth reading
1. David Goldman, "The God of the Mathematicians"
Kurt Godel and theology. An interesting juxtaposition. Unfortunately, nobody, including Goldman, is entirely sure what happens when these two mix.
2. Robert George, "God and Gettysburg"
The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy published a pamphlet with the American State Documents, including the Gettysburg Address. They changed the Gettysburg Address, omitting the words "under God." George notes the change was deliberate.
3. Bottum, "Pullman Sleeper" Review of Philip Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ
An amusing review of a very silly book by a very silly author--well it's amusing if you like seeing silly authors get called silly.
4. Robert Miola, "Willy-Nilly" Review of James Shapiro's Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?
Miribile Dictu! Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. But, the book and review have an interesting discussion of the reasons why everyone has been so keen to argue otherwise.
5. Lee Smith, "The Apologists" Review of Paul Berman's The Flight of the Intellectuals
Another salvo in the war against Islamic terrorists and their allies in the Western Intelligentsia
Also, I don't normally mention the poems, but a a couple of them in this issue are particularly good: Robert Crawford, "Not2B.com" and "Saro's Love Song" translated by Joseph Bottum.
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The Japanese are right to allow baseball to end in a draw, thus rejecting sudden death and elevating hope of redemption. I suppose Victor Davis Hanson could write the paean to football, which is only war after all.
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