Please Don't Remain Calm: Provocations and Commentaries
Author: Michael Kinsley
A lucid deconstruction of the politics and public figures shaping the social, financial, and military disasters of our times.
This selection of Michael Kinsley's trenchant editorial writing in Slate (and elsewhere) since 1995 covers the end of the Clinton era (Monica, impeachment, etc.) and two terms of George W. Bush (9/11, the War on Terror, Iraq, etc.).
During this time Kinsley left Washington for Seattle and founded Slate, was opinion editor of the Los Angeles Times, underwent brain surgery for Parkinson's disease, and had other adventures that are reflected here. Although mostly about politics, there are articles and essays about other things, such as the future of newspapers, the existence of God, and why power women love Law and Order.
This is the work of a writer at the top of his form. Kinsley's wit is a weapon that any talk-show host or elected blowhard should envy and fear, and the reader will cherish his sense of humor, which enlivens even the toughest subject matter.
The New York Times - Jonathan Freedland
Most columnists would be sufficiently self-aware to admit that collections like this shouldn't really work: an op-ed article is written for that week rather than posterity. Yet Kinsley pulls it off, thanks chiefly to a personality that you want to spend more, not less, time with. He is honest, admitting that he didn't read all the books when judging the National Book Award; generous, giving the credit for Slate's achievements to his successor; and self-deprecating, even when fessing up to his years in denial about his own Parkinson's disease, about which he is plain-spoken and never mawkish. So you find yourself like a couch potato with a bar of chocolate, polishing off a piece only to indulge yourself with just one more. You're left with a strong sense of what a turbulent, even gloomy decade this has been since Kinsley headed west—yet somehow you've enjoyed reliving it.
Publishers Weekly
Partisan political writing generally enjoys the life expectancy of a weather report, but this collection of Kinsley's trenchant commentary is worth preserving. Kingsley has assembled 127 essays on the American political scene from the Clinton administration to the present. He eschews deep analysis in favor of poking fun at the foibles, evasions, contradictions and hypocrisies of American public figures and the media that feed off them, with occasional detours into his personal life. Inevitably, some pieces show their age, but readers will relish his skewering of the 2000 and 2004 elections. Kinsley is irresistible when he steps back from reporting to pose his trademark provocative-often humorous-questions: Why is it admirable for scientists to love science and businessmen to love business, but political candidates must proclaim how much they hate politics? Is Pat Robertson anti-Semitic or simply nuts? Does President Bush really believe his claim that all Muslims and Jews are going to hell because they don't accept Jesus? While essays from recent years naturally feel more relevant, every essay in this collection sparkles with Kinsley's trademark brand of wit. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Table of Contents:
Introduction xiii
1995-1999
Long Sentence 3
Confessions of a Buckraker 6
EDITORIAL: A Dangerous Medium 11
Slate: A Policy Statement 13
Bill Clinton's Browser 14
In Defense of Matt Drudge 15
Lies, Damned Lies, and Impeachment 17
The Trouble with Scoops 21
Easy Answers 23
Internet Envy 28
Go to Hell 32
2000
Six Degrees of America Online 36
McCain's High Horse 38
Republicans for Hillary 41
The Secret Shame of the Professional Politician 43
McCain for Veep: It's Not Too Late! 45
It's an Outrage (Never Mind What) 48
Frankly, My Dear 51
Voters to Decide Election 53
My Plan's Better than Your Plan 56
The Emperor's New Brain 58
Fun with Numbers 61
Democracy Is Approximate: Live with It 62
No Contest 65
W and Justice 67
Equal Protection of Whom? From What? 70
Reasonable People Can Differ? 72
2001
God Bless YouAnd... 75
Reagan's Record 77
Reagan's Record II 80
O'Reilly among the Snobs 82
The Mystery of the Departing Guests 84
Confessions of a McCain-Feingold Criminal 87
It's Not Just the Internet 89
Triumph of the Right-Wing Dorks 92
Trent Lott's Stages of Grief 94
Pandora's Cable Box 96
Shining C 99
Equality at the Airport, I 101
What Is Terrorism? 104
New York Becomes Seattle 106
An Agenda for Victory 109
Is Disappearing 111
Osama Done Told Me 113
The Genius of Ari Fleischer 116
Forgetting Afghanistan 118
In Defense of Denial 121
2002
Listening to Our Inner Ashcroft 125
The Goldberg Variations 127
Are Conservatives Brainier? 132
Davos for Beginners 134
What Is Terrorism, Continued 137
Social Hypochondria 139
Equality at the Airport, II 141
The Justice's Wife's Tale 144
An Ode to Managers 146
Lying in Style 149
Some Kind Words for Cardinal Law 151
This Throne of Kings 153
The Hindsight Saga 155
Blame the Accountant 158
King George 160
Disabilities and Inabilities 163
It's Good Enough 165
Who Wants This War? 167
Government by Osmosis 169
What Time Is It? 172
Ours Not to Reason Why 174
The Secret Vice of Power Women 178
Curse You, Robert Caro! 180
Computers Go Too Far 183
Why Innocent People Confess 185
How Reaganomics Became Rubinomics 188
Lott's Adventures in Gaffeland 190
2003
Pious Pair 193
Morally Unserious 195
Desert Shields 198
J'Accuse, Sort Of 200
Unauthorized Entry 203
Unsettled 205
Bush's War 208
Bill Bennett's Bad Bet 210
The Fabulist 213
Sympathy for the New York Times 215
Supreme Court Fudge 218
Abolish Marriage 220
Who Is Buried in Bush's Speech? 223
At Least Say You're Sorry 225
Just Supposin' 228
Filter Tips 230
Taking Bush Personally 232
The Religious Superiority Complex 235
Attack Geography 237
When Good News Is Bad News 240
2004
Novak Agonistes 243
Blind, Deaf, and Lame 246
"I'm Not a Quitter!" 248
Take This Column, Please 251
Paradise Lost 253
The Trouble with Optimism 259
A Good Editorial 262
The Case against George W. Bush 267
Social Security Privatization Won't Work 270
2005
The Century's Greatest Love Story 272
No Smoking Gun 274
Niger-Scooter-Plame-Gate 277
How Conservative Is "Too Conservative"? 280
Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner? 282
Cheney Weighs In 285
The New Corruption 287
2006
Wendy 290
The Future of Newspapers 292
Give Me Liberty or Let Me Think about It 295
Why Lawyers Are Liars 297
The Ayatollah Joke Book 300
What's Your Theory? 303
M1 and Me 305
The Twilight of Objectivity 308
Win a Date with E. J. Dionne 311
Above the Law 314
Please Don't Remain Calm 317
How I Spent My Summer Vacation 320
Yrotciv in Iraq 323
War and Embryos 325
2007
In God, Distrust 328
We Try Harder (but What's the Point?) 332
How Many Divisions Has the Congress? 334
Index 337
Read also Among Warriors in Iraq or Contrary Notions
Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
Author: David Cay Johnston
The bestselling author of Perfectly Legal returns with a powerful new exposé.
Kirkus Reviews
An exhaustive litany of federal, state and even local giveaways to the very wealthy, described in agonizing and depressing detail. Beginning in the Reagan years, the U.S. government has placed a growing economic burden onto those least able to bear it, declares Johnston (Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich-and Cheat Everybody Else, 2003, etc.). It subsidizes the prosperous through tax breaks and other giveaways while stripping away protections for consumers, retirees, workers and investors. Starting with the sordid story of an exclusive Oregon golf course whose wealthy patrons enjoy recreation indirectly paid for by taxpayers, Johnston details dozens of giveaways, demonstrating beyond doubt that while government policies have made life much easier for those at the very top of the income pyramid, the great majority have it much worse than ever before. Examples range from the infamous-electricity deregulation, the collapse of Enron and the resulting astronomical spikes in the cost of power-to the obscure. In the latter category is Cabela's, a sporting-goods behemoth that convinced the citizens of tiny Hamburg, Pa., to grant it an exemption from property and sales taxes in exchange for locating a new megastore in their community. The total subsidy: some $8,000 for each man, woman and child in the community. Stories like these are no longer shocking, and Johnston fails to reach beyond sensationalism to solutions. In a final chapter, he suggests that citizens embrace democratic principles, but is disappointingly vague on how that might manifest itself in policies that would right the sinking ship he so vividly describes. Without solutions, thisremains little more than a list of grievances.
What People Are Saying
"If you're concerned about congressional earmarks, stock options (especially backdated options), hedge fund tax breaks, abuse of eminent domain, subsidies to sports teams, K Street lobbyists, the state of our health-care system, to say nothing of the cavernous gap between rich and poor, you'll read this fine book—as I did—with a growing sense of outrage. Free Lunch makes it clear that it's high time for 'We the People' to stand up and be counted."
—John C. Bogle, founder and former chairman, The Vanguard Group
"With clarity, conciseness, and cool, fact-saturated analysis, Mr. Johnston, the premier investigative reporter on how industry and commerce shift risks and costs to taxpayers, sends the ultimate message to all Americans—either we demand to have a say or we will continue to pay, pay, and pay."
—Ralph Nader
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