John Powers

IT’S HARD TO CONDONE CELEBRATING any man’s violent death, but in the case of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, I’ll make an exception. Although recent videos cast this thug in a clownish light — struggling with his machine gun, wearing black to disguise his paunch just like Steven Seagal — Zarqawi was......

JOHN POWERS (Weekly columnist and author of Sore Winners: American Idols, Patriotic Shoppers, and Other Strange Species in George Bush’s America) Perhaps the least heralded of great novels (I’d never even heard of it until my friend Tom Carson recommended it), Jean Dutourd’s 1963 tour de force, The Horrors of......

“LIBERALS,” JOKED LENNY BRUCE, “can understand everything but people who don’t understand them.” That was back in the 1960s, when liberalism was flush with righteous self-confidence. These days, liberals don’t even understand themselves. They’re not sure what they’re supposed to believe in — besides, of course, the monstrosity of the......

Okay, okay. I admit it. It’s my fault. Lord knows, I’ve tried to pretend that I’m not to blame. After all, I opposed the invasion. I spent years assailing the Bush administration — you know, the people who chose the war. I’ve even spent thousands of dollars in taxes paying......

A splinter in the eye is the best magnifying glass. —Theodor Adorno Future historians can debate the exact moment when the freewheeling coverage of Hurricane Katrina gave way to media martial law. Was it when Fox News, after days of unlikely fairness and balance, began suggesting that the relief effort......

I’m eating a sweet pea and crab soup at Michael’s restaurant with Kazuo Ishiguro, and the celebrated British novelist (Booker Prize winner, OBE, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) is telling me about a Proustian encounter — with a Hostess fruit pie. “It started when I was 19,......

Illustration by Mr. FishThese are heady days to be an obituary writer. Ever since America’s best-known critic, Susan Sontag, died in late December, there’s been a startling slew of Important Deaths. The greatest talk-show host, Johnny Carson. The most famous playwright, Arthur Miller. The most gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson......

Illustration by Mr. FishWe aren’t doctors. We just play them on C-SPAN. —Barney Frank In Hong Kong last week, I found myself reading the local edition of the China Daily, a newspaper so deep in the pocket of Beijing’s party bosses that it appears to be printed on lint. The......

Illustration by Ryan WardOne torrid July afternoon during the 1988 Democratic convention, I was covering a Jesse Jackson rally in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park — as ever, the good reverend was running late. Suddenly, the crowd began buzzing behind me. I turned around, expecting to see Jackson sauntering in like a......