Peter Murmann

I was impressed with Peggy Noonan when she—although a Republican partisan—called Sarah Palin’s nomination ridiculous. Her commitment to truth and integrity made her write this scathing review of Donald Rumsfeld memoirs in the WSJ. The One That Got Away Memoirist Rumsfeld seems to forget why we went to Afghanistan. I like Donald Rumsfeld. I’ve always thought he [Read More]

David Brooks continues to lay out in the NY Times his argument for a new humanism that tries to understand how human beings flourish collectively. Over the course of my career, I’ve covered a number of policy failures. When the Soviet Union fell, we sent in teams of economists, oblivious to the lack of social trust [Read More]

Want to know what the average American is up to in terms of his or her sexual patterns, here you can find out. David Brown reports in the Washington post on a new A sweeping survey of Americans’ sexual behavior Evan Hughes provides a thoughtful review in TNR of Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans [Read More]

Lawrence Wright spent over a year assembling evidence that makes it quite clear that Scientology is a cult rather than a religion.  At the center of the story is, Paul Haggis, one of Hollywood’s most creative writers and producers, who spent 35 years climbing up the ladders of scientology. Haggis is the proverbial “smoking [Read More]

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF files this dramatic report from Cairo for the NY Times. Watching Thugs With Razors and Clubs at Tahrir Sq. Pro-government thugs at Tahrir Square used clubs, machetes, swords and straight razors on Wednesday to try to crush Egypt’s democracy movement, but, for me, the most memorable moment of a sickening day was one [Read More]

The Economist reports on the new Miami Concert Hall WHEN Michael Tilson Thomas was a boy growing up in Los Angeles, the young Frank Gehry sometimes acted as his babysitter. Since then Mr Gehry has become one of the world’s most famous architects and Mr Thomas a prominent conductor, and the two have remained friends. Now [Read More]

Joyce Carol Oates has written a moving story about the last week of a long mariage. It reminded me a bit of the feelings I had when some years ago my best friend died in front of my eyes although the young body continued to walk on this planet as if nothing had happend. February [Read More]