harper's alert

New Yorkers, former New Yorkers, and everyone afraid of the Bush agenda: quick, run out and buy the current issue of Harper's. The terrific New York writer (and my email friend) Kevin Baker has this cover story: "A Fate Worse Than Bush: Rudolph Giuliani and the politics of personality".

The first sentence:
Rudolph Giuliani has, by far, the most dubious known personal history of any major presidential candidate in American history, what with his three marriages and his open affairs and his almost total estrangement from his grown children, not to mention the startling frequency with which he finds excuses to dress in women's clothing.

There's tons of other worthwhile stuff in this issue, including Jonathan Kozol (another favourite writer of mine) on US education, Benjamin DeMott on addiction to violence, and fiction by Alice Munro. Go for it.

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