Joel Engel

Is there a hole in our justice system where corruption is allowed to fester? Yes.

Person A isn’t completely persuaded that human activity is the greatest contributor to climate change. Person B believes men can give birth. In 2018, guess which person is more likely to be decried as “anti-science.”

IN 1917, Charles Schenck was convicted of encouraging American draftees bound for Europe's trenches to disobey their orders. He appealed all the way to the Supreme Court on the grounds that our constitutional right of free speech is inviolate. And he lost unanimously.

A MEMORIAL SERVICE for former senator Eugene J. McCarthy was held last Saturday at the National Cathedral in Washington, and former president Bill Clinton was there to eulogize him. This was not surprising: President Clinton will probably be present to eulogize every other boomer icon, whenever…

THE MAN who positioned himself as the anti-Chamberlain has nonetheless allowed his presidency to be hijacked by appeasement. For two years, he appeased those who shouted ever louder that he lied about why we went to war in Iraq. At first, no doubt, the president saw those claims as too ridiculous…

IN EDWARD ALBEE'S PLAY The American Dream, Mommy proudly delights in her new beige hat until the moment someone refers to it as wheat colored, at which point she hurries back to the store in a fit of pique. Albee, of course, was being ironical, ridiculing his character's weak-mindedness before an…

FOR NEARLY SIXTY YEARS, since the birth of Israel, American Jews have faced accusations that they care more about the well-being of their ancient homeland than of their home. Well, barring some unforeseen circumstance, the canard of dual loyalty should be retired forever on November 2, 2004. On…

LAST WEEK a federal appeals court judge compared the inauguration of George W. Bush to the ascensions of both Hitler and Mussolini, his point being that all three took power legally but were / are illegitimate office holders. "That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush v. Gore; it put somebody in…

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT was completing his second term and wanted a third one, but the unwritten rule written by George Washington said that presidents serve only two terms--and FDR's own patrician code said that it was unseemly to let ambition show so nakedly. So he did what was like him to do: He…

TODAY MARKS the 23rd anniversary of John Lennon's murder by a deranged fan, an act that at once revivified the ex-Beatle's career and established his 1971 song "Imagine" as the official utopian anthem. For millions of people around the world, the song's three minutes of bumper-sticker slogans…

IT APPEARS THAT CBS has caved in to the complaints shouted by friends and supporters of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who claim that the network's upcoming miniseries about the famous couple is more fiction than fact. Predictably, CBS's canceling of the show has led to cries of censorship and fears of a…

WHY IS IT that a suicide bombing that kills 21 innocents, including six children, is not considered a violation of the "road map" ceasefire, but retaliating against the leaders of the group that perpetrated the massacre is considered a violation that leads to the abandonment of the ceasefire?…

ATTENTION BOOMERS. Remember the good old days? How we locked arms and ended the war? Well, the time has come to dust off the placards and rally once more in America's plazas to stop another vicious war based on lies and deceit--one being waged against us personally. You may not have noticed, but it…

I WAS GETTING some popcorn and so missed the part of last week's movie when Howell Raines resigned as executive editor of the New York Times. Not that I was surprised; they'd telegraphed the payoff in the setup scene a couple of weeks before, after Pinch Sulzberger assured Raines he wouldn't accept…

"THE RELEVANCE OF INTELLIGENCE" is a phrase from former journalist/political attack dog Sidney Blumenthal's just-published memoir of the Clinton administration, in which he writes that the ex-president was usually the smartest guy in the room, knowing more about any particular policy than the…

BEFORE THE SUN ROSE above the hill east of my house and while the silence outside was still prayerful, I toddled over to my computer and clicked "Send & Receive." A shiver raised bumps on my arms at the anticipation of what messages the night and my 1.2 megabit digital subscriber line had brought…

WHY DIDN'T TIM ROBBINS exercise his right of free speech to defend Senator Rick Santorum from the arrows and insults directed at him after he suggested that gay sex should not be protected by the Constitution? Doesn't Robbins believe that the calls for the senator's resignation are akin to…

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for creative ways to mold my teenage daughter, I accidentally discovered an efficient weapon in a pile of clothes earmarked for Goodwill. "Whose is that?" Maggie asked. "Mine," I said.

SOME POINT and counterpoint from recent days:

THIS MORNING I called a press conference to announce where I stand on the issue of the impending war in Iraq. After holding my tongue lo these many months, I decided to stop pretending that the world does not need to know my thoughts, and indeed, that I do not have the moral obligation to reveal…