Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
I was one of two kids at my school who entered the first grade already knowing how to read. When the teachers realized this, they excused me from reading class and allowed me to spend that hour in the library. Before long, I discovered one of its greatest treasures: a thin pictorial volume about the solar system. Each double page … >>
It’s official: America’s spy agencies are not allowed to collect the communications data of Americans without a warrant. With a two-thirds majority, the US Senate amended the law on Tuesday to prohibit this specifically. Since Edward Snowden’s revelations two years ago, efforts had been underway in Congress to either make the spying program official or to rein it in. While … >>
On several recent occasions, I’ve noticed how my American students have redefined the word “kid”. It’s now a neutral way of referring to a man of college age, as in, “that kid in the yellow shirt” or “the kid who’s studying biology”. It’s long been common for older people to refer to their own offspring as kids for years after … >>
Being the only tourist in a far-off place always leads to some interesting invitations — as when the mayor of Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire, suggested I attend the celebration of his son’s baptism. The elders from the mayor’s village welcomed me into their midst and gave me a front-row seat for the start of the afternoon’s entertainment. Musicians played a soft … >>
The Pentagon announced yesterday that its special forces had killed Abu Sayyaf, a top Islamic State commander in Syria. There’d been a firefight at his compound. The special forces seized a substantial amount of useful information. Four years and two weeks ago, we were told the same things about Osama bin Laden. There were some serious holes in that story, … >>
Among the aging paperbacks on my bookshelf is a thin volume from 1963 by Martin Luther King, Jr., called Why We Can’t Wait. King wrote this nearly 10 years into a civil-rights movement whose origin he placed in a Supreme Court decision in 1954. The book came years after the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and several marches King had organized. … >>
The next Star Wars movie is months away, but its second “teaser trailer”, out since mid-April, has already got fans excited. Those of you not very familiar with Star Wars may at least recall how the overwhelming popularity of the “original trilogy” — Episodes IV through VI, which came out in 1977–83 — contrasted with general disappointment at the “prequels” … >>
This is an interesting month from a criminal-justice perspective. Both Batman and the Joker are having their day in court. “The Joker”, in this case, is Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, set off the bombs at the Boston Marathon in April 2013. His trial is coming to an end. “Batman” here is James Eagan Holmes, … >>
Paper money offers a way of reminding people about their country’s history and values. But how often do we think about who and what is portrayed on it? The paper money in the United States is basically a portrait gallery of important men from the country’s first 100 years. Three of them were army generals who later became president: George … >>
For years, American politicians from all parties have talked about a “threat” from Iran’s uranium-enrichment program. So now that Iran has reached a provisional agreement with the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to keep it at non-threatening levels, who’s not happy? To Iran, the deal will mean a (conditional) end to the international sanctions imposed in … >>