Back Talk

Alan says: I am in favor of limiting the governor to two consecutive terms. But blacklisting someone after eight years altogether, regardless of how good or bad they did their job, can needlessly force an effective public official out of public service. Many state governors throughout history have served well over eight years without their constituents regretting it. I would point out that such a system is wholly unworkable in twenty-first century America: we live in the era of the permanent campaign and the 24-hour news cycle. A governor facing re-election every other year would essentially do nothing but fundraise (which is close to what most do anyway even with four-year terms). (November 19th, 2009 at 11:09pm)

Lawrence Wright

Features

To hear some women tell it, nature created two genders, one nearly perfect and the other badly flawed. I wonder whether they’re right. (February 1992)

How Madalyn Murray O’Hair became the supreme being of the American atheist movement. (January 1989)

The ghosts of bowl games past recall an era when cotton and the Cotton Bowl were king in Texas. (January 1988)

He had a wife and a girlfriend. His ambition was unchecked. He tried to commit suicide. But when I came face to face with the minister of my boyhood church, the sin we talked about was murder. (January 1988)

A great man was dead and an outraged world desperately wanted someplace to lay blame. It chose Dallas and changed the city forever. (November 1983)

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