As we retell the Bethlehem story each year, its familiarity can obscure one of its most important lessons. We do not celebrate at Christmas some timeless truth or immutable dogma but a particular moment. “A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was

Presidential election campaigns in the United States have become trials for the long-distance runner, increasingly extended and increasingly expensive. For some months now, the nine declared candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination have been appearing at various panels around the

Several legislative measures under consideration in Congress could either harm or help undocumented immigrants in the United States. One that would harm them in this post-9/11 period of anti-immigrant sentiment is the CLEAR Act, introduced by Representative Charlie Norwood, Republican of Georgia. It

The Senate is in a row over the leak of a memo written by a staffer for the Democratic minority members of the Committee on Intelligence. It urges the Democrats, led by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, to break with the Republican majority and conduct its own inquiry into events lead

As U.S. casualties mount and stories of military funerals compete for front-page attention with positive Pentagon assessments, the future of U.S. military action in Iraq threatens to become an issue in the presidential politics of the 2004 election year. Democratic candidates have already suggested

During the 19th century, Irish immigrants settled in Glens Falls, a small city along the upper reaches of the Hudson River in east central New York. The men supported their families by working in the city’s paper and textile mills. On their way home on payday they stopped off at a saloon for a