At dawn I fired up my old Ford farm tractor. It is three years older than I am and the same age as my wife, who has weathered the decades far better than it has. Various fluids leak out when it is parked or running. The power steering works only occasionally. The engine runs hot if it has worked too
Victor Hugo, the 19th-century French writer, famously remarked that nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. The common good—a classic theme of moral and political philosophy with deep roots in Catholic social teaching—is an old idea that has found new life in contempor
You have argued that we need to look beyond medicine in dealing with H.I.V. in Africa. Can you flesh out your position? We learn as we go along that AIDS is very complex. H.I.V. is a virus that reduces and destroys the immune system. But it’s also a cultural, familial, communal an
Staying the Course The problem with your latest editorial on Iraq, A Diplomatic Surge (10/8), is that like many Democrats and some Republicans, you have embraced defeat. The template of the media and liberals in general at the very beginning of this war was and is defeat: This is Vietnam, and we can