Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Among the Contributors: Ryszard Kapuscinski Black Hawk Mao Zedong Percy Bysshe Shelley Richard Nixon & Nikita Khrushchev Phil Ochs Emma Goldman W. H. Auden Henry David Thoreau Albert Camus Thomas Paine Ralph Ellison Daniel Alarcón Malcolm X George Washington The Great Rift by Jeffrey Gettleman A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist revisits how Kenya, one of Africa's most promising countries, split apart on election day 2007.	Announcing Our Fall 2012 Issue: "Politics" Our far-flung correspondents report on all things political, around the globe and throughout time. John, I'm Not So Sure About Democracy By ABIGAIL ADAMS BRAINTREE, MA—My husband thinks that "human nature is capable" of some perfection. It's 1775, and frankly I don't see it. You Like Colbert? I Am Real Political Satire By JOHN WILMOT LONDON—I called King Charles the "sauciest p***k" alive in a poem—which I then gave to him in 1673! Granted, I was drunk at the time. Original No-Child-Left-Behind Policy Works By NOTKER THE STAMMERER GAUL—In the eighth century Charlemagne set up a school for noble, middle-class, and poor kids. The rich kids almost flunked out. America Not as Great as It Thinks It Is By CHARLES DICKENS BALTIMORE—"In everything of which it has made a boast," the U.S. wildly disappoints, says the best-selling novelist in 1842. Tales of Brave Ulysses by H. W. Brands Ulysses S. Grant is remembered as a brilliant general and a mean drunk. What about his fiscal policy during a financial collapse? The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney Before queens Elizabeth and Victoria, there was King Hatshepsut. Never heard of her? We hadn't either. Read the story.
Miscellany ~ Calvin Coolidge, nicknamed “Silent Cal,” once sat next to a woman who reportedly said to him, “I have made a bet, Mr. Coolidge, that I could get more than two words out of you.” He replied, “You lose.” ~ The longest filibuster lasted twenty-four hours and eighteen minutes—a record set in 1957 by Strom Thurmond stalling passage of the Civil Rights Act. ~ Ocstracize derives from the Greek word ostracon, a potsherd on which each citizen wrote the name of one well-known citizen whom they wished to banish from the polis. What's in a Name? Rulers and their self-bestowed titles Scourge of God, Attila, Central Europe (434-453) Universal Ruler (Genghis Khan), Temujin, Central Asia (1206-1227) The Very Lonely One, The One Set Apart, Paiea, Hawaii (1810-1819) His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular, Idi Amin, Uganda (1971-1979) More Charts & Graphs from "Politics" Bon Mots The more corrupt a republic is, the more numerous its laws. —Tacitus, c. 117 You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose. —Mario Cuomo, 1985 Now, the greatest punishment, if one isn't willing to rule, is to be ruled by someone worse than oneself. —Plato, c. 378 BC There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people. —Anthony Trollope, 1862