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CalendarLetters to the Editor
COMMENT News Judgment and Jihad Terrorists depend on the cooperation of the media. It's time to stop providing it
by Mark Bowden
BRIEF LIVES At the Gates of Brussels If Recep Tayyip Erdogan gets his way, Turkey will be more Islamic and Europe will be more Turkish. Both would be good news
by Robert D. Kaplan
VERBATIM How Not to Catch a Terrorist A ten-step program, from the files of the U.S. intelligence community
FOREIGN AFFAIRS Strait-jacket December elections could edge Taiwan closer to a symbolic declaration of independence—and the United States toward military conflict with China. There's one way out
by Trevor Corson
THE LIST Holiday Cheer The world's most bibulous countries
by Nathan Littlefield
GENERIC COMMENTARY Hail to the _____ An all-purpose post-election editorial, offered free to news organizations across the United States
by P. J. O'Rourke
POLITICS Executive Assistance The split between "red" states and "blue" states has never been wider, but one type of candidate is bridging that gap: businessmen
by Alexandra Starr
THE ODDS Who's the Gay Simpson?
by Nathan Littlefield
POLITICS A Spectator's Guide to the Political Action Universe [This article is unavailable online.]
by Byron York
THE ART OF POLICY Pork With a Point The highway bill—a translation
by P. J. O'Rourke
Primary Sources Federal air marshals behaving badly; why women get less sleep than men; divorce among born-again Christians
by Marshall Poe and Ross Douthat
THE WORLD IN NUMBERS Russia's Loose Nukes [This article is unavailable online.]
by Terrence Henry
Among the Hostage-Takers
Twenty-five years ago in Tehran a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy and took hostage the entire American diplomatic mission. Now many of the leading hostage-takers speak candidly about their actions—which a surprising number deeply regret
by Mark Bowden
INTERVIEWS Into the Den of Spies
Mark Bowden, the author of "Among the Hostage-Takers," speaks about the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 and its architects' present-day struggles with the Islamic regime
by Terrence Henry [Web only]
The Iran Hostage CrisisWill Iran Be Next?
Links to video and audio footage elsewhere on the Web [Web only]
Soldiers, spies, and diplomats conduct a classic Pentagon war game—with sobering results
by James Fallows
The Confidentiality Fetish
The problem with attorney-client privilege
by William H. Simon
Leaks and the Law
What happens when the journalistic principle of protecting confidential sources clashes with the public interest in prosecuting a crime? A cross-examination
by Benjamin Wittes
Nobel Prize Claim Form
by Bruce McCall
POETRY Loyal Carp
by Gerald Stern
SHORT STORY Harbinger Hall
A section of the bookcase slowly swung out into the room—a secret door, straight from a monster movie
by Bill Roorbach
EDITOR'S CHOICE Cheap at $13,000
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison; Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, edited by David J. Wishart; The Children's Blizzard, by David Laskin; The Encyclopedia of Chicago, edited by James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff; Chicago, by A. J. Liebling; Honored Guest, by Joy Williams
by Benjamin Schwarz
Books of the Year
by Benjamin Schwarz
Leave Them and Love Them
In Alice Munro's fiction, memory and passion reorder life
by Lorrie Moore
Shakespeare in Love, or in Context
If society creates art, as Stephen Greenblatt believes, then why was Shakespeare's achievement so singular?
by Cristina Nehring
The Minister's Tale
Marilynne Robinson's long-awaited second novel is an almost otherworldly book—and reveals Robinson as a somewhat otherworldly figure herself
by Mona Simpson
INTERVIEWS Gilead's BalmREADING LIST The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Humankind
Marilynne Robinson talks about her long-awaited second novel and the holiness of the everyday
by Jennie Rothenberg [Web only]
From corruptibility to immortality, the human condition as revealed in four very different books
by David O. Russell
Survivor
Victor Klemperer's meticulous diaries of daily life under East Germany's "soul-smashing" Communists reveal a man trying to convince himself not that the system was wrong but that it was right
by Christopher Hitchens
INNOCENT BYSTANDER Knock It Off
The art of the unreal
by Cullen Murphy
A LOOK BACK 100 Years Ago in The Atlantic
"Remarks at the Peace Banquet"
FOOD Flavorless No More
Small batch by small batch, the makers of a new artisanal vodka have tapped into the market for America's best-selling spirits
by Corby Kummer
THE PUZZLER Cryptic Buffet
by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
Word Fugitives
by Barbara Wallraff
POST MORTEM The Paladin of Palimony
Marvin Mitchelson (1928-2004)
by Mark Steyn
Who's Who
A selective index to this month's issue
by Benjamin Healy