|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Have the Democrats Become the Party of Al Franken? by Theodore Hamm
In the month of October, as the Plame Game dragged on and the hard right scuttled Harriet Miers in favor of Samuel
”Little Antonin“ Alito, all of the leading figures in the Democratic Party watched quietly from the
sidelines. Except, of course, for Al Franken, who, though ostensibly a political commentator and satirist, actually
has become a leading voice of the Democrats.
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
The Revolution of Exalted Embarrassment by Reverend Billy
And so the Revolution of Exalted Embarrassment begins. The silence of the products, the deep put-on of the products, is no longer the monarch before which we grab and swipe and save and spend. In fact we are belly-laughing profoundly. We are watching the amazed wandering away of our hands.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Triumph of the Dear Leader: A Journey Inside North Korea by J. Scott Burgeson
Just before noon on Saturday, October 15, 2005, 90 U.S. civilians buckled into the
cramped seats of a vintage 1960s Soviet-made Ilyushin Il-62 flying out of Beijing
and bound for Pyongyang, the epic, showcase capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
John Berger’s Motorcycle by Andy Merrifield
I’ve a vivid memory of John Berger, whose latest book, Here is Where We Meet (Pantheon),
appeared this past summer: seeing him on his giant black motorcycle. I was about to go walking
in the mountains near Sommand and was driving up a narrow road that passed through Quincy, a village
of a dozen-or-so houses nestled amidst rolling Alpine pastures.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Bear and the Mouse by Christopher Ketcham
In the snowy March of 2003, I climbed Slide Mountain, the tallest of the Catskill range at 4,180 feet,
and met a wild-looking man named Sean McFall, who was staying 35 days on Slide’s shoulders,
in the three-foot snow drifts, with the ice blowing from the treetops and his demonic-looking white
bulldog keeping him warm when the temperature dropped to minus 20 degrees fahrenheit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excerpt from For God and Country by James Yee with Aimee Molloy
For the first few weeks, I did my best to manage what was clearly going to be a demanding schedule.
Every morning, I arrived at Camp Delta by 7:00 a.m. and didn’t leave until late in the evening.
Most of my time was spent on the blocks: detainees wanting to see the chaplain could make a request
through the guards, and there were always more requests than I could handle, despite my long shifts.
But every day I would make my way inside the wire and do the best I could.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rail congratulates the following winners of 2005 Ippie Awards from the Independent Press Association-N.Y.:
1st Place, Best Story About Immigrant Issues Gabriel Thompson, "When Even the Minimum Wage is a Distant Dream" (December 2004/January 2005)
2nd Place, Best Editorial/Commentary Theodore Hamm, "Arthur Miller’s Brooklyn Legacy" (March 2005)
3rd Place, Best Investigative/In-Depth News Story Brian J. Carreira, "No Room at the Inn: Ratner Continues to ’Game’ Officials and the Public" (June 2005)
3rd Place, Best Overall Design: Amelia Hennighausen
|
