Tag: normal life
How Old Is Too Old in Politics?
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Last week, I asked: “How should voters assess the physical and mental fitness of politicians, and how should the press cover such matters?”
Bekke points out that voters have a tough job:
… Read moreHow to decide who is mentally fit to
The New Kabul – The Atlantic
The streets are silent. Women and schoolgirls are completely covered, if they are seen at all. Food is scarce for many. But it was not always like this in Bushra Seddique’s home. Before she fled Afghanistan, before the Taliban returned just over a year ago, Seddique had days and nights in cafés with friends, a job as a journalist, and a full life in bustling Kabul.
Seddique’s escape from Afghanistan happened as abruptly as the United States’ withdrawal from her
Eight Books for Indulging a Bad Mood
Anyone who has spent an hour on the couch wallowing in self-pity knows that it can feel good to feel bad. Your dive into dysphoria might start with anything from passing irritation to a genuine blow. From there, you sink into the cushions, urging yourself more deeply into the recesses of despair. As your dejection grows, other bad feelings intrude. Anger at people who have slighted you. Embarrassment, as you replay humiliating conversations in your mind. Shame, because instead of
Your Starkly Different Perspectives on Omicron
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As the Omicron stage of the pandemic wears on, many of you are anxious, frustrated, and incredulous or even despairing as to how others are behaving––but you’re not of like mind. Some of you believe that the response to the new variant is overwrought, while others think that it is underwhelming.
“How should America’s colleges, high schools, and elementary schools handle the winter surge of COVID-19 cases associated with the Omicron variant?” I asked
How 2 Afghans Escaped the Taliban
For the past 10 days, thousands of private citizens have been working around the clock, through informal networks of friends and colleagues, to organize evacuation flights from Afghanistan to countries like Albania and Kyrgyzstan, and to help Afghans get their name on passenger manifests and safely reach the Kabul airport. This effort, which is largely taking place on WhatsApp and Signal, has been called a “digital Dunkirk.”
At this point the phrase is too generous. In the spring of