Did Iran or Israel Come Out Ahead in the Latest Round of Fighting?
Three perspectives.
June 9, 2026
Reconsidering W.H. Auden’s Faith
“If I try to pray, ‘O Thou Ground, have mercy upon me,’ I start to giggle.”
According to his literary executor Edward Mendelson, W.H. Auden subscribed to “an idiosyncratic Christianity” and “had no literal belief in miracles or deities and thought that all religious statements about God must be false in a literal sense but might be true in metaphoric ones.” Alan Jacobs admits that Mendelson “knows more about Auden than anyone ever has, and probably more than anyone ever will.” Yet he makes the case for a very different reading of the poet’s faith, pointing to passages like the following:
June 9, 2026
Did Support for Israel Cost Kamala Harris the Presidency? Not According to the DNC
The words missing from the autopsy.
Britain’s Muslim Police Association Thinks the IDF Is a Terrorist Group
While condemning talk about actual terrorism.
The Songs of Jewish Mothers
A new book exposes some surprising musical history.
Reconsidering W.H. Auden’s Faith
“If I try to pray, ‘O Thou Ground, have mercy upon me,’ I start to giggle.”