Andrew Sullivan

what does it mean to be a conservative anymore?With the Iraq war, the rise of Christian fundamentalism, exploding government spending, soaring debt, insecure borders, and an executive branch with greater and greater power, Republicans and conservatives are debating this question with more and more urgency.The contradictions keep mounting. Today's conservatives support the idea of limited government, but they have increased government's size, power, and reach to new heights. They believe in balanced budgets, but they have boosted government spending, debt, and pork to record levels. They believe in individual liberty and the rule of law, but they have condoned torture, ignored laws passed by Congress, and been indicted for bribery. They have substituted religion for politics, and damaged both. In The Conservative Soul, Andrew Sullivan, one of the nation's leading political commentators, makes an impassioned call to rescue conservatism from the excesses of the Republican far right, which risks making the GOP the first fundamentally religious party in American history. Through an incisive look at the rise of Western fundamentalism, Sullivan argues that conservatives cannot in good conscience keep supporting a party that believes in its own God-given mission to change people's souls, instead of protecting their liberties. He carefully charts the arguments of the new conservatism, showing why they cannot work in today's America, why they fail the test of logic and pragmatism, and why they betray the conservative tradition from Edmund Burke to Ronald Reagan. In this bold and powerful book, Andrew Sullivan criticizes our government for acting too often, too quickly, and too expensively. He champions a political philosophy based on skepticism and reason, rather than certainty and fundamentalism. He defends a Christianity that is sincere but not intolerant, and a politics that respects religion by keeping its distance. And he makes a provocative, heartfelt case for a revived conservatism at peace with the modern world, dedicated to restraining government and empowering individuals to live rich and fulfilling lives.

"I intend to be among the first generation that survives this disease." That was former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan's first public statement about his HIV diagnosis. Speaking to heterosexual and homosexual audiences alike, this book is about the first steps in that journey of survival. In a memoir in the form of three essays, Sullivan asks hard questions about his own life and others'. Can the practice of friendship ever compensate for a life without love? Is sex at war or at peace with spirituality? Can faith endure the randomness of death? Is homosexuality genetic or environmental? In a work destined to be controversial, Sullivan takes on religious authorities and gay activists; talks candidly about his own promiscuity and search for love; revisits Freud in the origins of homosexuality; and makes one of the more memorable modern cases for elevating the virtue of friendship over the satisfactions of love.

No issue seems to divide Western society more passionately and more deeply than homosexuality. Is homosexuality immoral? Should homosexuals be allowed to serve in the military? Should they be allowed to marry? Are gay rights special rights or civil rights? These and many other questions have roiled our politics for the last decade - and the debate is getting no calmer. In this pathbreaking book, Andrew Sullivan, the brilliant young editor of The New Republic, takes on all these questions. Whatever your view about homosexuality, he tries to talk you out of it. Sullivan reframes the debate into four competing political positions: prohibitionist, liberationist, conservative, and liberal. He takes them on one by one, first sympathetically detailing their strengths, then relentlessly exposing their weaknesses. At the crux of his argument is a manifesto for a new politics that can transform the way we approach the homosexual question, and many other social issues as well. Challenging to homosexuals and heterosexuals alike, its proposals are likely to stir controversy on all sides.

"Canadians from all backgrounds and cultures look to identify with their surroundings through stories, and this speculative and literary fiction collection provides unique takes on what being Canadian is about. What resides beneath the blankets of snow, under the ripples of water, within the whispers of the wind, and between the husks of trees all across Canada? Creatures, myths and monsters are everywheree̥ven if we don't always see them. This is a unique and powerful collection of all-new, cross-genre tales that take the reader into real and imagined worlds, ranging from an encounter with the Metis creature Rugaru to trolls dissatisfied with modern life, to the demons who follow us from our parents' countries, and to Anishinaabe myths about the creation of creeks. Twenty emerging and award-winning authors explore the way we think about and interact with the unnatural - showing how much the stories we create can teach us about what it means to be human."--

Summary:"The twenty-first semi-annual Munk Debate, held on October 12th, 2017, pits award-winning journalist E.J. Dionne, Jr. and influential author and blogger Andrew Sullivan against former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and bestselling author and editor Kimberley Strassel to debate the current crisis of American democracy."-- Back cover