What do you know about Elizabeth Warren? The New Yorker published a long profile of the Massachusettes Senator over the weekend, in advance of their May 4 issue. The piece traces Warren’s long career from lawyer to legal academic, to presidential policy advisory and finally, to the US Senate. She’s also exerting a huge influence on the 2016 election even as she remains comfortably outside of it:
Warren is not running for President. But she is mounting a campaign to insure that Clinton and other prominent Democrats adhere to her agenda of reversing income inequality and beating back the influence of corporate power in politics.
You can find the article here.
The Supreme Court will commence hearing arguments tomorrow on challenges to gay marriage bans in several states. The decision will no doubt be the most important ruling on gay rights in the United States for a generation. Read about the meticulous preparation lawyers have undertaken as they prepare to argue in front of the nine justices here.
Finally, a controversial new bestseller is on its way to American booksellers. From Time:
What would happen if Adolf Hitler woke up in modern-day Berlin to find that it was not occupied by Russian soldiers but instead by a vibrant, multicultural citizenry? This is the premise of the debut novel by German journalist Timur Vermes, Er Ist Wieder Da (He’s Back), which has topped Germany’s best-seller list.
Of the hundreds of books about Hitler, this is perhaps the first to leave readers wondering about the boundaries of satire and the acceptability of finding humor in history’s darkest corners. As the New York times pointed out in a review this morning:
There’d be no need to discuss the acceptability of laughter if “Look Who’s Back” weren’t desperately funny. But Mr. Vermes has created an ingenious comedy of errors in which the jokes are either on Hitler’s misapprehensions about the modern world or the modern world’s refusal to take him at face value.
One thing is for sure: you may want to leave the dust jacket at home if you’re reading on the train.
That’s it for today’s Covered Bridge. Check back in with us tomorrow for another recap of some of the best stories you may have missed.
