Sam Lasman
Lasman: Axis of ambivalence

Brasov does not forget its martyrs. Picturesque and cloistered by Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, the city exudes old-world charm with medieval walls and Habsburg edifices. But […]

Lasman: Fighting words

“Threats and challenges.” So began the brief portion of the President’s State of the Union that was devoted to foreign policy. The ominous phrasing speaks […]

Lasman: Hug me, it’s my inauguration

As all civics nerds will know, yesterday, Jan. 20, is an important date for the nation. Since 1937, the 20th Amendment has stipulated that Presidential […]

Lasman: No country for old Westerns

‘True Grit,” the Coen brothers’ latest foray into bleak landscapes and bleaker psyches, is that rarest of cinematic phenomena — a critical and commercial success. […]

Lasman: The path to the oasis

Shari’a, like most legal codes from the 7th century, is not well-suited to many aspects of life in a modern liberal democracy. Particularly notorious are […]

Lasman: When thinking wasn’t a crime

Seventeen months since violent repressions extinguished the latest set of hopes for liberalization in Iran, two minor but resonant diplomatic victories have just been scored […]

Lasman: I would I were a careless child

A bright young man is seduced by a powerful ideology, appealing to his own cultural roots but manifested in an armed struggle in a remote […]

Lasman: The thylacine’s lesson

This past weekend, as I sat munching on Gourmet Heaven sushi and studying a YouTube video of a thylacine, I was struck by a connection […]

Lasman: Dropping “r”s and packing heat

In modern moviedom, there are few consistent early indicators that tell the audience what will transpire in the rest of the movie. I’ll save wailing […]

Lasman: The murky parable of the wolf

Moving into an off-campus basement apartment this year brought with it a host of unexpected challenges: sinks unattached to walls, mysterious black gunk on windowsills, […]

Lasman: Some issues are beyond debate

However left-leaning our campus, I like to think that Yalies prefer debates to sermons. We invite speakers like Karl Rove; we host controversially conservative conferences; […]