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Today in The Nation: Global Citizen
John Nichols Carrying the weight of history, Obama spoke to Berlin and the world as a stirring orator, skilled diplomat and, yes, as a credible world leader.
Today in The Nation: Make Fannie and Freddie Go Green
James S. Henry and Brent Blackwelder Don't just bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: require them to start building environmentally responsible homes.
Today in The Nation: Rethinking Afghanistan
Katrina vanden Heuvel We need to get beyond the reflexive response of troop escalation and find sane and humane alternatives.
Campaign 08: Berlin Cheers Obama's America
Ari Berman In Berlin, Barack Obama summoned John F. Kennedy's vision of the New Frontier and updated it for the twenty-first century.

Life, in the hall of smashed mirrors

From Borderlands, Nick Mansfield (Macquarie): "There is a Spectre Haunting": Ghosts, Their Bodies, Some Philosophers, a Novel and the Cultural Politics of Climate Change; Samuel A. Chambers (JHU) and Alan Finlayson (Swansea): Ann Coulter and the Problem of Pluralism: From Values to Politics; Debora Halbert (Otterbein): A Political Geography of Geneva: Mapping Globalization and its Discontents; Michele Acuto (ANU): Edges of the Conflict: A Three-Fold Conceptualization of National Borders; and Anthony Burke (UNSW): Life, in the hall of smashed mirrors: Biopolitics and terror today. BookLamp.org is a system for matching readers to books through an analysis of writing styles, similar to the way that Pandora.com matches music lovers to new music. More and more on The Book of Dead Philosophers by Simon Critchley. From Catapult, John D. Roth on why believers might conscientiously abstain from voting; and Denise Frame Harlan ponders the humaneness of democratic high school government elections. From The Global Spiral, a special issue on the subject, self, and soul. The pre-eminent need today is not an exclusive club of democracies, but renewal of the world’s global architecture, write Anne-Marie Slaughter and John Ikenberry. From LRB, Jeremy Harding on the dangers of intervention; and a review of New Labour’s terrible memoirs.

1:00PM

JUL 24 2008

How to spot a quack

From THES, a review of Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home by Pamela Stone; and a review of Great Satan's Rage: American Negativity and Rap/Metal in the Age of Supercapitalism by Scott Wilson. From World Affairs, Robert Leibler on Falling Upwards: Declinism, The Box Set. A wrongheaded experiment to prove poor people are lazy shows it’s easy to succeed when you’re young, healthy, white, and male. Cracking Code Pink: Why does the peace movement have to dress and act like an irritating children's birthday party? From FT, the sculptures made by many great 20th-century painters illuminate modernism’s metamorphoses of forms and matter; Hollywood’s holocaustic imaginings give Nigel Andrews cause for thought; and Olympic architecture is about far more than sport. Shorts and Fannies, a brief history: An explainer on Fannie Mae, short-selling and government economic regulation. Talking to the plumber: John Derbyshire on the I.Q gap. A review of Anglophilia: Deference, Devotion, and Antebellum America by Elisa Tamarkin. A bad week for alternative medicine: Rose Shapiro explains how to spot a quack. From Standpoint, Michael Burleigh on how to defeat the global jihadists; and more on Terror and Consent (and more and more and more and more and more). Philip Bobbitt on why we need clearer rules on when to cross borders.

9:00AM

JUL 24 2008

Cheap, green, and secure

From Nerve, how Buckminster Fuller combined environmentalism with high design. Thom Mayne's U.S. Federal Building: Can the iconoclastic architect design a structure that's cheap, green, and secure? A review of The Judicious Eye: Architecture against the Other Arts by Joseph Rykwert. From TLS, a review of The Creationists: From scientific creationism to Intelligent Design by Ronald Numbers; Amis & Amis: The family firm produced disparate results, but is either writer any good? From First Principles, a special four-part symposium on localism and cosmopolitanism (and part 2 and part 3 and part 4). From Radar, how music legend Genesis P-Orridge and his wife became one through plastic surgery. Veganism is Murder: If God didn't want us to eat cows, he wouldn’t have made them out of steak. Children of God: The young women — willing wives? abuse victims? — of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Is it time to give up on therapeutic cloning? An interview with Ian Wilmut. Toward a Type 1 civilization: Along with energy policy, political and economic systems must also evolve. Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming. From IHE, newspapers keep abandoning any responsibility toward books; Scott McLemee looks back at print culture.

5:00PM

JUL 23 2008

This is not a toy

From Chronicles of Love and Resentment, the hypothesis that all things human derive from a single event should prove increasingly productive beyond the humanistic sphere. More and more and more on Gary Marcus' Kluge. A review of Welfare Reform and Sexual Regulation by Anna Marie Smith. From Salon, using paper clips, chewing gum, chocolate and down-home ingenuity, MacGyver always saved the day — let's bring him back, and give him a girl. At the American Enterprise Institute and elsewhere, policy cooks are trying to whip up new solutions for conservatives disaffected with the Republican Party. In Vitro We Trust: Thirty years on, the fertility business could use some rethinking. Modern information societies require us to go beyond the “big man” approach to leadership. A review of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Mark LeVine (and more). This is not a toy: An article on The Little Computer That Could. From The Nation, is the mortgage industry bankrupting black America? From Esquire, here's Stephen Colbert’s Guide to White Male Oppression (and an interview). From Air & Space, megalifters prove you’re never too fat to fly. An interview with Gustavo Arellano, the "Mexican" who has all the answers. A review of Going to Extremes by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deer Hunting With Jesus by Joe Bageant.

1:00PM

JUL 23 2008

The worst tag of all

From The Root, an article on Gen-Y and the colorblind lie: For millenials, race is more complicated than ever; for white Gen-Y'ers, "racist" is the worst tag of all; and race shmace, whatever: It's just not that important anymore. From City Journal, Myron Magnet on the great African-American awakening. The End of White Flight: For the first time in decades, cities' black populations lose ground, stirring clashes over class, culture and even ice cream. How three street-smart guys with no publishing experience, no money and no distribution launched a high-gloss magazine that’s actually making it. Can Si Newhouse keep Conde Nast’s gloss going? Is 2008 the worst year in modern newspaper history? When do the words “not guaranteed” actually mean “guaranteed”? James Surowiecki wants to know. An interview with Tyler Colman, author of Wine Politics: How Governments, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. An overlooked aspect of the IndyMac imbroglio is the baby-facedness of the former chief executive. Eager to connect with that elusive (some say mythical) "erotogenic zone"? Years after the hype began, finding the G-spot remains easier said than done. An interview with Carl Anderson, author of A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World. From FP, when professors go to war: Why the Ivory Tower and the Pentagon don’t mix.

9:00AM

JUL 23 2008

Save the males

From Mother Jones, a special section on the coming prison meltdown. Online writing is a typographical and grammatical mess — should we fix it? Does the world need another indie band? There's life, and then there's lifestyle journalism. Barbara Ehrenreich has been called a Marxist just for writing that the US is not a classless society. Allan J. Lichtman on how conservatives are in denial about their history. An interview with James Carse, author of The Religious Case Against Belief. The lesson of the Friedman Institute, even before it opens, is that we could use more forceful theories from academia. More and more and more on Ark of the Liberties: America and the World by Ted Widmer. An interview with Orit Bashkin, author of The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq. A review of Termites in the Trading System: How Preferential Agreements Undermine Free Trade by Jagdish Bhagwati. A review of A World Without Bees by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum. More and more on James Wood's How Fiction Works. A review of Save the Males: Why Men Matter, Why Women Should Care by Kathleen Parker. A review of U. S. Vs. Them: How a Half Century of Conservatism Has Undermined America’s Security by J. Peter Scoblic (and more). The monoculture is dead; in another guise, however, its flattening effect on non-Western culture is, sadly, thriving.

From New York, provocative former president Jimmy Carter shadows Obama as a walking McCain talking point, but having lived longer than he ever imagined possible, Carter has no interest in reining himself in; Gitty Grunwald fled the pious world of her mother to return to the secular city of her grandparents — there’s only one problem: The Satmars kept her daughter; and Spartan warriors in the YouTube Age; Or, the legend of Legend, Spider, and Science. Many military officers are pushing back against Defense Secretary Gates' focus on preparing for more "asymmetric" fighting rather than for a large, conventional conflict. Dangers of "the best military": When did American troops become "warfighters" instead of citizen-soldiers? Michael Shermer on how anecdotal evidence can undermine scientific results. PBS' "The War of the World" proves we're now ready to look back on the 20th century as we would any other. On Sundays she is a Pentecostal preacher; during the week Leah Daughtry is planning the Democratic convention. An interview with Grover Norquist on the Leave Us Alone Coalition. Glazed America: Anthropologist Paul Mullins examines doughnut as symbol of consumer culture. Stoooopid: Why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks. When is a novel for adults really a novel for children? When a publisher and its marketing department decide it is.

From Forbes, a special report on the fifth fuel: efficiency. Why essays are so damned boring: An impassioned plea for writers to stop navel gazing and start taking chances. The quadrennial cabinet name game is about to begin — these 15 notables deserve to be players. From MR, Gregory W. Esteven on how the Left saved capitalism. Joseph Epstein reviews Stop Me If You've Heard This by Jim Holt (and more and more and more). From TNR, a review of Gorky's Tolstoy and Other Reminiscences: Key Writings By and About Maxim Gork. Eat Republican: How an organic movement born in Berkeley exemplifies conservative values. From n+1, Brian Wienberg worries that the Creation Museum is drawing unsavory attention to his home state, fueling stereotypes. From Foreign Policy, a list of the world’s worst advisors. He's been called a naive idealist, but in terms of foreign policy, Obama's the true realist in the race. Gideon Rachman on why Barack Obama would make the better commander-in-chief. State polls indicate Obama's tidal-wave potential, but national polls are tight; both are right. Is the Times " Metro" section planning a sex beat? Imagine that those running for office tailored their economic positions to attract the experts in the field. What is global justice and who is it for? An article on the ICC’s first five years. From Radar, insiders reveal television's most hated pundits.

From the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, a special issue on Homo Economicus. From The Wall Street Journal, through history, outrageous financial behavior has been met with outrage; but today Wall Street's damaging recklessness has been met with near-silence, from a too-tolerant populace. A growing number of economists are bravely asking: What factors make people happy? About that Green Light: The so-called “Easterlin Paradox” has been in the news recently. A review of Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared by Andrew Brown. From TNR, Jonathan Chait reviews The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. An article on Christopher Poole, the 20-year-old at heart of web's most anarchic and influential site. Can a test reveal if a person has a subconscious desire to kill himself? Peter Bebergal tries to find out. A review of The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece and Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World, by Paul Cartledge. In response to the courts, class is replacing race as the primary basis for desegregating schools; it’s a mix that just might work. From The Book Design Review, three books having something to do with superheroes, none of whom is Batman. Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it: Why bother writing an article at all?

From National Journal, pick a number and set a deadline—it's President Bush's way of managing everything from space shots to gasoline consumption; and if history is any guide, the next president will attempt to follow through on the vast majority of pledges made on the campaign trail. From TED, Helen Fisher talks about the brain in love. As Spain takes one great step forward for animal rights and liberty, activists elsewhere are persecuted. A review of For the Love of Animals: The Rise of the Animal Protection Movement by Kathryn Shevelow. A review of Political Hypocrisy: The Mask of Power, from Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond by David Runciman. John McCain styles himself as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican, but he's taken exactly the wrong lessons from TR. Turning panic into opportunity: How to tell when markets may have hit bottom. A review of Glamour: A History by Stephen Gundle. From Carson to McKibben, Mowat to Monbiot, the environmental movement can be traced in the rich history of its books. Polar bears could face extinction — so why not pack a few off to Antarctica, where the sea ice will never run out? A review of Carole Travis-Henikoff's Dinner With a Cannibal: The Complete History of Mankind's Oldest Taboo. Its economy may be booming, but Nigeria is convulsed by a personality clash between its old president and his successor.