online archive
5:00PM
MAR 5 2008
A story you won’t believe
From Vanity Fair, the Gaza bombshell: After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs; Jack Worthington II says he may be the long-lost son of J.F.K — a story you won’t believe; and chicks with shticks: Yes, they’re funny. And yes, they have two X chromosomes — want to make something of it? (and a response by Christopher Hitchens) A review of What the Gospels Meant by Gary Wills. From TLS, a review of books on who really brought peace to Belfast. Here's a Christian's guide to making it big in the movie business. From FT, a review of books on Russia and the return of the cold warriors. From The Nation, a review of Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe by Benjamin J. Kaplan and God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis; and Ward Sutton the coming utopia of post-partisan politics. The reluctant anthropologist: An interview with Maurice Bloch. Executives are switching in droves from the computer industry to clean-technology firms; do they have what it takes to succeed? An interview with Patrick Murphy, author of Taking the Hill: From Philly to Baghdad to the United States Congress.
1:00PM
MAR 5 2008
What superheroes shouldn’t wear
From New Left Review, Alan Badiou on The Communist Hypothesis: Why does the spectre of May 68 still haunt French discourse? The Comrade from Milan: Memories of war-time resistance work and the political culture of the million-strong PCI in liberated Milan, from one of the founding editors of Il Manifesto. Murdoch minion spikes review of Murdoch book: "Anticipatory compliance" at the Far Eastern Economic Review. A review of Panicology by Simon Briscoe and Hugh Aldersey-Williams. Europe is a big winner from globalisation — if only politicians would say so. From Monthly Review, an article on Rachel Carson’s ecological critique; and an essay on Living the 11th Thesis. A look at why tomboy remains a loaded word. John B. Judis, William F. Buckley's biographer, remembers the great conservative. Faith 2.0: The internet has changed even the way people practise religion. From Democratiya, David A. Guberman and Joshua Muravchik debate the legacy of Michael Harrington. Should diaspora Jews have a say in the political negotiations about Jerusalem? It Takes a Village: The Parisian Village Voice bookstore fights valiantly to stay alive. From The New Yorker, Michael Chabon on what superheroes shouldn’t wear: An essay in unitard theory (and a review of The Yiddish Policemen's Union from Bookforum). Ralph rides again: What the *&#@! is wrong with this guy?
9:00AM
MAR 5 2008
Does politics begin at 50?
Samuel Merrill (Wilkes), Bernard Grofman (UC - Irvine) and Thomas Brunell (UT - Dallas): Cycles in American National Electoral Politics, 1854–2006: Statistical Evidence and an Explanatory Model. Here's what former presidential candidates would be talking about if they were still running. Does politics begin at 50? A note of Plato’s belief that leadership and learning are not solely for the young. Why did it take so long for a far-fetched Holocaust memoir to be debunked? What it means to be an Anglican is much more than a matter of geography. The appointment of Fidel's brother as Cuba's president may actually bode well for reform on the island. For Uganda, it's not the familiar unease about ageing baby boomers, but the opposite. From NYRB, a review of Wikipedia: The Missing Manual by John Broughton; William Luers, Thomas R. Pickering, and Jim Walsh on a solution for the US–Iran nuclear standoff; Michael Tomasky on a possibly Super problem; Benjamin Friedman reviews The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan; a review of His Illegal Self by Peter Carey (and more from The New Yorker); and a review of The Reserve by Russell Banks. From Mother Jones, a special section on Torture at Home: When the unthinkable becomes acceptable. A review of Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food (and more from Bookforum).
