online archive
5:00PM
MAR 18 2008
Apathy as a right
Bruno P. W. Reis (UMG): Going Home in Peace: The Economy of Virtues, and Apathy as a Right. From Dissent, Thomas Pogge on understanding recent trends and political choices about growth and inequality. An interview with Tom Wolfe on how speech made us human. A review of Ceridwen Dovey’s Blood Kin. A review of Sexual Citizens: The Legal and Cultural Regulation of Sex and Belonging by Brenda Cossman. Habitat for Harmony: How to garden the way nature intended. Thomas Ricks on the startling parallels between the Iraq War and the American Revolution. A review of The Purpose of the Past by Gordon Wood. They may not have agreed with his ideology, but those on the left can learn much from William F Buckley's approach to politics. From Mother Jones, how a former Bush appointee has the high court poised to wipe out consumer suits over dangerous medical products and possibly much more. A review of Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life by Richard Florida. From New York, a cover story on The Governor and the Darkness; and why did Eliot Spitzer go down so quickly, while Bill Clinton managed to hang on indefinitely? A tale of two zipper problems. A review of The Philosopher's "I": Autobiography and the Search for the Self by J. Lenore Wright.
1:00PM
MAR 18 2008
Actually, Johnny, monsters do exist
From Our Future, a series on learning from the cultural conservatives: "Messing With Their Minds", "Talking Up The Worldview", and "Taking It To The Street". From The Washington Post Magazine, here's a fond farewell to 209 once-common things that are either obsolete or well on the way. A review of Jump Jim Crow: Lost Plays, Lyrics, and Street Prose of the First Atlantic Popular Culture by W. T. Lhamon, Jr. Cass Sunstein on the Obama he knows. Actually, Johnny, monsters do exist: A review of A Brief History of Anxiety (Yours and Mine) by Patricia Pearson. The introduction to Analysis of Evolutionary Processes: The Adaptive Dynamics Approach and Its Applications by Fabio Dercole and Sergio Rinaldi. More on Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World by Samantha Power. Anne-Marie Slaughter reviews Fred Kaplan's Daydream Believers. Have people stopped clicking on Google Ads? Or did a Web-traffic firm get the numbers wrong? From Slate, an article on the perfect novel you've never heard of: Rediscovering Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo. Israel can't entirely eliminate the question of who's a Jew, but by disestablishing religion, it could make the issue less painful. From The Weekly Standard, the politics of a failed presidency: How McCain and the Republican party should deal with the Bush record.
9:00AM
MAR 18 2008
Blame it on the primal brain
Alan S. Gerber and Donald P. Green (Yale) and Christopher W. Larimer (UNI): Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment. From NYRB, David Bromwich on Euphemism and American Violence; a review of books on happiness; a review of books on Condoleezza Rice; and Michael Massing on the Volunteer Army: Who fights and why? To mark this week’s fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, nine experts on military and foreign affairs reflect on their attitudes in the spring of 2003. Spitzenfreude: Wall Streeters suggest his fall exonerates them? No way. Blame it on the primal brain of Homo Politicus (and more). An interview with Paul Slansky, author of My Bad: The Apology Anthology. A review of Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America by Eric Alterman. People sometimes call him a public intellectual; indeed, Scott McLemee has no credentials of any kind. A review of Eric Weisbard’s Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music. Words Words Words: Are excessive lyrics ruining pop music? From The Atlantic Monthly, Shooting Britney: How a French journalist recruited a posse of Brazilian parking attendants and pizza-delivery guys and helped create Hollywood’s most addictive entertainment product. The new organic: The future of food may depend on an unlikely marriage, organic farmers and genetic engineering.
