Ronald Mendoza de Jesus (Emory): Invention of the Death Penalty: Abolitionism at its Limits. Jacob Held (UCA): The Problem with the Problem of Pornography: Subordination, Sexualization, and Speech. Sex in the Senate: Todd S. Purdum on Bobby Baker's salacious secret history of Capitol Hill. James Delingpole writes in defence of cocaine: If you can handle your drink, why should your self-control desert you with other drugs? The introduction to Occultism in a Global Perspective by Henrik Bogdan and Gordan Djurdjevic. A lion of the Left wing celebrates six decades: Dissent magazine connects with younger readers (and more). The U.S. District Court decided that the NSA's collection of phone metadata is likely unconstitutional — what does that mean? Five ways Republicans screwed up in 2013, according to conservative Benjamin Brophy. The worst thing ever written: Adi Robertson on the terrible, wonderful weirdness of fake fanfiction. Noam Scheiber on the question at the heart of the Democratic schism: No one quite knows how to define "populism" — which is good news for vested interests who want to attack reform. The weird science of in-laws: Leon Neyfakh on what experts know about the family relationship with no rules. What happened to the study of American history? Emily Bloch interviews David McCullough. Left hook: David Weigel on how a few liberal activists got the mainstream media to cover a “war” they made up (and more).
