From New Statesman, people often claim they want cooler and more factual newspapers, but that is nonsense — what they really like is a news story that winds them up. From Vanity Fair, here's the blow-by-blow from Bear Stearns insiders in what some believe was the greatest financial scandal in history. Spengler on how to stop the Great Crash of '08. From Dissent, show me the money: Labor and the bottom line of National Health Insurance; and can “consumer society” accurately describe the American polity? The Pentagon’s Doomsday Men: Why the Department of Defense needs a lesson in risk management. A look at how political freelancers use the Web to join the attack. Can't-Do Government: The next president will inherit what Hamilton called a "government ill executed". A new social contract: Democrats have a chance to enact a sweeping liberal agenda. Should we care so much about the purity of the motive with which the gift was made? Peter Singer investigates. From TNR, six simple reasons the border fence is terrible policy (and from The Economist, here are scenes from la frontera). Writers to reflect on the consequences unexpected, unnoticed, unrealized, good, bad or indifferent of really expensive fuel. From The Space Review, here's a skeptic’s guide to space exploration. Cutting the competition: Mutilating male members may mar men’s mischievous matings.
