From The National Interest, Joshua Muravchik and Stephen Walt debate the Neocons vs. the Realists. From FP, an interview with Thomas Friedman on his plan for a hot, flat, and crowded world (and a review). From Mute, the computer inspired a wave of post-war "imaginary futures", from ecstatic fantasies of time and space travel to fears of mankind's extinction — Iain Boal brings three critical histories of modernity's futuramas back down to earth; declaring the economic off-limits to politics, the art world’s favourite philosopher, Jacques Ranciere, does have something to hide; and is a rabble run media becoming a possibility, and are artists in the vanguard or blocking the way? From Maisonneuve, an article on Obama’s Ludacris problem: Guess what song you won't find on Obama's iPod? Meet Jane Doe: By selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain plunged his campaign deep into Capra country. Seeking offence, as Christians have done in the case of Terence Koh’s Jesus statue, is the tactic of the vindictive and the bullying (and more). From Boston Review, poets and the people: Robert von Hallberg on reflections on solidarity during wartime. New literary art form discovered! In praise of the praise of poetry. The introduction to The Patron's Payoff: Conspicuous Commissions in Italian Renaissance Art by Jonathan K. Nelson and Richard J. Zeckhauser.
