From The Washingtonian, Joe Biden is now a heartbeat away from the presidency — his life has been full of surprising highs and extraordinary lows; how social networks, bloggers, “macaca moments,” and other products of the new technology are changing politics — and presidential campaigns; a look at what happens when you call 911 in Washington, DC; and an article on journalists' secret lives. The cancer drug Herceptin saved Virginia Postrel’s life; it also cost $60,000 — would health-care reform put it, and other expensive new drugs, out of reach? More on The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French (and more from Bookforum). A review of The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization by Jonathan Lyons (and more). An interview with James Boyle, author of The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. Entwined contemplations of author Chris Hedges (War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning) and former ad-man Bruce Bauman, and their respective relationships to the essay’s author (a ne’er-do-well novelist and ex-soldier). Casualty and other war statistics suggest that despite terrorism’s terrible toll, the New World Order really has created a more secure world. When did the Great Depression receive its name? (and who named it?) More on Stefan Collini's Absent Minds.
