From Slate, John Dickerson on the logic of empathy: How Obama is like Spock; it's not just liberals who play the empathy card; and a look at why conflating judicial empathy with gender is bad for both women and the law. Our Failing Academic-Industrial Complex: The de-centering of individual departments has made liberal arts education a purely self-serving industry. Great Caesar’s Ghost: Are traditional history courses vanishing? Books are at the vanguard: The dramatic rise in e-readers has redeemed the power of the book. It isn’t just newspapers: Much of the established news industry is being blown away, yet news is thriving. From The Weekly Standard, Harvey Mansfield reviews Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville and the Modern Prospect by Paul A. Rahe. An article on conservative magazines: Their vision isn’t the G.O.P.’s. Obama's Center-Left Two-Step: How much longer can the president keep sending different messages to different audiences? What does it mean to be sexy? Raju Peddada wants to know. Inalienable right to excessively noisy sex: The lunacy that led to a 48-year-old housewife being arrested for "shouting and groaning". Susan Flockhart on the myth of having it all. An interview with Richard Seymour, author of The Liberal Defence of Murder.