From Hoover Digest, Gary Becker on The Case Against the Draft; a study of two great generals who knew how to keep civilian and military leaders working together: An excerpt from Securing the State: Reforming the National Security Decision-Making Process at the Civil-Military Nexus; Peter Berkowitz on how hybrid conservatives are becoming the dominant species; in much of the world, conservatives clamor for subsidies while liberals fight big government. In the United States, it’s the other way around. Here’s why.
From TNR, Johann Hari on reshuffling the deck chairs on the National Review cruise. What would the world be like if there had been no William F. Buckley? Ben Stein investigates. Michael Harrington's pamphlet Why We Need Socialism in America has been posted to the website of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America. More on Robert Service's Comrades!
From PopMatters, a review of Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s by Sam Binkley. The Thirty-Year Itch: By stabilizing health costs and sharing the risks, and by building a series of other supports to help workers navigate confidently through a dynamic economy, we can imagine a new social contract in which government’s role in providing security is yoked to, and not considered a drag on, economic growth. Why Michael Moore Is Good for Your Health: The provocateur's new movie, Sicko, takes aim at our broken health care system — and argues, in true patriotic fashion, that it represents a failing of America's own best principles and promise. First things first: Housing first, a radical new approach to ending chronic homelessness, is gaining ground.
From 3 Quarks Daily, hipsters, prepare to die: Why is hipster ridicule directed at the cultural output of a generation ago? Why do power couples migrate to metropolitan areas? Actually, they don't. The Baby-Name Business: Parents are feeling intense pressure to pick names that set their kids apart. Some are even hiring consultants. Alexandra Alter on the art of branding your newborn.
A review of The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up too Much? by Leslie Bennetts. A review of Girls Gone Mild by Wendy Shalit. Ayo, shorty!' Brooklyn girls are fighting back against the boys who harass them. Roger Kimball reviews The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden. From American Sexuality, are Navy rituals, like Kissing the Royal Belly, homophobic or homoerotic? What fuels the hatred of homosexuality? Jonathan Haidt wants to help liberal types understand why some people condemn homosexual relationships as immoral. From Nerve, the story of a night of bad sex with a Log Cabin Republican. From online personals for friends with benefits to illicit blogs and even an electronic poke ... the digital age has created a technosexual generation hooked on no-strings casual sex. Hephzibah Anderson meets the people who aren't looking for love.
