From FLYP, years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a radical revolution of values to fulfill America’s promise; and cleaning up the economic mess: Should Barack Obama be thinking less about FDR and more about MLK? No wonder Obama won — the guy’s been on message since he was 28. Welcome to your new job, Mr. President: Eight world leaders tell Barack Obama how not to screw up. An excerpt from Abraham Lincoln in the Post-Heroic Era: History and Memory in Late Twentieth-Century America by Barry Schwartz. The rhetoric of the 44th president of the United States positions him as the inheritor of the oratorical and political traditions of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, and Jesus Christ. Here are 5 world leaders who were accused of being the Antichrist. "The Old Testament is a red-neck hill-billy comedy", says controversial US pastor. In the Garden: It was not guilt they felt, not at first; that would come later, after instruction. Guilt must be learned; shame, it appears, comes naturally. Christians in the fashion and beauty industries will be the first to say it’s a mission field; each day they work with people searching for purpose. America Right or Wrong: John Newsinger on Anglo-American relations since 1945. Mike Daisey raises hell about how corporate attitudes broke the American stage — and why a simple application of government stimulus alone can't fix it. 

Henry Farrell (GWU) and Melissa Schwartzberg (Columbia): Norms, Minorities, and Collective Choice Online. The borders of our minds: In the conflict between Macedonia and Greece, both sides are debating a non-existent issue. A review of Megan Basham's Beside Every Successful Man. Straight vs. Narrow: "Why the fuck do we have to keep protesting this shit?" Confessions of a lassies' man: Robert Burns’s lust for women was legendary, but does he deserve to be branded a misogynist and a scoundrel? Todd Gitlin on the rebirth of the USA. Script and scribble: Our days of mastering penmanship seem long behind us. Harlem's man with the plan: Obama's the first president in 50 years to prioritize fighting poverty — meet the man who showed him how. More on The Reagan I Knew by WFB. A review of Tim Reiterman’s Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People. A review of Literature, Life, and Modernity by Richard Eldridge. Motivating minds: People procrastinate when asked to think in the abstract. One track mind: Laurie Taylor hopes he’s not a running joke. From The Globalist, an article on Vaclav Klaus, Philosopher-King. From Power Line, on President Bush: An assessment. Is there a second act for George W. Bush? Here are the five things we'll miss most about Bush (and more on Bush's forgotten scandals). A look at top 10 George W. Bush YouTube moments.

A new issue of Econ Journal Watch is out. From First of the Month, Amiri Baraka on how we are already in the future. An interview with Edwin Burrows, author of Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War. A review of Human Rights at the UN: The Political History of Universal Justice by Roger Normand. Politicians have a reputation for being big talkers, but sometimes the most interesting statements are the ones they aren’t trying to make.  John Sutherland on how the demands of publishing are conflicting with scholarship on Shakespeare. Douglas W. Kmiec on his experience as a Catholic who supported Obama. An interview with Nancy Polikoff, author of Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage. A review of The Next Government of the United States: Why Our Institutions Fail Us and How to Fix Them by Donald F. Kettl. A review of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery by Siddharth Kara. The Little Unions That Couldn’t: Card check is worth fighting for — except for the "card check" part. Cambridge on the Potomac: For Harvard, "change" means a return to power. It wasn't Katrina that destroyed the Bush presidency; it was downhill from the moment Bush tried to destroy Social Security — he knows it, and Barack Obama should, too. The historian as cartoonist: An article on drawing George W. Bush. 

From Bookforum, Jay Cantor reviews John Updike's Early Stories, 1953­-1975. From The New Yorker, a series of remembering John Updike. Here is the entry on John Updike's life and work from The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors. From New York, here are Updike's unpublished thoughts on the Great Depression and Barack Obama. From The Boston Globe, more on Updike. From The Observer, how one book ignited a culture war: How Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses has shaped our society. The 200th anniversary of his birth arrives with many cities waging "the Poe Wars" and the publication of tributes, stories in his honor and new editions of his work. Here are invaluable tips for would-be authors from the no-nonsense book How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs If You Ever Want to Get Published by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman. From Ovi, an essay on Pierre Joseph Proudhon: Pioneer of the civil society. A list of the 10 worst products for men ever created. An excerpt from TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television by Lynn Spigel (and a review at Bookforum). An excerpt from Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes by Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver. From OJR, from buy-out to boss: A case study in post-newspaper blogging.