Dennis Soron (Brock): Cruel Weather: Natural Disasters and Structural Violence. From The Washington Quarterly, Gideon Rachman on democracy and the case for opportunistic idealism; and remember the Magnequench, an object lesson in globalization. From CT, a review of Sketch for a Self-Analysis by Pierre Bourdieu. A review of Ignorance and Imagination: The Epistemic Origin of the Problem of Consciousness by Daniel Stoljar. A review of How Judges Think by Richard Posner. You might as well face it: You're addicted to success. From The Texas Observer, a review of Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature; a review of Blue Dixie: Awakening the South's Democratic Majority by Bob Moser; a review of The Dynamite Club: How a Bombing in Fin-de-Siecle Paris Ignited the Age of Modern Terror by John Merriman (and more from Bookforum); and can Janet Napolitano stop the border-fence boondoggle? Images of cute, cuddly animals have replaced sad-eyed children in the latest campaigns to market charitable giving to Africa — but what does it really mean to buy a village a goat? From Three Monkeys Online, a review of Adam Smith in Beijing by Giovanni Arrighi; a review of The Power and the Glory: Inside the Dark Heart of Pope John Paul II's Vatican by David Yallop; and an interview with Tariq Ali on The Leopard and the Fox. 

From Vanity Fair, what led Iceland, a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power? Michael Lewis wants to know; the five hotshots who took Fortress Investment Group public were worth billions at first — today they look like arrogant showboats; Mark Seal gets behind Bernie Madoff’s affable facade, to reveal his most intimate betrayals (and more); and David Kamp on rethinking the American Dream. Battling Obama by "going Galt": Conservatives look to Atlas Shrugged for answers to Keynesian policies (and more). An interview with Slavoj Zizek. Save the GOP crocodile tears: Rahm Emanuel's role in the current Limbaugh fiasco is no more calculating than any standard-issue campaign tactic. David Frum on why Rush is wrong: A conservative's lament; and Yuval Levin on the Republicans’ road back. The Nation remembers V.G. Kiernan, a historian of the left, an ideological warrior against empire. A review of Planet Google by Randall Stross and What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis (more and more and more and more; and more from Bookforum). From Evolutionary Psychology, a review of Judaism in Biological Perspective: Biblical Lore and Judaic Practices. Read a book, get out of jail: What happens when convicted felons are sentenced to a book club instead of prison?

From TLS, follies of Roman Catholicism: How the Catholic Church failed to save itself from the Reformation. A little-known Egyptian-born priest may be the source of Benedict XVI's ideas on Islam — and the source of his controversial speech about Muslims and violence. From Vox, Willem Buiter on macroeconomics’ crisis of irrelevance: The unfortunate uselessness of most "state of the art" academic monetary economics; and Barry Eichengreen on the G20, global governance, and the missing “vision”. When, exactly, will the misery end? When can we expect to see the economy turn around? 11 experts hazard a guess. The finalists of this year's Lionel Gelber Prize, an annual award for the best writing on international affairs, reflect the difficulties of trying to find light in a dark landscape. Yes, We Plan: How altruism and advertising could change the world. From TNR, from Obama with love: How his "secret letter" to Russia helps isolate Iran, undermine Putin, and save us money; just like Reagan, Obama is using the budget to put his imprint on the federal government — you gotta problem with that, Republicans?; and of course newspapers are in decline, but don't worry: Our democracy will be just fine. Beyond the pale: John Dean on the newly-released, indefensible Office of Legal Counsel terror memos. A show 2 lame 2 miss: Scoff if you must, but Orem, Utah, loves MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.

From NYRB, Elizabeth Drew on the thirty days of Barack Obama; Amartya Sen on capitalism beyond the crisis; Cass Sunstein on the enlarged republic — then and now; what you can learn from Reinhold Niebuhr: A review of The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr; The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew Bacevich; and The Freedom Agenda: Why America Must Spread Democracy (Just Not the Way George Bush Did) by James Traub. From The Nation, a special issue on reinventing capitalism, reimagining socialism. From TNR, what should Obama do about Darfur? A roundtable. The parent company of the political jewel, The New Republic, is in peril — what is the fate of the magazine? From FT, a review of books on health care; and daily local titles no longer match the desires of readers and advertisers — much reporting is better done by an enthusiastic amateur for very little than a reporter sent in a taxi. Stephen Webb on how soccer is ruining America — a Jeremiad. From Tikkun, an essay on the moral dimension of sports: Patriotism at the Ballpark (and more). From PopMatters, an article on the state of the slasher film genre: "We've come a long way, baby"; and the majority of us aren't coal miners, we don't know coal miners, and we wouldn't last a week in a coal mine — are coal mining songs, then, still relevant?