From Vanity Fair, over hot dogs in Central Park, Eliot Spitzer greets his former constituents and chews on questions of sin, survival, and second acts; and Joseph Stiglitz on Wall Street’s toxic message: Disillusioned developing nations may well turn their backs on the free market, posing new threats to global stability and U.S. security. Whatever happened to the Left? Capitalism is facing its worst crisis in 70 years, yet the political movement that prides itself on its critique of the economic status quo is missing in inaction. How the left lost its language: The global crisis exposed the intellectual hollowness of our politics; despite signs of renewal, there’s still a long way to go. A very peculiar practice: Such is the pressure to write that academics have no time to read the flood of published work. A review of The Next Justice: Repairing the Supreme Court Appointments Process by Christoph Eisgruber. The first chapter from Citizens, Courts, and Confirmations: Positivity Theory and the Judgments of the American People by James L. Gibson and Gregory A. Caldeira. A review of Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court by James MacGregor Burns. Politics very much influence Supreme Court decisions — and to pretend otherwise is dangerous.

From Cabinet, an interview with Anthony Grafton on deception as a way of knowing: an article on the social inversions of the comic foreground; sparks of life: An essay on fireworks and physiology; nudity, while it can stand for many other human conditions — innocence, blessedness, desire  — remains our strongest image of shame; and the cosmonaut of the erotic future: A brief history of levitation from St. Joseph to Yuri Gagarin. First he was very famous, now he's very rich — but Nassim Taleb is still wrong. An inter-union fight is exhausting the time and resources of important labor leaders; can UNITE HERE and SEIU reconcile before their conflict gets even more bitter? From Esquire, Thomas P. M. Barnett on why Obama should let Iran's "Red-State" regime die on its own; and is America moving to Blue-State country? Nate Silver investigates. Gaia's evil twin: Is life its own worst enemy? Each week celebrity magazines breathlessly report yet another twist in the Jen-Brad-Angelina love triangle, but where do the stories come from, are they ever true, and does that even matter? One corner of the print-news industry, America's gossip magazines, is relatively healthy. From axis to ally: A review of Ray Takeyh's Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs.

From Human Affairs, a special issue on Scientific Realism and Beyond. How Isaac Newton tracked down a counterfeiter — and helped form the modern concept of money. Seventeen years after she stared out from the cover of National Geographic, a former Afghan refugee comes face-to-face with the world once more. A review of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement by Kathryn Joyce. Ingmar Bergman’s need to honor, discover and examine his intrinsic connection to women is quite simple: all men are influenced by women. What you've done to my world: Genres of music ought to be classified by the emotions they inspire in their listeners. David Yaffe reviews Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits by Barney Hoskyns. Don’t interrupt: Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is one of the most entertaining interviews going right now. Weber linked rationalisation with "the disenchantment of the world", but is it fair to equate the lack of religion to an absence of magic and mystery — and can religion save the world? It can happen here: Conservatives' new share-the-wealth plan to destroy capitalism and make you $5 richer. A look at how ideas of beauty have changed considerably over the last 60 years. What does it take to make a successful revolution? That question is clearly weighing on the mind of Ayatollah Khamenei.

A new issue of Plus: Living Mathematics is out. From The Village Voice's "Queer Issue", an article on Rachel Maddow, the new sexy. From Technology Review, privacy requires security, not abstinence: Protecting an inalienable right in the age of Facebook. TPM reviews the new comic book, False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story  — but be mindful that Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is actually intelligent, unlike Sarah Palin, who is a trained monkey and came out of nowhere. From The Root, a special section on the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" — and a look at why Mookie did the wrong thing. Shock and Audit: Mother Jones dissects the Defense budget so you don't have to. A look at how Americans love government — as long as they can’t see it. Maybe Newt Gingrich is right — that Americans are getting used to something like European Socialism in this Bush-to-Obama bankruptcy and bailout era. Bush officials, where are they now: The unemployment rate is high around the country — but not for former Bush officials. Who is the worst vice president ever — how do you pick just one? From Obit, stupid death tricks: Clueless + unlucky = kaput! Rape New York: An interview with Jana Leo. From TNR, Leon Wieseltier on a personal footnote to the remarkable story of Bruno Schulz.