From Foreign Affairs, Benjamin Friedman on how cutting Pentagon spending will fix U.S. defense strategy; and a look at why Panetta's Pentagon cuts are easier than you think. From The National Interest, Nikolas K. Gvosdev and Ray Takeyh on the triumph of the New Wilsonism. America, arms-dealer to the world: Munitions is the one U.S. industry that's booming — with devastating global consequences. One nation under the drone: Jillian Rayfield on the rising number of UAVs in American skies (and more). Remote controled assassination: The idea that American intelligence services are shooting Hellfire missiles at people (including American citizens) raises various moral and legal questions. Think again — Intelligence: America's screw-ups come from bad leaders, not lousy spies (and more). From The Atlantic Monthly, Robert Kaplan on why John J. Mearsheimer is right — about some things (and a response). Stephen Walt on ten reasons why Obama's foreign policy is not a success. How does the world look in an age of U.S. decline? Dangerously unstable. Not fade away: Robert Kagan on the myth of American decline. John Horgan on how the US can help humanity achieve world peace (yes, world peace).
A new issue of Liminalities is out. L. Sandy Maisel, Justin Rouse, and Russell Wilson (Colby): Unconventional Wisdom: The Future of Presidential Nominating Conventions. From More Than Thought, Robert Wexelblatt (BU): On Scrooge and Mill; and Nancy Ann Fox (Washington): To Be Ida: Young, Gifted, and Black. Sylvie Gambaudo (Durham): We Need To Talk About Eva: The Demise of the Phallic Mother. From NYRB, a review of books on Willard Mitt Romney. Nicholas Carr on books that are never done being written: Digital text is ushering in an era of perpetual revision and updating, for better and for worse. Jonathan Lear on a lost conception of irony. From Paleo Magazine, Frank Forencich on why paleo is here to stay. It seems impossible that anyone would think well of the job our legislative branch is doing, yet some do — who are these people? A review of Disconnect: The Breakdown of Representation in American Politics by Morris P. Fiorina and Samuel J. Abrams and The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy by Alan Abramowitz.
Arto Tukiainen (Helsinki): On Wittgenstein's Claim That Ethical Value Judgments are Nonsense. From the inaugural issue of the Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy, James Pearson (Pittsburgh): Distinguishing WV Quine and Donald Davidson. From Theoretical and Applied Ethics, a special issue on the moral philosophy of Bernard Williams. From TNR, Philip Kitcher reviews On What Matters by Derek Parfit. From 3:AM, indie rock virtues: An interview with Josh Knobe, co-author of Experimental Philosophy Manifesto; philosophy as the great naivete: An interview with Jason Stanley, author of Know How; and the splintered skeptic: An interview with Eric Schwitzgebel, a mad dog crazyist philosopher at the UC-Riverside. Complaints that philosophy is irrelevant have persisted over time, but there are reasons it should not be be confined to the "ivory tower". Is killing wrong? Josh Rothman wonders. Ready for a "morality pill": Would it be ethical to produce, or take, a drug that makes us more likely to help others? Citizen philosophers: Carlos Fraenkel on teaching justice in Brazil.
Gregory Cameron (Wilfrid Laurier): Politics and the Internet: A Phenomenological Critique. Matthew Robert Auer (Indiana): The Policy Sciences of Social Media. Occupy geeks are building a Facebook for the 99%. There is no next Facebook: Alexis Madrigal on how multiple social networks will peacefully coexist. From Daily Dot, a look at why Reddit is sexist — and what to do about it. Google is the reification of the general intellect — it manages to take human curiosity and turn it into capital. The YouTube Laugh Factory: Ben Austen on a studio system for viral video. Mega-man: Sean Gallagher on the fast, fabulous, fraudulent life of Megaupload's Kim Dotcom. Jimmy Wales needs your help: Amid concerns over its shrinking editor base, Wikipedia sets out to prove it can survive and expand on small donations. Hipster Runoff is a website whose evolution after finding an audience is part success story, part cautionary tale for anyone looking for a foothold in web culture. From Cracked, here are 5 things to learn by quitting the Internet; and a look at 4 awful ways the Internet is tainting everything else.
A new issue of Swedish Book Review is out. From Rosetta, Joe Uziel (Albright): Technology and Ideology in Middle Bronze Age Canaan. Kenneth W. Mack argues that Barack Obama's election as President of the Harvard Law Review in 1990 provides an important view of the qualities that led to his rise in national politics following his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Mumia Abu-Jamal reviews Love and Struggle: My Life with SDS, the Weather Underground and Beyond by David Gilbert. From Tottenville Review, R. Salvador Reyes on confessions of a literary Darwinist; and a review of Pricing Beauty: The Making of a Fashion Model by Ashley Mears. With his parody of children’s books, Highly Inapproriate Tales for Young People, Douglas Coupland joins his Gen X peers, revelling in nostalgia — isn’t it time to grow up? That prized garage space or curbside spot you’ve been yearning for may be costing you and the city in ways you never realized — a journey into the world of parking. More and more and more on Pity the Billionaire by Tom Frank.
From Sojourners, which side are you on? Wes Howard-Brook on a study on the Bible's "two religions". From Touchstone, Barry Hankins on how the culture war of the Roaring Twenties set the stage for today’s Catholic and Evangelical alliance; why fight same-sex marriage? Douglas Farrow investigates; Gillis Harp on the tyranny of modern freedom versus the freedom of Jesus; what is man? Anthony Esolen on what Raskolnikov knew and translators have lost; and Marilyn Prever on the truth we don’t know about fairies, leprechauns, UFOs, ETs and other entities. From Ship of Fools, da Jesus Book, fo real: Mark Howe on how getting the Bible onto digital devices such as smartphones and tablets has become a publishing phenomenon; a look at how the Virgin Mary is always played by the good, the pretty and teacher's pets; and they're handy and holy: Here are the 12 brightest and newest Gadgets for God. From The Guardian, can it be rational for the religious to be non-rational? From The Philosopher, Zenon Stavrinides on taking an empirical approach to religious belief.
From Berfrois, Junko Kitanaka on psychiatry and Japan’s “national disease”. The first chapter from Depression in Japan: Psychiatric Cures for a Society in Distress by Junko Kitanaka. The myth of Japan’s failure: Instead of feeling sorry for Japan, the United States should look to it as a model for economic recovery. Alex Hoban is hoping no one dies at the North Korean Fun Fair. The Phantom Massacre: A faceless and motiveless threat ravages southern Thailand. A review of Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia by Thant Myint-U. A well-developed yet illegal internet pornography industry, DIY pornography and sex activist movements have emerged that are in constant counter-dialogue with the PRC’s “Propaganda of Impotence”. A review of Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World by Kevin Grange. A look at why Singapore has the cleanest government money can buy. The impossible Asian Union: An interview with Francois Godement. The Asia Pacific chessboard: The Sino-American competition for allies within Asia Pacific could be an opportunity.
From the latest issue of Policy Review, Mark P. Lagon and William F. Schulz on conservatives, liberals, and human rights; and Ronald W. Dworkin on retirement and the social contract. From National Affairs, Tevi Troy on Devaluing the Think Tank. From Revolution, Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA , has some "tips for Tim Tebow" (and more); an open letter to Angelina Jolie on her The Land of Blood and Honey; Raymond Lotta on the sham and shame of Slavoj Zizek's "honest pessimism"; and should a woman feel sad about her abortion? Sunsara Taylor says fuck no. The next president, whoever he is, will enjoy a “recovery presidency,” and so too will his party — and that makes the 2012 election really, really important. What if Obama loses? A series on imagining the consequences of a GOP victory. Ramon Glazov on Papua New Guinea through the eye of a pig. Why teen pot smoking could be a good thing (and what we can learn from teens who choose weed over beer). Anne E. Lester on her book Creating Cistercian Nuns: The Women’s Religious Movement and Its Reform in Thirteenth-Century Champagne.
Michal B. Paradowski (Warsaw): The Embodied Language: Why Language Should Not Be Conceived of in Abstraction from the Brain and Body, and the Consequences for Robotics. This Blog is Not a Fungus: Technology’s effect on culture is not just about the production and distribution of the media — technology becomes part of the plot, it enables new kinds of narratives, and produces new art forms all-together. From Transformations, a special issue on Slow Media, including Tero Karppi (Turku): Digital Suicide and the Biopolitics of Leaving Facebook. Jason Silva’s captivating videos deliver a dose of "techno-optimism". Our successors, the next stage of Homo sapiens, have ascended to the level of effortlessly geolocating tweets and viewing many more of their friends' updates on their iPads all while listening to iTunes — could evolution possibly reach any higher? Mike Thomsen on the search for posthumanism: The idea that we can run out of time is peculiar — it’s a product of how we organize our memories. In the Year 9595: Why the singularity is not near, but hope springs eternal.
From New Left Project, an interview with Erik Olin Wright on Occupy Wall Street and transformational strategy. Eric Johnson on how right-wing libertarians, John Birchers and conspiracy freaks are trying to hijack the Occupy Movement. Smack in the middle of the holidays, on a Wednesday night in very late December, about 150 people — philosophy professors and graduate students — gathered in a hotel conference room in Washington, DC, for a panel called, “Thinking Occupation: Philosophers Respond to Occupy Wall Street”. The forgotten prophets of the Occupiers: A fascinating Canadian book urges "political action for the 99%" — it was written in 1943. C. S. Herrman on social contract theory for Occupiers: what law, culture and history tell us. Reza Fiyouzat submits to the Occupy movement the idea of "Direct Representation for Taxation". From Socialist Viewpoint, two issues on Occupy Wall Street. From Ship of Fools, what would Jesus occupy? A look at what lies behind the Occupy phenomenon, what may lie ahead, and what the recent spate of protests across the political spectrum portends for the republic.