online archive
1:00PM
MAR 21 2008
The most important new forces
From CJR, a cover story on how the press let the White House craft the narrative about nukes in Iran. On Lawrence Welk's 105th birthday, five videos remember his skirmishes with the Beatles, Lou Reed, and a song about marijuana. A review of Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely. A review of The Secret Life of Poems: A Poetry Primer by Tom Paulin. Great Britain's Poet Laureate Andrew Motion explains what made a request to write about 109-year-old Harry Patch, the last surviving First World War soldier, so appealing — and such a challenge. David Mamet on why he's no longer a "brain-dead liberal". A review of Yuichi Yokoyama’s New Engineering. America anti-intellectual? Now, let's think this out: Carlin Romano reviews The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby. Since ancient times, powerful men have pursued sex outside marriage with vigour; New York's disgraced governor simply had the misfortune of being born in a superficially puritan era. The most important new forces in global business are aggressive, wealthy, and entrepreneurial, but they aren't corporations: they're authoritarian governments. The rap on whites who try to act black: Whose voice should interpret the black experience in America? Who says the elite aren't fit to serve? The Bard as pundit: What would Shakespeare think of our cast of presidential characters?
