online archive
4:00PM
JUN 29 2007
Law and philosophy, science and happiness
Michael Salter and Susan Twist (Central Lancashire): The Micro-Sovereignty of Discretion in Legal Decision-Making: Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberal Principles of Legality; and a review of Questioning Sovereignty: Law, State, and Nation in the European Commonwealth by Neil MacCormick. From TNR, Mark Lilla reviews Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life by Hugh Brogan. From Telos, Russell Berman on Intellectuals and Power, and an article on the inspiring power of the shy thinker: Richard Rorty. From Forward, a look at What Rorty Wrought. A review of The Parallax View by Slavoj Zizek. An interview with Gerald J. Russello, author of The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk.
From New Statesman, a review of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia by John Gray. From Ovi, an essay on Teihlard De Chardin on the evolution of Man (and part 2). We will never explain the cosmos by taking on faith either divinity or physical laws. True meaning is to be found within nature. Are we alone in the vastness of space? Or is the universe filled with life? After thousands of years of guesswork, humankind may soon know for sure. Cosmic mood-swings: Why human psychology will make sending people to Mars hard. The Asteroid Hunters: Backyard astronomers keep watch against Armageddon.
From CRB, Ramesh Ponnuru reviews Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life by Lee M. Silver. Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they turned one bacterium into another, and create embryonic stem cells by stimulating unfertilized eggs, a significant step toward producing transplant tissue that's genetically matched to women. It's not all the parent's fault: Delinquency in children now linked to biology. Brain Boosters: Enter the new world of neuroenhancers and have your brain zapped with electricity and dosed with chemicals.
David Weisbach (Chicago): What Does Happiness Research Tell Us About Happiness? Clive James on how there are lots of reasons to be cheerful about the world, many the result of human creativity - the difficulty is remembering not to be miserable. Darrin McMahon on Nanoseconds of Happiness: You're going to love your iPhone, until the next gizmo calls. Can happiness be quantified? An article on number-crunching satisfaction and desire. Michael Dirda reviews Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours by Noga Arikha (and more).
4:00PM
JUN 29 2007
The military, American foreign policy, conservatism and economics
From Stars & Stripes, a series of articles on Heroes. The Marine flack who starred in Control Room has been called a hero and a traitor for joining an Arabic news network: A review of Mission Al Jazeera: From Jarhead to Journalist by Josh Rushing. Breaking Rank: Meet Iraq veteran Adam Kokesh, the new mouthpiece of the anti-war movement. Armed & Dangerous: A look at how extremists are infiltrating the military.
The Great Pseudo-Debate: We only pretend to talk seriously about Iraq. The politics of the war are Kabuki theater, punctuated by moments of Democratic jujitsu. Overvaluing American Values: The trouble with putting "values" at the center of our foreign policy. Bob Hormats talks about his book, The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars. A review of The Pentagon: A History by Steve Vogel.
The End of the Journey: Is George W. Bush's conservatism the fulfillment of his movement or the betrayal of it? Sam Tanenhaus looks back at Whittaker Chambers, one of the founders of contemporary conservatism, who might not be so proud of our president. The introduction to The Right Talk: How Conservatives Transformed the Great Society into the Economic Society by Mark A. Smith. The Aquarians and the Evangelicals: How left-wing hippies and right-wing fundamentalists created a libertarian America. There are two kinds of responses to hypocrisy: cynicism and outrage. Watch “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for evidence of the former and Fox News for examples of the latter. And while the parallel isn’t exact, we might think of misdirected Rortian ironists as favoring cynicism and misdirected Rortian metaphysicians as tending toward outrage. Politics, People and the Spectacle: The rules of democratic politics as a rational discourse do not seem to apply.
From Fronesis, in Richard Florida's "creative city", the creative class dissolves the classical division between the productive bourgeoisie and the bohemian. But creativity strategies have been crafted to co-exist with urban socio-economic problems, not to solve them. From Business Week, The New Rich Are Building Bigger: Amid subprime woes, today's ultra-wealthy continue to build enormous trophy homes as testaments to their success. From Hoover Digest, an interview with Edward Lazear, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Dean Baker on undoing Bush on the economy. SEIU President Andy Stern heads one of the strongest unions in the country. Why is he so cozy with corporations? A review of Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don’t by John R. Lott, Jr.
4:00PM
JUN 29 2007
The Middle East and American politics
From The Nation, a review of L'Iran : Naissance d'une république islamique by Yann Richard; Iran: A People Interrupted by Hamid Dabashi; Britain and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911 by Mansour Bonakdarian; Conversations in Tehran by Jean-Daniel Lafond and Fred A. Reed; and Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran: Iran and the Future of Liberalism by Danny Postel; and a review of Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman. Our second biggest mistake in the Middle East: A review of Hamas: Unwritten Chapters by Azzam Tamimi; Where Now for Palestine: The Demise of the Two-State Solution; and Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict by Sara Roy. A review of Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon by Bernard Rougier. Islam's authority deficit: Don't count on state-sponsored greybeards to silence all awkward voices.
From Radar, Baghdad Déjà Vu: A vintage military guide shows that America has been lost in Iraq since World War II. Its troubles in Iraq have much weakened it; but America is likely to remain the dominant superpower. Still No.1: Wounded, tetchy and less effective than it should be, America is still the power that counts.
From GQ, Dan Bartlett—the president's most trusted aide—has been a true believer ever since he signed onto George W. Bush's gubernatorial campaign back in 1993. So why's he leaving now? The first Bush mistake? Choosing Cheney over Danforth. If you think the Vice President's abuse of power is scary now, consider what might happen when he counts Electoral College votes in a divisive 2008 election. Mount Broder erupts: Washington's leading political columnist discovers that Dick Cheney does bad stuff. This is much more important than it sounds.
For progressives, Gore's the One in 2008: The 44th American presidency is his for the taking. And it's time for the left to get busy asking. A look at how fringe politician Ron Paul took over the Web. Michael Bloomberg doesn't actually have to run for President to tilt the race his way. The rise of the $2 billion presidency: A review of The Buying of the President 2008. Cleaning up a candidate’s act: How to get special interest money out of elections. How to lose your inner Redneck: To help folks transition into the new world of Northern elite dominance (which includes, generally, the left coast as well), The Politico has a few suggestions. Candidates are forced to present two different faces to two different audiences — the plugged and the unplugged, the hip and the un-hip. How to deal with a noxious but prominent commentator like Ann Coulter? Confront her bigoted remarks and outright falsehoods? Or ignore her in hopes of dimming her spotlight?
4:00PM
JUN 29 2007
Miscellaneous
From LRB, Nothing for Ever and Ever: Frank Kermode reviews The Letters of A.E. Housman. From The Common Review, "Coin of the Realm": Daniel Born on writing about money; Michael Berube on Harry Potter and the power of narrative; and Kevin Mattson on movies as history. A review of Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm by Daniel Leab. If The Da Vinci Code came out of a chapter in Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and if Mr. Eco's other best seller, The Name of the Rose, itself came out of an eightpage Borges story, might each Borges story be no more than a thriller in kernel? A review of Diary of Indignities by Patrick Hughes, a book that started out as a blog by the name of Bad News Hughes and written with brutal honesty. Pith and Pen: A review of The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes.
France is world-famous for being protective of its language but have you ever wondered who is the guarde rapproche (body guard) of the French language? A literary fraud who is not a fake: How a writer's value has plummeted just because its author wasn't actually pimped out as a child. Sarah's Antidote: Is the J.T. Leroy scandal what you think it is? Parents, beware: Beloved childhood classics such as Winnie the Pooh may be teaching kids false facts about the world — like tigers are bouncy and donkeys are chronically depressed.
Publishing? It’s an art form: When mainstream publishers rejected his novel as too literary, Tom McCarthy turned to the art world. It took success in the US to make them come running. The joys of not being published: Every aspiring writer dreams of getting a publishing contract - but there are lots of other equally satisfying ways to get your writing into the world. Jack Kerouac biographer Gerald Nicosia says publisher is part of a vendetta against him. Is the internet killing proper research? Time was, preparing a novel meant months in libraries; websites now offer instant insights. How profound they are is another matter.
An article on the state of the magazine industry. Getting rid of books creates tension for many, although it is often one of the first things people have to do when downsizing or simply trying to organize their lives. The library fix: When politics gets mean and dumb, you can cheer yourself up by walking into a public library.
