online archive
5:00PM
MAR 19 2008
Finding self confidence through self loathing
A review of Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East by Robin Wright (and more). Tea and empathy: The human imagination allows us to make the world in the image of ourselves. The problem with conventional economics: An excerpt from Human Goods, Economic Evils: A Moral Approach to the Dismal Science by Edward Hadas (and more). For the Love of the Game: Leon R. Kass and Eric Cohen on Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, the Mitchell Report, and the adulteration of American sports. A look at the world’s 10 oldest leaders. Why do we treat artists and athletes differently when it comes to drug use? A review of Jonathan Rosen’s The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. From Sign and Sight, novelist Georg Klein analyses the portrayal of mass murder in a book with an SS officer as narrator. More on Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible. From TLS, Georges Simenon, the existential hack: Paul Theroux on Maigret's creator, the Balzac of blighted lives, who was confident of winning the Nobel Prize; and literature's self-implosion: A review of The Death of the Critic by Ronan McDonald. An excerpt from Everything Is Wrong with You: The Modern Woman's Guide to Finding Self Confidence Through Self Loathing by Wendy Molyneux. Bottled water world: Every year, the clear stuff pours into West Virginia from around the world.
1:00PM
MAR 19 2008
Words to avoid, from A to Z
From Foreign Policy, a photo essay on bombs. A review of Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology by Russell Korobkin. More on Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob by Lee Siegel. More bellicose than Bush? It's worth asking what effect all that alleged experience has had on McCain. After the Russian election it may be all change at the top, but who is the real winner? Europe does sex scandals better: Compared with British and French affairs, the Spitzer mess is a bit of a disappointment. Do assassinations change history? It's a tangled question. "Dante's Cove" isn't the only piece of gay schlock to be embraced by the gay and lesbian community – we're quick to latch on to almost anything gay-related and rally around it, no matter how bad it may be. Words to avoid, from A to Z: An alphabet of words that are overused and under-explained. A review of Let Me Stand Alone by Rachel Corrie. A review of Elias Khoury’s Yalo. Meera Nanda asks what lies behind the Hinduisation of the Indian public sphere. The crisis of American masculinity is targeted not only by advertising but also by politics; in the US presidential race, winning the masculinity battle will be crucial. An article on Eliot Spitzer and the price-placebo effect. That "thou shalt not" list just got longer: From the folks who brought you the Inquisition comes a new set of deadly sins.
9:00AM
MAR 19 2008
America's marketplace of confessions
From Economic Principals, how did the consequences of a residential housing mania in the United States at last become so dire? An article on Bailout Bernanke as hero of Wall Street. With untold billions to be spent nationalising the debts of Bear Stearns, the US taxpayer is footing the bill for the failures of Wall Street and regulators. The more terrified Americans get of Bush's policy disasters, the more bizarrely cheery is his attitude. Why selecting the traits of offspring is part of the evolution: An excerpt from Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice by Ronald Green. Form The Root, among black Americans, Jeremiah Wright may not be that far out of the mainstream, and an article on why Obama's pastor matters. In this campaign, there is no room for remarks of any sort on any subject. The atheist delusion: John Gray on why the secular fundamentalists have got it all wrong. From left to right: An article on mid-life political conversions. From Newsweek, a cover story on Scions of the Surge: Five years on, the war is transforming the officer corps. From Islamica, an article on America's marketplace of confessions: Evangelical Christianity's gift to Muslims. Lessons from the history of trade: Globalisation is fundamentally political, not technological. Televangelist Rod Parsley, a key McCain ally in Ohio, has called for eradicating the "false religion"; will the presidential candidate renounce him?
