[Nov 30] Iraq, GWOT and the US: From Boston Review, MIT's Barry Posen on an "Exit Strategy: How to disengage from Iraq in 18 months". An interview with former ambassador Peter Galbraith on Iraq. More on George Packer's The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. From Harper's, pro-war liberals are frozen in the headlights. As terrorists score its own goals in its backyard, many Arabs are beginning to rethink their position on violence. Al Qaeda killed Kenny!: A look at how "South Park" can win the war on terror. An op-ed on the dangers of terrorism through cargo containers (and a look at the box that makes the world go round). Indispensable handbook for global theopolitics: A review of The Star of Redemption by Franz Rosenzweig. From Salon, an interview with Robert Dreyfuss, author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam. A look at how presidents use the term "democracy" as a marketing tool. From The Weekly Standard, Charles Krauthammer on the truth about torture (and more from National Review). From Writ, an essay on torture, litmus tests, and the future of American law: Will the battle over government accountability define this generation of lawyers? From Slate, goodbye, habeas corpus. Hello, executive detention. An essay on bad intelligence and the loss of public trust. Bob Barr on the dangers of militarism. A conversation with Haynes Johnson on McCarthyism. Tennessee's Wilfred M. McClay on Myth and Memory in the American Identity. And a pop quiz: Are you as American as apple pie à la mode with whipped cream, hot fudge and a cherry?

[Nov 29] From TAP, conservatives are quick to cast doubt on Darwin's biological theory of evolution, but take social Darwinism as the gospel truth. Like Intelligent Design, the idea of the Invisible Hand stubbornly persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Sometimes, a tax cut for the wealthy can hurt the wealthy. How consumers' fears about massive future calamities help solve chronic present ones. UC Irvine's Richard McKenzie argues that institutionalizing parentless children is the right way to go. American society seems to have reached some kind of tipping point, as far as tolerance for wild and woolly kid behavior is concerned. More on Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms Are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men. From FT, an interview with Thomas Friedman. Where is the Iraq war headed next? Seymour Hersh wants to know. Frederick Kagan on Al-Qaeda as The New Bolsheviks. Forget Iraq: Redneck renegade Merle Haggard says it's America that needs freeing. Mick Hume on the proof that not everything is a conspiracy. An review of books on the JFK conspiracy theories. A look at books about embattled figures assassinated in one way or another by associates and confidants. A review of books on the evolution of the CIA. A review of BHL's War, Evil, and the End of History. More on Michael Ignatieff's The Lesser Evil. More on Robert Conquest's The Dragons of Expectation. And an article on Antonio Gramsci on Sesame Street

[Nov 28] A review of Paul Berman's Power and the Idealists (and an excerpt). A review of American Backlash: The Untold Story of Social Change in the United States. More and more on Restless Giant: The United States From Watergate to Bush v. Gore. More on The Age of Anxiety: McCarthyism to Terrorism. Jonathan Schell on the Fall of the One-Party Empire. From The Toronto Star, North America is on a fascist trajectory. We must recognize this threat for what it is, and we must change course. Auburn's Roderick Long on Liberalism vs. Fascism. France is the latest country to fill American conservatives' need for a foreign boogeyman that will keep liberals in their place. Joseph McCarthy may have gone down in history as a paranoid bully, but liberals may have much to thank him for. From In These Times, a slew of new essays and studies show that fighting against inequality is the battle of our time. More on Ira Katznelson's When Affirmative Action Was White. More on White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America. From MR, an interview with David Roediger, author of Working Towards Whiteness, and an article on the genocidal imagination of Christopher Hitchens. There are two torture debates going on in America today: One is about fantasy, and the other is about reality. Psychology and psychiatry have long had an uneasy relationship with the dark art of interrogation. More on Robert Kaplan's Imperial Grunts. There are a few stories of inconclusive wars that left the U.S. in a more dignified position. Michael Kinsley on the phony war against the critics. And an interview with Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

[Weekend 2e] Theology and religion: From the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Carl Raschke (Denver): Derrida and the Return of Religion: Religious Theory after Postmodernism; Matt Waggoner (Albertus Magnus): Giving Up the Good: Adorno, Kierkegaard, and the Critique of Political Culture; Jeffrey W. Robbins (LVC): The Politics of Paul; a review of Double Exposure: Cutting Across Buddhist and Western Discourses; and a conversation with Richard Kearney pdf. From the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion, Daniel Warner (WWU): An Essay on the Market as God: Law, Spirituality, and the Eco-Crisis; Werner Cohn (UBC): When the Constitution Fails on Church and State: Two Case Studies; and Michael Mogill (Penn): Eight Simple Rules For Stating My Dogma pdf

[Weekend] From The Spectator, Frank Furedi on the age of unreason; Boris Johnson is willing to publish the minutes of the meeting between Bush and Blair on blowing up Al-Jazeera; and Rod Little says women are sometimes to blame for rape. A new issue of Genders is out. A review of Heterosyncrasies: Female Sexuality when Normal Wasn't. A review of The Inescapable Self. And a purple patch on Great Men, by Emerson

[Nov 25] From The Atlantic Monthly, is God an accident? Paul Bloom finds out. From Dissent, Kalypso Nikolaidis (Oxford): The Struggle for EUrope; John Judis on The Author of Liberty: Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy; Andrew Stark (Toronto): In Sickness and in Health: Health Insurance in America; Ellen Willis reviews Russell Jacoby's Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age; an essay on The Old Folks at Home: Sex, Viagra, and Taxes, and more on Stephanie Coontz's Marriage, A History. From Left Hook, an interview with Mickey Z. Every time an anarchist says, “I believe in democracy,” there is a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead. From Open Democracy, the quality of a democracy is measured in the way decisions are reached as much as in their outcomes. From NCR, these English Catholics survived the tension between conscience and authority. A review of The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. Hans-Hermann Hoppe on the rise and fall of the city. And Mad Peeaire would like to talk to you about Aristotle, Wilde, Blake, Freud--and his childhood memories of a goat-buggering orgy. Why won't you listen?

[Nov 24] Potpourri: How African players are finding a career in soccer and an escape from the economic realities they face back home. Has founder of Crips, Stanley Tookie Williams, earned the right to live? Why passive aggression is a perfect office crime. Vox Day is no genius: He's just an ironist.  The "Illuminati" sounds fantastic but it is not a chimera. Hidden within Freemasonry, it is the Church of Satan. A low budget film about exorcism has become a runaway success in the US. A review of Elia Kazan. A review of Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture and Wonder Women: Feminism and Superheroes. Throw the Jew down the well: Kazakhstan threatens Borat with court. A mutual suspicion grows in Denmark: Omar Marzouk is the "only ethnic comedian".  Jonathan Yardley reviews Bald! From Hairless Heroes to Comic Combovers. A review of The Modern Drunkard: A Handbook for Drinking in the 21st Century. An article on the secret history of rum. And a review of Why Birds Sing

[Nov 23] From Scientific American, an article on trials for the poor: On the rise of randomized trials to study antipoverty programs. Dennis Prager says the left hates inequality, not evil. If you review all of human history, you can easily see that the only thing that has changed is technology. From Nerve, even among pro-choice activists, why does having more than one abortion imply a woman has been 'careless'?; and a look at the future of birth control, what's promising and what's premature. Where are the female Einsteins? Charles Murray wants to know. From Mother Jones, an article on how the rise of Salem Communications' radio empire reveals the evangelical master plan; an illustration of the expanding universe of evangelism; an article on the Intelligent Design battle among Christians; a look at when theme parks get religion; and here is the Jimmy Swaggart Award for God Abuse. Ex-members of a cult, The Family International, want the group's leaders exposed and punished. What's it like to discover that your great-uncle was a mobster? From Studies in Intelligence, an essay on the limits of interrogation: The man in the Snow White cell. Christopher Hitchens on debating the Iraq War. Infighting: Ezra Klein of TAP and Adam Kushner of TNR debate withdrawal from Iraq. An interview with John Yoo. And an interview with James Carroll, author of Iraq, Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War

[Nov 22] From TNR, Paul Berman on the Anti-Anti-Americans: A review of French books. From The Nation, a review of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire Almighty. From The New Yorker, Louis Menand reviews Tony Judt's Postwar, and James Surowiecki on the changing work habits of Americans and Europeans. Dr V K R V Rao is one such person. A review of America Beyond Capitalism and Gene Sperling's The Pro-Growth Progressive. An interview with economist Robert Moffitt on welfare reform. From TCS, Arnold Kling on why people hate economics. The relevance of economics in today's society is largely the efforts of visionaries. Cato's Will Wilkinson on depression and happiness. From New Humanist, a look at why shopping is a humanist act; and is it time for humanists to start holding services? AC Grayling doesn't think so (and more on his Descartes). From Intellectual Conservative, an essay on three moral paradoxes: The good and evil, the wickedly good and the wicked victim. An interview with Mary Ann Glendon, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. “Choice feminism” claims that staying home with the kids is just one more feminist option. Funny that most men rarely make the same “choice.” From New York, a special issue on sex and mating. From Men's News Daily, a review of Pornified, and an article on Maureen Dowd. Sex and the Pity: Dowd can't make up her mind, while Levy takes on pornification (and more). Feminism is a failure, and other myths. And Matthew Mehan is in praise of gold diggers

[Nov 21] From MR, an article on debating and contesting the "New Economy". Alan Blinder on Fed Fights, Keneth Rogoff on Ben Bernanke, Joseph Stiglitz on Central Bank independence, and a memo to the ECB: Don't follow the Fed. From The Worldwatch Institute, a report on Rethinking the Good Life. The stuff we splash out on! But even in our worst excesses, we find valuable clues to make the pursuit of public goods feel more rewarding. An interview with Walter Goldschmidt on happiness and the pleasure principle. An article on where this pesky business of happiness comes in. Disaster research is a field now in high demand. A review of A Most Damnable Invention : Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World. A review of Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima. More on The World was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. A review of Khartoum: The Ultimate Imperial Adventure. More on The Great War for Civilisation. A review of Tariq Ramadan's Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. More on Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden. A review of Calming the Fearful Mind: A Zen Response to Terrorism. And a review of The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and the Strategy for Getting it Right

[Weekend 2e] From PUP, the first chapter of The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory. From Socialist Worker, an article on the meaning of the Manifesto. A review of Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader. More on The Tycoons and Is the American Dream Killing You? More on E. H. Gombrich's A Little History of the World. More on AC Grayling's Descartes. More on The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold. A review of John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic. More on Andrew Jackson. More on The Rise of American Democracy. More and more on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals. More on Tony Judt's Postwar. A review of Simone Weil: An Anthology. More on Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. An interview with Jean Baudrillard. A review of Way Beyond Freud: Postmodern Psychoanalysis Observed. A review of The Fated Sky: Astrology in History, a review of Life as We Do Not Know It, a review of books on ice in history, a review of books on scientific discoveries, and a review of books on science. Peter Steinfels on Peter Drucker's spiritual journey from Kierkegaard to General Motors. An article on Benedict XVI, the moral hypocrite in the Vatican. The Guardian apologizes to Noam Chomsky. A review of How to Be an Intellectual in the Age of Television: The Lessons of Gore Vidal (and more). Birth of the Salon: A review of The Age of Conversation. A review of books on newspapers. A review of Conspiracy Encyclopaedia. A review of The Book of Lists: The Original Compendium of Curious Information. And a review of The Call of the Weird

[Weekend] dementia alae dextrae: From The New American, instead of debating the pros and cons of Bernanke, it would be better to debate the entire Federal Reserve System. In what is sure to be one of The Barnes Review's most controversial articles ever, an American nationalist reflects on his experiences with the John Birch Society (so I guess this one is pretty tame). Historian David Irving has been arrested in Austria for denying the Holocaust. From The August Review, a look at The Global Elite: Who are they?; a look at how Bill Clinton reveals a globalist methodology; and more on global banking, global education, global religion, and global cities. A review of Jesse Helms' Here’s Where I Stand: A Memoir. More and more on Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism. From Capitalism, an article on villainy and the nature of evil (in 5 parts). Why Nazism was socialism and why socialism is totalitarian. What does it mean to be a radical? Only a reactionary knows best. Michael Evans, an American Christian fundamentalist leader, calls for global war. Retail manager Justin Darr on how liberals are causing a European jihad. The American Spectator's George Neumayr reviews Edward O. Wilson's From So Simple A Beginning. Fortunate student of Eric Voegelin and Walter Berns Thomas Brewton on science and hypocrisy. An interview with Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science. Unless a functional cultural unit is maintained, which in part is derived from strategic breeding rules, then ideas will likely be dissipated and lost. Novelist, Christian libertarian, and Mensa member Vox Day on how to argue like a conservative. Right-Wing Rock: Coming soon to a school near you, and at taxpayer expense. And in Republican Like Me, Harmon Leon infiltrates the Red (State) Menace to find out what makes conservatives so dang kooky

[Nov 18] From The Economist, Peter Drucker is the one management thinker every educated person should read. The usefulness trap: In a consumer economy, the customer is king. How does he know this? Steven Landsburg reviews The Underground Economist. From Prospect, when will the oil run out? A debate. From Open Democracy, an essay on the body of democracy, and on the authority of anti-authority: Todd Gitlin explores what can be done when the language of revolt becomes establishment fashion. From Radical Middle, on remembering the questions: Radical books from the 1960s. From Hoover Digest, what do Jews have in common with Armenians, Ibos, and Marwaris? Thomas Sowell is on the case; and a profile of Edwin Meese III. From Legal Affairs, what are the limits of presidential power? John C. Yoo and Neil J. Kinkopf debate. Here's a history of CIA interrogation techniques. From The Heritage Foundation, an essay on The Impact of the Imperial Wars (1898–1907) on the U.S. Army. Did you know? The Marine Corps was formed in a bar and then immediately went on a Caribbean cruise. From The American Conservative, an article on The Weekly Standard's war: Murdoch’s mag stands athwart history yelling, “Attack!” An excerpt from The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media. An interview with Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, author of One Woman's Army: The Commanding General of Abu Ghraib Tells Her Story; and a review of books on why myths still matter. A review of books on God and morality in the public sphere. A review of Beyond the Bible: Moving from Scripture to Theology. And why have Catholics stopped lining up at the confessional?

[Nov 17] From Prospect, Jurgen Habermas and Benedict XVI find a surprising amount to agree on; The Nouvel Observateur publishes a list of thinkers--does it tell us anything about the state of French thought?; and on how Germany's grand coalition has a good chance to give the reform process a shove. A sketch of the three Baltic republics' common experience in World War II and immediately after. From Hoover Digest, Victor Davis Hanson on why the US must stay in Iraq (and more from Niall Ferguson), Fouad Ajami on the Arab debate about freedom, Peter Berkowitz on the best way to promote democracy abroad, Richard Posner on the danger in "fixing" the CIA, and articles on Putin, Chirac, and Blair. A new issue of Clamor is out. More on Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. An article on the marketing front: The real essence of advertising. A review of books on the perks and perils of corporate social responsibility. How the price of metal tells us almost everything we need to know about the global economy. An article on the politics of climate change: It will happen, and they will come. A review of Jane Goodall's Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. A review of How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on defending yourself against the oncoming rebellion. From CT, a look at Einstein's annus mirabilis, and an article on the brave new world of meticulously planned parenthood. We live in a time when embryos and fetuses are gaining legal rights to sue. Mother knows best. Or does she? Are rich and powerful men necessary to rich and powerful women? And an interview with Maureen Dowd

[Nov 16] John Allen Paulos on abortion through the looking glass. From Chronicles, why do so many leftists get het up over abortion rights? Those who turn to their concordance for guidance about abortion will not find the word at all. Kate Michelman on Samuel Alito and abortion. Dahlia Lithwick on the sloppy mischaracterizations of Alito's abortion decisions. A look at the perils of reversing Roe. Pro-life organizations are receiving millions of federal dollars in the name of “abstinence education". A bill to protect religious freedom in the workplace gives Democrats a chance to change their image. The new progressive Christian  Alliance wants to give the religious fundamentalists a good spanking. Nathan Dickerson went from a conservative religious sect to progressive politics in eighteen years. Beneath creeping Puritanism, Christopher Hitchens sees both hypocrisy and an attempt to monitor personal activity. Remembering Roger Williams: What the father of Rhode Island can still teach us. The most effective program for winning in politics is a mixture of entitlement socialism and social conservatism. Ideas & Trends: Buy a home, and drag society down. An interview with Robert Greenwald, director of the documentary "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price". A review of The Fairtax Book and Steve Forbes' Flat Tax Revolution. From The Brookings Institution, a policy brief on why federalism matters. The Federalist Society has reshaped the legal system without ever going to court. The federal government touches off a rancorous debate over what the courthouses of tomorrow should look like. An interview with Sadakat Kadri, author of The Trial: A History, from Socrates to O.J. Simpson. More from NYRB: a review of books on the warrior children. An interview with Clyde Prestowitz, author of Three Billion New Capitalists. And a review of Tariq Ali's Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties