[Feb 15] From Finland, as if by chance, on the 20th anniversary of Perestroika, a rare book appears: Marx and Russia. From Uganda, an article on what Bob Marley’s message overlooked. From Ghana, "Grandma" Peggy Appiah passes away. From Pakistan, Ishtiaq Ahmed on the idea of a noble lie, and Ejaz Haider will stay away from a living intellectual if he can help it. From Israel, whatever happened to Amir Peretz, and where in the world is Che Guevara? A review of After Fidel: The Inside Story of Castro's Regime and Cuba's Next Leader. An article on the metamorphosis of Diego Maradona into an anti-American activist. From PINR, an article on the emerging Cold War on Asia's high seas. William Easterly on why the West can't save Africa. Forget marrying a rich American: for the Russian middle class woman, a better life means aerobics and Benetton. Peter Schneider probes the depths of German melancholy and miserliness. Columbia's Mahmood Mamdani on the political uses of free speech. Eleven French writers demand the right to poke fun wherever and whenever they want. An article on the debate over immigration in France. From TNR, an article on the hypocrisy of Britain and France. Jonathan Power on how the Western democracies, so keen on exporting their political model to the rest of the world, seem to be perfecting the art of shooting themselves in the foot. From Foreign Policy, an essay on how to keep Iran honest, and a look at who loves whom in the world community. From spiked!, a series of debates about US foreign policy ranged from dull predictability to childish ranting. An interview with John Yoo on domestic spying. US plans massive data sweep: Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion. From The New Yorker, Jeffrey Goldberg profiles Michael Gerson, George W. Bush’s loyal speechwriter. And Charlie Cook on why Democrats should not want to control Congress after the 2006 elections

[Feb 14] From Open Democracy, Fred Halliday on how the theological and historical rhetoric of the cartoon dispute conceals its central message: the creation of a modern, unified field of world politics. What’s the matter with Islam is also the matter with Kansas. But who says freedom of speech isn’t a little negotiable? Cathy Young on tradition vs. modernity within Islam and within the West. Tariq Ali on the real outrage: Danish imams ignore the tragedies suffered by Muslims across the world. An interview with Anders Rasmussen, prime minister of Denmark. Beirut-based journalist Michael Young on admitting to a growing Islamist problem. If an extended conflict between the West and Islam is to be avoided, who should the West speak to in the Muslim world? Al-Azhar University in Cairo would be a good place to start. Anatol Lieven on the limits of propaganda. An interview with David Frost on his new job at Al Jazeera International. Gregory Rodriguez on why there's no such thing as free speech (but is it a good thing, too?). The latest UN Human Development Report draws attention to the worrying gap that is emerging between economic growth and social progress: What is going wrong? Interpol has found new relevance - and enjoyed surprising success - leading the global police effort to track down terrorists. The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official, Robert Grenier, is fired for opposing the torture of Al-Qaeda suspects. What are the "inherent" powers of the president? How the Bush Administration has mistaken default rules for exclusive rights. David Cole on the Nixon Doctrine: If the commander in chief does it, it's not illegal. From TAP, an interview with Harry Reid. A new issue of the DLC's Blueprint is out. Dick Armey on why House Republicans must return to their reformist roots. Undercover bloggers report on the goings-on at the 2006 Conservative Political Action Conference (and more). From New York, blogs to riches: An article on the Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom. And an article on the problem with parody: Spoof sites are popping up all over the Internet. But with the lawyers not far behind, who will get the last laugh?

[Feb 13] From The Weekly Standard, William Kristol on why the cartoon jihad is phony: Oh, the anguish! From The Toronto Star, hurt feelings? Are you fragging kidding me!? When it comes to taking offence, we all need to grow up; if no one listens, no one can hear the voices of reasonable people; and here's a brief history of blasphemy. A look at how the Danish cartoons were used to silence dissent, but the debate only can be seen in the context of a climate of pervasive hostility toward anything Muslim in Denmark. Stanley Fish on why liberals condescend to those with strong beliefs. Fouad Ajami on Islam's shattered pact with modernity (and more). Danes are girding for a culture war. What they should do is help Danish Muslims build an Islam compatible with modern Europe. When is it a crime to give off ence? Who decides? Andrew Anthony claims Britain's government and the liberal left have failed us. An interview with Chris Patten on his new book, Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain and Europe in a New Century (a review and an excerpt). A review of American Ally: Tony Blair and the War on Terror. Believing the evidence fell short, Bush discussed with Blair the possibility of inciting a conflict with Iraq. When the crazy folks are the only ones speaking the truth, you're either in a Shakespeare tragedy or Wonderland. Dahlia Lithwick explains. Of Wiretaps, Google Searches and Handguns: John Allen Paulos on how ineffective government screenings are not worth loss of privacy. The Observer profiles Patrick Fitzgerald. A look at how cops would clean up Congress's back rooms. Could Chuck Hagel win the Republican presidential nomination with the message that his party has lost its way? Former Steeler Lynn Swann wins GOP nod for Pa. Governor race. And Dick Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter Harry Whittington

[Weekend 2e] Pop: From American Popular Culture, David Carithers (UT-Martin): Steve Earle and the Possibilities of Pragmatism, and an interview with Arthur Asa Berger on pop culture. From Business Week, can MTV stay cool? A cover story. From Not Bored!, cultural criticism at the crossroads: An essay on Greil Marcus' Like a Rolling Stone. From The Believer, the Slim Shady Essay: The psychological craftsmanship of Marshall Bruce Mathers III. From The Nation, a review of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America, Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement, and The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. A new hip-hop Biblezine tries to give God street cred. In the realm of roots music, the shadow of authenticity has a righteous way of stunting unique growth. Dan Neil called Neil Peart to ask: What happened to the drum solo? From Nerve, a special issue on The New Radicals. Penn Jillette: The magician comedian writer's secrets revealed. From Tango, here are the Oscars for Most Dangerous Romantic Movie Myths. An essay on The Phenomenon of the Da Vinci Code. Attack of the 50-foot Oprah: Why America’s most powerful celebrity should be more feared than loved. Oprah vs. Howard: Wall Street has already decided who will be the bigger satellite radio star. Stay on top of Oprah's Book Club: Drawing the Open Wound: The Signifying Silences of Elie Wiesel. And from Forbes (reg. req.), Paul Johnson on the battle between creators and critics: "Let the creators alone!"

[Weekend] Form Ukraine, one year later, the exact cause of Viktor Yushchenko's disfigurement is pinpointed. From South Korea, a review of Re-understanding History Before and After the Liberation. How nation-states are made: The introduction to Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism. Africa is home to new science initiatives that are helping to pull the continent out of its turbulent recent history. Is the United States government unburdening itself of the big science issues and handing those responsibilities to individual states? Chris Mooney offers suggestions on how the scientific community can win back its political influence. From Foreign Affairs, Paul Pillar, the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, on intelligence, policy and the War in Iraq. Dick Cheney and the fight over "inherent" presidential powers: John Dean says his attempt to swing the pendulum back began long before 9/11. From Slate, Michael Kinsley on The Ayatollah Joke Book. John Lloyd on how the Western media fought hard for their freedom and why it must not be bowed by Islamic demands. And from The Forum (a special kind of free registration required), Christine L. Day and Marc R. Rosenblum (UNO): The Politics of Katrina in New Orleans: A View from Ground Zero; John K. White (CUA): The Death of a Presidency; Steven E. Schier (Carleton): “Typing” the George W. Bush Presidency; Todd Estes (Oakland): Where the Votes Are: The Electoral Geography of the Coming Democratic Majority; Andrew R. Cline (Missouri State): Primary Instability Paradox: The Ethics of Media Coverage in Presidential Nominations; Gordon Silverstein (UC-Berkeley): Legislating from the Oval Office: Why Sam Alito Really Matters

[Feb 10] From Antigua, why eradicating poverty could serve as a crucial resource in ensuring greater security. From Malta, remarkable returns for a tiny bourse on Europe's southern fringe. An article on how very low birth rates in Europe may be here to stay. An interview with the Lebanese writer Abbas Beydoun about the unrest in his country. The head of Israel's Shin Bet says his country may come to regret the overthrow of Saddam. Fred Kaplan on why the Iraqi insurgency is still primarily an anti-occupation effort. A growing number of Americans would like fewer entanglements with foreigners. From TNR, here's a guide to the Hillary Clinton juggernaut. From Harper's, a look at The Great American Pork Barrel. An article on gay marriage as the new abortion. The Worst Judges in Texas: In these courtrooms, justice comes to a screeching halt. An article on Google's search for respect in DC. From Bookforum, a roundtable on Google's library project. From Wired, a look back at the people who saved the Internet's soul. The promise of e-government is a transparent, accessible, efficient state in a new partnership with its citizens. But could it be the model of an invisible model of political control? How much should hotel web access cost? Sometimes it's free. Sometimes it's $20 a day. Why? From AJR, the Times Co. is in the midst of a three-way global shootout with Dow Jones and the Financial Times over the IHT. From CJR, Robert D. Kaplan on the importance of slipping away from the pack to encounter, and understand, the world firsthand. Young Turks and their talk show could be blazing a new career path: Start on the Internet, build a following, then move into mainstream radio and TV. Who really won the Super Bowl? The story of an instant-science experiment. Is this the last unifying event in a fractured pop culture? From the Journal of Advertising, an article on the effects of consumer skepticism toward advertising on responses to ads. And an essay on truth and trust in advertising and publishing

[Feb 9] News from around the world: From Pakistan, Mukhtar Mai thought she was apologizing for the misdeeds of her brother. Instead, she was gang raped by men in her village. Grit Your Teeth, Embrace Arab Democracy: Four reasons why there is no going back. An article on how Islam prohibits neither images of Muhammad nor jokes about religion. The Danish paper that printed the cartoons of Muhammad wanted to stir up trouble -- and the government wanted a culture war. Iran has upped the ante in the cartoon culture wars by cutting off trade ties with Denmark and threatening to do the same to other European countries. Theologian Hans Küng says the West carries some responsibility for the violence over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. A profile of Tariq Ramadan, one of the greatest, most enigmatic and controversial thinkers of the day. National Review asks experts on Islam and/or the Mideast for their read on what's going on. openDemocracy writers respond to the dispute and seek ways forward. Reactions from Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith, Reza Aslan, author of No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, and Andrew Sullivan. On Saddam Hussein's trial: What Would Ayn Rand Do? An essay on perceptions of political corruption in Latin American democracies. An interview with UNAM's Heinz Dieterich on Hugo Chávez and Latin America. Elections amid chaos: Haiti is at the end of the world (and more). A review of Canadian Intellectuals, The Tory Tradition, and The Challenge of Modernity, 1939-1970. Detached from Belarusian social reality, drawing on nineteenth-century stereotypes of the Slavic character, and idealizing metropolitan western Europe, intellectuals "orientalize" Belarus. Past as present: After Poland's new conservative government took office late last year, one of its first decisions was to recall 10 ambassadors because of their communist past. Sweden plans to be the world's first oil-free economy. And does France suck? Progressives debate an age old question

[Feb 8] From Europe, as the controversy becomes a breath of fresh air for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, traditional values have been trampled on, but freedom of opinion and reason are holy; and an interview with Pnina Werbner on The Satanic Verses and the Danish cartoons. From Great Britain, the contrast between the Satanic Verses affair of 1989 and the cartoon controversy of 2006 shows how far Muslims and non-Muslims in Britain have travelled. From France, Ségolène Royal is the latest media darling, her popularity is spreading and is expected to be the first woman to run for president; and an essay by UPenn's Thomas J. Sugrue on the Paris riots. From Italy, the cramped final resting place of Shelley and Keats, and Gramsci is decaying. From Yugoslavia, to find Belgrade's last philosophers, hail a taxi. From Russia, the Kremlin doesn't need spiritual guidance from intellectuals, because it has no interest in ideology. From Sudan, on the dilemma of the Southern intellectual: is it justified? An interview with Steve Coll on the tensions on South Asia. Growing up in India, Pankaj Mishra longed to escape to a wider world. Soviet books and magazines offered tantalising glimpses of an ideal society, but later learned the truth about his utopia. Will Balkan Islam, which includes communities with different histories and customs, withstand the pressures of radicalism? Everybody talks about the "pressure" Iran is under—but the strain is on the other side. An interview with General James Jones, top NATO commander in Europe, on the Middle East. From the CNP's Policy Counsel, is an united "Europe" in the interest if the US? Defense Budget 101: How much are we really spending? What does the public think about the Bush administration's wiretapping program? It depends on how you ask the question. An article on the Enronization of the executive branch. A new study finds Bush-appointed judges are the most conservative on record. From Counterpunch, Paul Craig Roberts talks about his "epiphany". And a look at how liberals are playing into Karl Rove's hands

[Feb 7] From Great Britain, Tony Blair's reforms are not a betrayal but a return to the progressive ideals of 1906. From Denmark, Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that first published the cartoons of Muhammad, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ three years ago (and here are cartoons mocking Jews and Christians). Der Spiegel interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Is this a clash of civilizations or just a conflict between western radicals and Islamic fundamentalists? Robert Fisk on why this isn't an issue of Islam versus Secularism. Western governments have nothing to apologize for. An article on the misplaced defense of free speech, but why can't Muslims take a joke? René Descartes, where are you now that the world needs you? From Japan Focus, Prasenjit Duara on The New Imperialism and the Post-Colonial Developmental State: Manchukuo in Comparative Perspective; and an article on the origins of the China-Japan relationship. From The Wilson Quarterly, a series of essays on China and world politics. From The Washington Quarterly, a series of essays on The End of the Post-9/11 Sino-U.S. Honeymoon. From Opinion Journal, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on why monitoring the enemy is necessary and appropriate. From n+1, tap, tap, tap: Why wouldn’t they be watching? Psychiatrist Mark Leith takes a look at what makes George W. Bush so sure of himself. What "Ownership Society"? Bush's major economic idea goes bust. Harold Meyerson reviews Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. Jimmy Carter's son set to run for Senate from Nevada. Kevin Hassett on what to do if Bush calls you for commission duty. A review of Why America’s Top Pundits are Wrong: Anthropologists Talk Back. From FAIR, failing at its "No. 1 Goal": Lack of balance at C-SPAN’s "Washington Journal". Mainstream news sources are increasingly linking to political blogs. Is the debate being enriched or are some voices remaining outside the loop? And from In These Times, can blogs revolutionize progressive politics?

[Feb 6] From Great Britain, a challenge to popular interpretations of 'gun culture'. From Canada, battling for political power is, to men and women of a certain temperament, a higher kind of professional hockey. From Spain, the intensity of the debate about the Catalan statute of autonomy had been a cause of concern. From Egypt, minorities and women fear Islamist lawmakers will restrict personal rights. From Israel, Tzipi Livni is the first woman to serve as foreign minister since Golda Meir. From Seven Oaks, here's a short history of Canada in the Caribbean. Evo Morales and his Movement Towards Socialism still have plenty of opponents in and out of Bolivia (and more). An article on Argentina's worker-run cooperative movement. An essay on the trouble with Uzbekistan. An interview with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey. Palestinians chose Hamas despite its Islamist platform? Many chose Hamas because of it. A review of Reform in the Arab World: External Influences and Regional Debates. A review of The Horseshoe Table: An Inside View of the U.N. Security Council. Sixty years after the nuclear bomb was unleashed, the Federation of American Scientists assesses the struggle to rein in its awesome power. From HNN, if we want to rein in the Imperial Presidency, we have to grade presidents differently. Congress can't say whether the N.S.A.'s spying program is illegal. But it can start a debate. In recent years, a high-flying path for the Congressional aide has emerged: lobbyist-in-training. Recent efforts to censor Jim Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist, are only the latest: We ignore it at our peril. More on Take It Back, and more on Rebel in Chief. At this year's Sundance Film Festival, the man everyone wanted to meet was Al Gore. And the Winter Games are about elitism, exclusion and the triumph of the world's sporting haves over its have nots

[Weekend 2e] From Great Britain, goodbye, racial nationalism, hello, ethno nationalism. From Bolivia, an interview with Andres Soliz Rada, the new Energy Minister. From Brazil, work is a dirty word unless you hold public office, and a review of Carmen: The Unhappy Hollywood Life of Brazil's Shiniest Star Ever. From Russia, Moscow’s planning laws are no defence against the rampant destruction of some of Russia’s greatest built heritage. From India, it's time to expose political Hinduism. From Policy Review, an essay on getting India right. From Baobab Connections, is Nigeria the next Persian Gulf? Muqtada al-Sadr may be the only man who can defuse Iraq's Sunni-Shiite conflict. When push comes to shove, China will side with US against Iran in the Security Council, says Chris Patten. From Foreign Policy in Focus, an essay on democracy and the making of foreign policy. From the US State Department's Issues of Democracy, a special issue on the foundations of democracy. Anatol Lieven on the gap between U.S. rhetoric and reality in the Middle East. The more that people freely vote around the world, the more fervently they reject George W. Bush. From Newsweek, a look at how an eight-term congressman with extensive ties to K Street became the new face of the House Republican Party. From Think Tank, an interview with Norman Ornstein on corruption, then and now. Anne Norton on the proto-fascist moment in the US. From Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter on the anti-Semitic administration, and an article on Don Imus' Last Stand. From The Brooklyn Rail, an interview The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel. From The Believer, an interview with George Lakoff. From The F-Word Ezine, an interview with Gloria Steinem. And an obituary: Betty Friedan (and more and more)

[Weekend] From Norway, Foreign Affairs Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on the challenges of multilateralism in the 21st century. From Nigeria, an article on why nations are poor. From AEI, an essay on the integration of giants into the global economy. Russia is richer than it was only six years ago, and less free. Russia’s current turn toward authoritarianism after a brief bout of liberty represents the completion of a cycle. Earl Browder was the biggest Communist in America. His grandson William is the biggest capitalist in Russia. From Index on Censorship, an article on the responsibilities of the media, and an essay on the importance of giving offence. If the west does not stand in solidarity with the Danish, Ibn Warraq argues, then the Islamization of Europe will have begun in earnest (and more from Al-Jazeera cartoonist Shujaat Ali). An interview with Tariq Ramadan on the Danish cartoon controversy. The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces fire a letter at Tom Toles over cartoon on strained Army. From FT, an interview with Donald Rumsfeld (and more from Fred Kaplan). From Commentary, has the New York Times violated the Espionage Act? Norman Ornstein on why Santorum's denials on K Street Project don't ring true. Jonathan Rauch has not received any money from Jack Abramoff, and he is giving it back. A State of the Union response in Spanish? Multiculturalism has gone too far. Just because whatever greatness network TV once had (and it was always very limited) is now vanishing, that doesn't mean the world is adrift. eBay ex-president Jeff Skoll likes to bankroll worthy causes. So he went to Hollywood to make small movies with big messages. And a look at why weblogs are the toilet walls of the Internet

[Feb 3] From Asia Times, an article on the IAEA and the new world order. From Al-Ahram, a review of Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis, and a review of Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Who's afraid of Mohammed? The story so far, and a survey of the European press. Muhammad fires back: The Danish editor says "It was worth it", and with fresh memories of burning banlieues, France walks on eggshells, as French editor is fired for printing caricatures. The fact that a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his turban is offensive to many Muslims should not be used as an argument for restricting freedom of expression. The French are losing the consolation of doing better than the Germans. A review of Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe. From Newsweek, the case for Joe Biden: A long time political consultant argues that the senior senator from Delaware is the Democrat’s best shot. Ralph Reed was once the golden boy of the religious right. But his political career is faltering after revelations of his role in a sordid GOP gambling- industry scheme. 'St. Jack' and the Bullies in the Pulpit: John Danforth says it's time the GOP center took on the Christian Right. Lies about blowjobs, bad. Wars? Not so much. Virtually everyone accepts that liberty should at times be sacrificed for security, so why won't progressives propose how and when? Richard Morin on why maybe it's time to get soft on crime. Telephone and cable companies are crafting strategies to transform the free and open Internet to a privately run service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online. Cathy Young on why Haleigh Poutre is no Terri Schiavo. And deciding what to do with our mortal remains depends on various factors: religious, cultural, financial - and now environmental

[Feb 2] From France, Chirac’s announcement of the new national holiday on slavery comes in the wake of a bitter national debate over France’s colonial history; and a roundtable discussion on the geography of violence: On the old "new clothes" of the French Republic and the "insignificant" rioters. The secret to Denmark's success is a knack for niches, and a labor peace pact that larger economies will find hard to copy. Threaten One, Intimidate a Million: After provoking outrage in the Muslim world by publishing offensive cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, a Danish newspaper has apologized as the extent of the anger continued to mushroom. An essay on true secularism (Denmark) vs pseudo secularism (India!). From Foreign Affairs, an article on Hamas: From Pariah to Player. At Davos, David Ignatius writes on economics and the inevitable. From PBS's NewsHour, three longtime Fed observers comment on the end of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's 18-year tenure as the nation's chief architect of economic policy. Is court stripping unconscionable and unconstitutional? Supreme Court justices who sign memoir deals risk squandering the impersonal respect on which the judiciary depends. A review of What Went Wrong in Ohio: The Conyers Report on the 2004 Presidential Election and Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century. Kick me, I'm a Democrat: Michael Kinsley on the games politicians play. What are op-eds for? It is neither illegal nor immoral to write about something while having financial ties to private industry. From Truthdig, an article on the Year of the Queer: Hollywood and homosexuality. And Steven Spielberg's film "Munich" deals with the 1972 Olympic hostage taking and its bloody aftermath. The film is a blend of cliches and originality, wisdom and presumptuousness

[Feb 1] From Business Week, a special report on corporate crime. An article on what the Federal Reserve chairman’s departure means for the country. Was Greenspan a consensus builder? Or a totalitarian dictator? An article on how tech companies should do business in China. From CJR, a look at the secret life of a letter to the editor. Jack Shafer on Ted Koppel's embarrassing debut as a Times columnist, and on what newspaper history says about newspaper future. Publishers say fact-checking is too costly. A review of My Holy War: Dispatches From the Home Front. Lawrence Kaplan on how to practice journalism in Iraq. On the performativity of language: What does it mean to support our troops? No need to answer. Nobody will ask you what you mean. Christopher Orlet on the word of the year: Truthiness. While sexy and quotable, catchphrases can be misleading: "A new language has entered the fray that is not entirely accurate". A review of Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon. From PopMatters, no Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones: When the baby boomers finally relinquish control of pop culture, who will replace their sacred cows on the perennial "best bands ever" lists? A look at why Hollywood can't win when it comes to making movies with something to say. Such are the demands of celebrity today that it's no longer enough for someone to be just an actor or a singer. A profile of Steve Jobs, the non-stop revolutionary. Hispterectomy: Such is the lot of an aging hipster (and part 2). And as if assassination wasn't bad enough, now Thomas Becket has to cope with character assassination

[Feb 15] Economics - Sex and love: From Forbes, a special report on Money, including Tim Harford on how money doesn't make people happy, but marriage, sex, socializing and even middle age do; Daniel Gilbert on how money can't make you happy, but making the right comparisons can; when it comes money and happiness, economists and psychologists have got it all wrong; why don't men love women with money? Arianna Huffington finds out; does money make you more attractive? Dan Savage investigates; an article on the economics of prostitution; neuroscientists are poking holes in old-fashioned economics; and much more. In search of a better economics theory, MIT's Andrew Lo says evolutionary dynamics could shed light on why investors behave as they do (and more on Darwinian investing). The introduction to Samuel Bowles' Microeconomics: Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution. From Political Affairs, an article on US economics, a pseudo-science in the making. An interview with Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. Beware, be wary on your hunt for the perfect (you name it); for you are the hunted. Consuming goods is only a displacement activity for our eternal appetite for sex. From National Review, an excerpt from The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals, edited by Robert George and Jean Bethke Elshtain; a symposium on men and women NRO-reader types do, should, would love; and what is the most conservative love story ever told? The most romantic libertarian valentine? "I'll treat you like property!" A new issue of American Sexuality is out, including an article on female sexual frustration. An interview with Laura Carpenter, author of Virginity Lost. If you're in your 20's, single, straight and looking for love, the statistical odds of finding a full-time partner are better if you're a woman. What's so hot about 50? Sex and the female boomer is not booming. A review of Sex And The Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life. And Emily Bazelon on Slate's findings on circumcision and sex, and an article on the inexact science of penis measurement

[Feb 14] From The Washington Monthly, it's not your imagination: the Sunday shows really do lean right; a review of Bruce Bartlett's Impostor: Why George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy; (and a look at the trials and tribulations of Bartlett); a review of Richard Reeves' President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination; more on Fred Barnes' Rebel in Chief; more on My Year in Iraq; more on State of War; and a review of Lipstick on a Pig, by Torie Clarke. James Howard Kunstler on bread and circuses… and jet-skis. A review of Benjamin Friedman's The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. Surprise: Big business has learned that it’s pretty easy being green. Ann Crittenden on The Friedan Mystique: The country’s most influential feminist may have been ahead of her time. Can women be so indifferent to humanity? The answer may be unearthed through first examining the deeds of the opposite sex. More on Kate O'Bierne's Women Who Make The World Worse. Conviction without fanaticism: After 141 years, Lincoln's second inaugural address remains relevant. Screw fat old Ben Franklin and his 300th birthday. Philadelphia should be celebrating a real revolutionary, the man without whom there'd be no America. An article on Sherman, Tecumseh, and the liberals of the Upper West Side. A review of The Shaker World: Art, Life, Belief. The Shakers were trying to get into heaven. Mac Johnson is not sure what we’re trying to do. From Vanity Fair, an interview with Bernard-Henri Levy. Christopher Hitchens comes to the defense of BHL. From Cato Unbound, Timothy Smith, Charles Kupchan, and Anne Applebaum respond to Theodore Dalrymple's essay on Europe. The American Conservative to The Weekly Standard: Challenge Accepted. Alexander Cockburn on how not to spot a terrorist. A review of Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. A review of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy. A review of War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare From World War I to Al-Qaeda. And a review of The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Means for the World

[Feb 13] From The Boston Globe's "Ideas", who are you calling working class? An article on the scholarly food fight over how to define the lunch pail class and what Democrats can do to win back their affections - if, that is, they ever lost them. For Americans under the age of 50, the experience has been so fleeting that they may not realize full employment was once a hotly pursued goal. From the US State Department's Economic Perspectives, a special issue on entrepreneurship and small business. From the latest issue of Politics and Culture, an essay on Specters of Espresso: Seeking Derrida’s ghost(s) in a bag of fair trade coffee. A look at how Canada built the world a better banana. A review of The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--And How It's Transforming the American Economy. More on Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. From National Review, more on Rodney Stark's The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success. An interview with Andrew Bernstein, author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire. Wendy McElroy on the life and work of Lysander Spooner. A review of The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill. More on BHL's American Vertigo. A review of books on the roots of Southern difference and the origins of Southern identity. From MR, an interview with Andre Vltchek, author of Point of No Return. More on Come Hell or High Water. More on John McWhorter's Winning the Race. From Salon, at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, Boone, Cheney, Coulter and other luminaries of the far right gathered to glory in their victories over liberal America. And a review of Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America, by Karenna Gore Schiff

[Weekend 2e] From National Journal, a special report on Guantanamo's Grip: Who is at Guantanamo Bay? The empty evidence is there for all to see, and the falsehoods are exposed, writes Stuart Taylor, Jr. From Newsweek, Olivier Roy on how the cartoon brouhaha really illustrates the divisions within the Muslim community, not with the West. Bernard-Henri Levy on standing by the moderate Muslims. In the end, it was the pluralism of the American media's response to the cartoon crisis that spoke loudest. David Brooks delivers a lecture on objectivity in journalism. Dan Rather offers some reflections on Ronald Reagan’s relationship with America. On Richard Norton Smith, departing director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum: Is he getting out while the getting is good? From Alternet, an interview with Al Franken on his new-ish book The Truth (With Jokes). George Clooney on why his father's legacy of protest haunts him to this day. A review of An Offer We Can’t Refuse: The Maﬁa in the Mind of America. A jury of one's peers hasn't always meant 12 news-averse know-nothings. From Anthropoetics, Thomas F. Bertonneau (Mackinac): Of Which We May Speak: Meditations on Irony, Eccentricity, and Faith. From CrossCurrents, Nicholas Price (ICL): All Nations Before God: Evangelicals in the Interfaith World; Wyndy Corbin (Ashland): The Impact of the American Dream on Evangelical Ethics; Obery M. Hendricks (NYTS): Class, Political Conservatism and Jesus; Edward Farley (Vanderbilt): Fundamentalism: A Theory. And on the making of a new Benedict: An excerpt from God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church

[Weekend] From The Nation, Martha Nussbaum reviews The Solitude of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton. A review of Sean Wilentz's The Rise of American Democracy. A look at the life and work of philosopher-king Tunis Gulic Campbell, who headed an unusual experiment in democracy at St. Catherines Island for two years after the Civil War. A review of The Pirate Coast: Thomas Jefferson, the First Marines, and the Secret Mission of 1805. A review of books on the American military presence in Iraq. A review of Chris Patten's Cousins and Strangers America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century. From The Oxonian Review of Books, more on Louis Freeh's My FBI, and more on Electing Justice: Fixing the Supreme Court Nomination Process. A review of Sandra Day O'Connor. More on Active Liberty. From The Mises Institute, an article on why Rothbard makes sense. From National Review, an article on the passing of Michael Wharton, a great British social critic. Should the high cost of living affect your chances of dying? Ronald Bailey investigates. More on The End of Faith. A review of Retrying Galileo, 1633-1992. From Crisis, an article on the case for clerical celibacy, a look at the role pleasure plays in the life of a Christian, a cover story on the morality of race in the US, Greg Krehbiel joined the Arthurian round table only to find a bunch of sissies in velvet playing Chutes and Ladders; as a hard-core Augustinian, Brian Saint-Paul has a little joke he likes to blurt out at Thomist parties. William Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, receives an e-mail comparing his organization to the Muslims rioting across the world. And from First Things, Wilfred McClay on the secret of the self

[Feb 10] From The Nation, Bernard-Henri Levy writes a Letter to the American Left (while wife Arielle Dombasle talks about the mysteries and dangers of l'amour). From The American Spectator, while conservatives insist on standards, they seem ready to abolish all standards when doing so will bring a "snob" low. Paul Craig Roberts on the right-wing press and how conservatives went crazy. Boris Johnson on how lefties have changed their tactics, but not their spots. From The Economist, it's high time that economists looked at more than just GDP, and on why bloggers can be vicious, but they can also help companies avert disaster. From NBER, do women shy away from competition, thereby becoming under-represented in many fields of work? A look at how U.S. immigration law punishes hard work and fractures families. A review of The Liberty of Strangers: Making the American Nation. The latest issue of the International Journal on Multicultural Societies, on National Identity and Attitudes Towards Migrants, is now online. From spiked!, a new Demos publication, Better Humans, explores the hopes and fears for smart pills, life extension and cosmetic surgery. When death is on the docket, the moral compass wavers. From The Globalist, a chart of the key attributes of both sides of Islam, Wahhabi vs. humanitarian. An interview with Tariq Ramadan. Whose fault is it that the media presents Muslims as fanatics? From Salon, Juan Cole on why Muslim outrage reflects specific national conflicts -- most of them exacerbated by Bush's policies. Anatole Kaletsky insulted Americans, but they are not planning to behead him. Kenan Malik on saying what you think and the importance of giving offence, since free speech should override religious sensitivities. And it is not just the property of the West. An interview with Freedom House's Paul Marshall, editor of Radical Islam's Rules: The Worldwide Spread of Extreme Shari'a Law. And from Reason, an interview with Pierre Akel of Middle East Transparent

[Feb 9] From Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, William Galston (Maryland): Religious Violence or Religious Pluralism: Islam's Essential Choice, Mark Sagoff (Maryland): Locke Was Right: Nature Has Little Economic Value; and Claudia Mills (Colorado): Are There Morally Problematic Reasons for Having Children? pdf. From the latest issue of World Policy Journal, Thomas Nichols (USNWC): Anarchy and Order in the New Age of Prevention. From the latest issue of US Army War College's Parameters, Jeffrey Record (AWC): Why the Strong Lose, and a review of Andrew Bacevich's The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. A review of Protecting Liberty in an Age of Terror. A review of Can Labor Standards Improve Under Globalization? pdf. A review of The New Geography of Global Income Inequality. A review of Robert Fogel's The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100: Europe, America, and the Third World. A review of Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium. From National Catholic Reporter, a review of The New Globalization: Reclaiming the Lost Ground of Our Christian Tradition, and a review of books on medieval Spain's religious conflicts. Christopher Hitchens reviews After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World. Ross Douthat reviews Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War. An interview with Eugene Linden, author of The Winds of Change, about climate chaos, ethnocentrism, and the war on climate change. From n+1, more on BHL's American Vertigo. From Buzzflash, an interview with Thom Hartmann on the intellectual and policy battles that divide America today. Labor has found success by eschewing NLRB elections in favor of employer neutrality and card checks. From Stanford Social Innovation Review, an essay on a failure of philanthropy. A review of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America. Aubrey de Grey believes that a 60-year-old alive today may become the first 1,000-year-old human. And he is serious. But who would not seize the chance to live to be 150?

[Feb 8] From The Forum (a special kind of free registration required), a special issue on the Culture Wars, including Alan Abramowitz (Emory) and Kyle Saunders (CSU): Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? The Reality of a Polarized America; Philip A. Klinkner and Ann Hapanowicz (Hamilton): Red and Blue Déjà Vu: Measuring Political Polarization in the 2004 Election; John H. Evans and Lisa M. Nunn (UCSD): The Deeper “Culture Wars” Questions; Wayne Baker (Michigan): Social Science in the Public Interest: To What Extent Did the Media Cover "Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America"?; Cindy Simon Rosenthal (Oklahoma): Local Politics: A Different Front in the Culture War?; and N. J. Demerath III (UMass): The Battle Over a U.S. Culture War: A Note on Inflated Rhetoric Versus Inflamed Politics; Morton Keller (Brandeis): The Media: What They Are Today, and How They Got That Way; Jeffrey M. Stonecash (Syracuse): Scaring the Democrats: What’s the Matter with Thomas Frank’s Argument?; and one two three four reviews of George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant! and two reviews of Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. From The Wall Street Journal, Mark Thoma and Andrew Samwick discuss the past, present and future of the safety net. Malcolm Gladwell on why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage. Michael Kazin on a difficult marriage: American Protestants and American Politics. Saved our soul with rock & roll: How the right markets the anti-choice movement to young Christians. As conservative Christianity spreads beyond U.S. borders, the views of the far right begin to influence politics in developing nations. Amitai Etzioni on the end of soft power. A review of Radical Islam and the Nation: The Relationship between Religion and Nationalism in the Political Thought of Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb. And from Eras, a review of When Faiths Collide, a review of History and National Destiny: Ethnosymbolism and its Critics, and a review of The Origins of War: Violence in Prehistory

[Feb 7] From Axess, Shirin Ahlbäck Öberg and PerOla Öberg (Uppsala): Democratic Knowledge; and Robert Hardin (NYU): Is social capital declining? From Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Harriet Bulkeley (Durham): Governing climate change: the politics of risk society. From Population & Development Review, a report on Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises pdf. An interview with Lester Brown, author of Plan B. 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. A review of War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare From World War I to Al-Qaeda. More and more on State of War. A review of AC Grayling's Among The Dead Cities: Was the Allied Bombing of Civilians in WWII a Necessity or a Crime? From The Spectator, an article on how growth stunts us. A review of The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California. From Mute, reality check: Are we living in an immaterial world? A new issue of Bad Subjects is out. From Salon, Hillary Clinton, Camille Paglia and Judith Butler remember Betty Friedan; and an article on feminism after Friedan: are women who choose to stay home betraying feminism? (and more from Emily Bazelon). From The New Pantagruel, James Schall (Georgetown): Knowledge is Not Power and Other Paradoxes; an interview with Roger Scruton on the joy of conservatism, and an editorial response to First Things on natural law, the death penalty, and political theology. A review of Who is My Neighbor? Personalism and the Foundations of Human Rights, and a review of Northrop Frye: Religious Visionary and Architect of the Spiritual World. A review of books on Mary Magdalene. From Free Inquiry, an article on the intolerant Gospel, Tom Flynn commits a secular humanist heresy, and Katrina Voss thanks science. From The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Nick Bostrom writes a Letter from Utopia, and an article on James Lovelock's Gaian despair. Is creating virtual slaves for sex and possibly housework wrong? And you better watch out or you'll wind up with time on your hands: Thus Spake Chronus

[Feb 6] Cartoonish behavior: From CJR, a look back at the work of political cartoonist Doug Marlette, who describes the Islamic uproar over one of his cartoons. The cartoon battle in Denmark is about European arrogance and Muslim fanaticism (and more). The European media may have behaved in a provocative fashion this week, but it was provocation in a good cause. Christopher Hitchens on the case for mocking religion. An article on the State Department as cultural critic. Sweden is discovering that it has a Muslim immigrant issue. This is folly, not a clash of civilisations. What would John Locke do? How about Isaiah Berlin? What will The Guardian do? A review of Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind. From Cato Unbound, Theodore Dalrymple on the fate of "Old Europe". From The Family in America, a series of essays on Europe and the Christian Democracy movement: A once and future hope? From The New Criterion (reg,. req.), Michael Novak reviews Rodney Stark's The Victory of Reason, and an essay on the integration or separatism of Muslims. From Policy Review, Chicago's Carles Boix on the roots of democracy, and David Hendrickson on the old U.S. and the new EU. From First Things, Richard John Neuhaus on Our American Babylon; and a review of Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality. From The Believer, who are the real Niebuhrians? From The Remnant, an article on the Church v. the modern State: where does a Catholic's allegiance truly lie? Is religious circumcision religious expression? On the uneasy state of church and state. From Canadian Dimension, an article on the New Secularism: Cultivating a sober tone of doubt; a look at the perils of faith-based multiculturalism: The case of Shari’a in Canada, and an essay on reviving the radical critique of religion. And a new issue of The Wittenburg Door: The World's Pretty Much Only Religious Satire Magazine is out

[Weekend 2e] Potpourri: From TCS, an interview with Philip Tetlock, author of Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? From nthposition, a review of Torture and truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. A review of four documentaries on Wal-Mart. Arnold Beichman on the politics of personal self-destruction. David Friedman reviews William Langewiesche's The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime. An interview with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood On The Border: A Memoir of the Contra Years. Alan Wolfe reviews Michael Kazin's A Godly Life: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. From Skeptical Inquirer, an article on the Legends of Castles and Keeps. A review of Confessions of a Wall Street Analyst: A True Story of Inside Information and Corruption in the Stock Market. From The New Criterion (reg. req.), Robert Bork reviews Stephen Breyer’s Active Liberty. Ronald Dworkin on the strange case of Judge Alito. How will Alito and Roberts shape the Court? Joshua I. Schwartz and Brian K. Landsberg debate. As casino cash flows in, disenrollment is fracturing some Native American communities. A review of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on the Trade Unions. From National Civic Review, an essay on the polarizing of American politics; and an article on setting a new goalpost: 100 percent voter registration. A man's world?: A review of Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man. From Harvard Business Review, Ted Halstead on a Homestead Act for the twenty-first century, a breakthrough idea for 2006. A look at the life and work of Malcolm Gladwell, the Organizer. From Axess, a special issue on the ethnic economy. Thomas Frank reviews Mencken: The American Iconoclast. And is it the end of the world as we know it? And do you feel fine--or full of millennial dread?

[Weekend] From National Journal, like many of the men who came handcuffed to Guantanamo Bay, Detainee 032 has never been accused of fighting against America. But there he remains. From New Matilda, there is now a symbiotic relationship between the Islamist terrorists and the coalition of interests in Washington that has clambered aboard the 'war on terror.' Here's the third report from the South Waziristan Institute of Strategic Hermeneutics to the al-Qaida Strategic Planning Cell on the progress of the campaign. A review of James Risen's State of War. More on My Year in Iraq. The Peace Epidemic, Defended: Is this a "trough" or an "epoch"? Who cares? From Counterpunch, Tim Wise on racism, Neo-Confederacy and the raising of historical illiterates. And from the Social Science Research Council, a special forum on race and genomics, including Alan Goodman (Hampshire): Two Questions About Race; Joseph L. Graves, Jr. (Fairleigh Dickinson): What We Know and What We Don’t Know: Human Genetic Variation and the Social Construction of Race; Evelynn Hammonds (Harvard): Straw Men and Their Followers: The return of biological race; Ruth Hubbard (Harvard): Race & Genes; Nancy Krieger (Harvard): If “race” is the answer, what is the question? On “race,” racism, and health: a social epidemiologist’s perspective; Roger Lancaster (George Mason): Sex and Race in the Long Shadow of the Human Genome Project; Richard Lewontin (Harvard): Confusions About Human Races; Jonathan Marks (UNC): The Realities of Races; Ann Morning (NYU): On Distinction; Jacqueline (UCSB): Eve is from Adam's Rib, the Earth is Flat, and Races Come from Genes; and Troy Duster (NYU): Race and Reification in Science

[Feb 3] From Bookforum, a review of Black Hawk: The Battle for the Heart of America and How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier. From Indian Country, bad analogies from American Indian history are becoming the fad among pundits on the Middle East, but the comparisons don't explain much about the conflicts of that region. A review of Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror. From London Review of Books, Corey Robin reviews Michael Walzer's Arguing about War, Seymour Hersh's Chain of Command, and Torture: A Collection, edited by Sanford Levison; a review of Michael Mann's The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing, and Genocide in the Age of the Nation State, Vols. I and II; and Bruce Ackerman on Sam Alito and the stealth revolution, continued. From Slate, William Saletan and Katha Pollitt debate the politics of abortion. From Salon, an 2004, a massive pro-choice rally shook Washington. Just two years later, feminists are reflecting on the failure to stop Alito and what a conservative Supreme Court will mean for women; and a review of At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68. From TNR, Martin Peretz reviews Bernard-Henri Levy's American Vertigo. A review of Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuñiga. From Reason, a review of Richard Layard's Happiness: Lessons From a New Science. Conventional financial analysis fails to take into account human behavior, but the hopes and claims of neurofinance have far outpaced its science. From Cultural Logic, a commentary on István Mészáros's Beyond Capital. An introduction and the preface to Meszaros' Marx’s Theory of Alienation. And Lester Brown on how food and fuel compete for land

[Feb 2] From the Claremont Review of Books, Stanley Rosen reviews Richard Wolin's The Seduction of Unreason: The Intellectual Romance with Fascism From Nietzsche to Postmodernism. A review of Russell Jacoby's Picture Imperfect. From Capitalism, an article on the false hope of democracy. From The Independent Institute, an essay on Quasi-Corporatism: America’s homegrown fascism. Is the president out of line listening in on your al Qaeda phone chats? Richard Epstein and David Rivkin debate. From TNR, Richard Posner and Philip Heymann debate Bush's wiretapping program. From TAE, Judge Posner on the economics of democracy, and an article on the noise about the Calgary School’s alleged Straussianism. Robert Kagan is not a Straussian--or, at least, he doesn't think he is. From Tikkun, it is appropriate to recall Hannah Arendt's contributions to Jewish politics and peace in the Middle East, a review of The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy. From Bookforum, a review of Norman G. Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History; and more on BHL's American Vertigo. The introduction to David Runciman's The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order. From New Perspectives Quarterly, a special issue on The Global Ideology of Fear, including an interview with Salman Rushdie, an essay by Tariq Ramadan, an interview with Dutch-Somali legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an article on the Iraqi constitution as a model of Islamic democracy, Kanan Makiya on the revenge of the Shia, and Thomas Shelling on why an Iranian nuke would be a suicide bomb. And the first chapter from Reaching for Power: The Shi'a in the Modern Arab World (and an interview with author Yitzhak Nakash)

[Feb 1] From Esquire, Greetings from Idiot America: Welcome to your new Eden. From Rolling Stone, a profile of Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. Here's a list of the 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2005. From Commentary, how divided are we? James Q. Wilson finds out; a review of The Neoconservative Revolution; a look at Israel's media problem; Richard Pipes' reviews John Lewis Gaddis' The Cold War; and more on The Great War for Civilisation. From Counterpunch, Andrew Cockburn on why Bush probably won't attack Iran. "Our Indian Wars are not over yet": Ten ways to interpret the War on Terror as a frontier conflict. From ZNet, an article on poverty, consumerism and anti-imperialism. Robert Higgs on the economic policy of Machiavelli's Prince. Income Relativism: When people care more about politics than helping the poor. From Social Policy, Celinda Lake on Re-Branding Wal-Mart. Thomas Palley on a progressive economics for the 21st century. A look at the work of economist William Easterly. And from the Social Science Research Council, a special forum on the privatization of risk, including Graciela Chichilnisky (Columbia): Catastrophic Risks: The need for new tools, financial instruments and institutions; Jacob Hacker (Yale): The Privatization of Risk and the Growing Economic Insecurity of Americans; William Janeway (CERF): Risk versus Uncertainty: Frank Knight’s “Brute” Facts of Economic Life; Leslie McCall (Northwestern): The Rising Risks of Rising Economic Inequality: Do Americans Care?; and Elizabeth Warren (Harvard): Rewriting the Rules: Families, Money and Risk

[Feb 15] Potpourri: From VQR, Niles Eldredge on Confessions of a Darwinist. From Science & Theology News, Notre Dame's Alvin Plantinga challenges intelligent design as tautological explanation. Are science and faith separate but equal? Ronald Bailey investigates. Can a clear or unambiguous demarcation between science and non-science be made? Using statistics and psychological tests, researchers are nailing down what clerics and philosophers have preached for millennia: Materialism is bad for the soul. A review of In Search of the Good: A Catholic Understanding of Moral Living. More on Happiness: A History. A review of The Truth About Stress (and more). David Brooks reviews World as Laboratory: Experiments With Mice, Mazes, and Men. Chimpanzees may be cute, but they're selfish sods. Some animals are better musicians than first thought, and the concerts bring mates closer together. The first chapter, "How to be the Centre of the Universe", from Language, Bananas & Bonobos: Linguistic Problems, Puzzles, and Polemics. A review of How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning and Languages Live or Die. Writers are perhaps the only artists who can go back and change their work. But should they? Adam Cohen on the politics of Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. We spend our working days tapping into computers. Could it really all be over for handwriting? A review of Simon Critchley's things merely are: Philosophlo's reform)y in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens. More on John Carey's What Good Are the Arts? A review of A Broken Beauty: Figuration, Narrative and the Transcendent in North American Art. From the US Virgin Islands, can colleges save lives? Academics must think about style as well as substance, says the author of Colour Me Beautiful. And hedge-fund guru Joel Greenblatt applied Wall Street principles—and $1,000 per student—to turn around a struggling Queens elementary school. And it worked, spectacularly

[Feb 14] From New Left Review, Jean Baudrillard on The Pyres of Autumn; Tom Nairn reviews Tariq Ali's Rough Music; and does a Debordian optic occlude the oppositional potential of modern technologies? An interview with James Williams, author of books on Lyotard, Deleuze and other poststructuralist thinkers. From Stanford Law Review, a review of Alan Wertheimer's Consent to Sexual Relations pdf. More on Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America. From Harvard Law Review, a review of Nicola Lacey's A Life of HLA Hart. A review of The Tocqueville Reader: A Life in Letters and Politics. A review of Benedict Anderson's Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination. A review of Black Liberation and Socialism. More on Taylor Branch's At Canaan's Edge. Paul Buhle writes on "outsiders" in SDS: Meanyites, Maoists and Ex-Radicals, "no thanks", and reviews Red Seas: Ferdinand Smith and Radical Black Sailors in the United States and Jamaica. From The Chronicle, Thailand blocks Yale Press's website in anger over royal biography; and what makes Michael Bérubé so dangerous? It's his slap shot. Historians Against the War will convene to explore what historical analysis and understanding can contribute to efforts to bring the war to an immediate end. With the release of David Horowitz’s new book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, Caroline Higgins finds herself in elite company. An interview with Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami and a former Clinton administration cabinet secretary. Bush budget for next year proposes slashing student aid. Since the EU bestowed the gift of the Erasmus exchange on its young people, more and more young Europeans have fallen in love abroad. But when they each return to their home countries, euphoria soon gives way to everyday problems. From Yale, Seyla Benhabib may now have lived in America for more than 30 years, but there is at least one Turkish tradition she will not give up. And from MIT's Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, here's the 2006 IAP Philosophy Trivia Quiz

[Feb 13] Barry Friedman (NYU): The Politics of Judicial Review. Chad Oldfather (OCU): Defining Judicial Inactivism: Models of Adjudication and the Duty To Decide. Robert Justin Lipkin (Widener): Which Constitution? Who Decides? The Problem of Judicial Supremacy and the Congressional Override Solution doc. A review of Punishment, Compensation, and Law. A review of Supreme Chaos: The Politics of Judicial Confirmation & the Culture War. A review of Bruce Ackerman's The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy. A review of Crusader Nation: The United States in Peace and the Great War, 1898-1920. More on Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality. More on John Hope Franklin's Mirror to America. More on For Lust of Knowing: the Orientalists and Their Enemies. A review of Women and the Politics of Class. A review of books on the Glorious Revolution (and more). An article on the tragedy of Gramsci's prison years as revealed in letters to his wife and sons. Lion-maned philosopher A C Grayling isn't afraid to leave his ivory tower to dispense his own brand of bracing moral advice. Decades don't douse Milton Friedman's fire: Retired economist still champions free-market theory. Along with the 'zero sum game', the fable of the two unfortunate prisoners has become a torchbearer of the field of game theory. How the inimitable Mr. Feynman solved the mystery of the Challenger explosion. A review of The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design (and an interview with Leonard Susskind). Those who believe in creationism -- children and adults -- are being taught to challenge evolution's tenets in an in-your-face way. More and more and more on James Lovelock's The Revenge of Gaia. And more on Civilisation

[Weekend 2e] Psychology / Sex: From Current Research in Social Psychology, Simon Moss and Simon Ngu (Monash): The Relationship Between Personality and Leadership Preferences; Jeffrey Luas (Maryland) and Michael Lovaglia (Iowa): Self-Handicapping: Gender, Race, and Status; and Daniel Krueger (Michigan) and Maryanne Fisher (St. Mary's): Alternative Male Mating Strategies are Intuitive to Women. From Entelechy, Perfuming the Mind: An essay on the biological logic of physical attraction. Research finds people who have strong feelings of love for people in general are more likely to have strong romantic relationships. Primates at play mirror human sexual behavior (or is it vice versa?). From South Africa, a review of Performing Queer: Shaping Sexualities 1994-2004, and where are all the clever chicks? Germaine Greer on why Betty Friedan wasn't all that. From the latest issue on Reconstruction on gender and science fiction, "It's not easy being a cast iron bitch": An article on sexual difference and the female action hero. If anyone believes that gay men can actually become ex-gay men, Dan Savage has just one question for you: Would you want your daughter to marry one? Your friendly neighborhood adult novelty store is helping out regular folks like you -- in more meaningful ways than you might expect. Tits and grits: All you can eat, and all the boobs you can seen before noon. A "life coach" helps men break out of their sex addiction. Ken and Barbie are headed for a romantic reunion. Ken's new attraction? A makeover. Dahlia Lithwick has more fun with the Kansas teen-sex trial. And a look at the ways in which scary has been made sexy for 200 years

[Weekend] Jason Stanley (Rutgers): Philosophy of Language in the Twentieth Century (a draft of a chapter for the Rutledge Guide to Twentieth Century Philosophy) pdf. A review of Descartes, Alfred Tarski, and A Life of HLA Hart. A review of Bernard Williams' In the Beginning Was the Deed. The first chapter of the new edition of Sheldon Wolin's Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought. An interview with Lucas Swaine, author of The Liberal Conscience: Politics and Principle in a World of Religious Pluralism pdf. A review of Paul Gottfried's The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium. A review of Tony Judt's Postwar. More on Hunger: an unnatural history. More on For Lust of Knowing: the orientalists and their enemies. A review of Happiness: A History. The first chapter from Harry Frankfurt's The Reasons of Love. From Philosophy Now, an article on Robert Nozick as the alleged father of Reaganomics and Thatcherism; philosophy is now sexy, and sex is not: Julian Baggini interviews Dan Chambers; and Ophelia Benson investigates Steven Best, the animal rights philosopher banned from the UK. From Inside Higher Ed, an article on the recent fiasco at AAUP over academic boycotts of Israeli universities. Evangelical historian Mark Noll is leaving Wheaton College for Notre Dame. A review of God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite Twenty Years of Catholic Schooling. Who decides who can teach at religious schools? An excerpt from the introduction to David Horowitz’s new book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. And Big Brother is IMing you: A school invades the MySpace of its students

[Feb 10] Cristian Bejan (Northwestern): The Autonomy of the Individual in a Newly Free Society. Jasper Doomen (Leiden): Smith's Analysis of Human Actions pdf. Amos Witztum (LGU): Social circumstances and rationality: some lessons from Adam Smith why we may not all be equally sovereign. Gertraude Mikl-Horke (Vienna): An Old Idea of “Human Economy” and the New Global Finance Capitalism. Dennis Patterson, Dennis and Ari Afilalo (Rutgers): Statecraft, Trade, and the Order of States. The introduction to Nation-States and the Multinational Corporation: A Political Economy of Foreign Direct Investment. From the latest issue of Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, an essay on The Politics and Philosophy of Anti-Science. From American Scientist, a review of Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate; a review on The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging; and a review of Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development. A review of Darwinism & Philosophy. More on Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell. The notion that science can be used to reconcile political disputes is fundamentally flawed. More and more on The Republican War on Science. A review of Marcia Angell's The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It. From TNR, a review of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's The Mind of the Master Class: History and Faith in the Southern Slaveholders' Worldview. More on At Canaan's Age: America in the King Years, 1965-68. More on Michael Eric Dyson's Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster (and from Colorlines, an article on what the Hurricane revealed). Christopher Hitchens on Skip Gates of Harvard and the growth of African Americans signing up for the DNA tests. And racial tensions between black and Latino players have been exposed in the ongoing controversy over how to honor Roberto Clemente

[Feb 9] From the latest issue of Janus Head, on Goethe's Delicate Empiricism, Eva-Maria Simms (Duquense): Goethe, Husserl, and the Crisis of the European Sciences; Memory, History, Forgiveness: A dialogue between Paul Ricoeur and Sorin Antohi; a review of Gilles Deleuze's Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation; a review of Badiou: A Subject to Truth; a review of The Challenge of Bergsonism; a review of Animal Philosophy: Ethics and Identity; and a review of The Objects of Social Science, among others. The latest issue of the Journal of the International Plato Society is out. A review of The Essential Chuang Tzu. A review of Freedom and Tradition in Hegel. A review of Globalization and the Great Convergence: Rethinking World History in the Long Term. A review of Globalizing Roman Culture: Unity, Diversity and Empire. A review of The Dream of Rome. From The Oxonian Review of Books, a review of On Nineteen Eighty-Four: Orwell and Our Future, edited by Abbott Gleason, Jack Goldsmith and Martha C. Nussbaum. Edward Skidelsky reviews The Courtier and the Heretic. From Salon, an interview with Daniel Dennett. A look at the Human Genome Project 5 years after the completion of the first draft. Scientists discover dozens of new species in 'Lost World' of western New Guinea. From Columbia, an article on the work of Eric Foner outside the classroom. Scott McLemee interviews Carrie Young Costello, author of Professional Identity Crisis: Race, Class, Gender, and Success at Professional Schools. A review of David Horowitz's The End of Time. UT's Robert Jensen responds to Horowitz's latest, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America. A tenured Northwestern professor, Arthur R. Butz, enrages many by backing Holocaust claims of Iran’s president. A look at why German, French, and British companies are devouring American publishers. Let's stop publishing books that don't really need to be books. From The Philosopher, an article on poetry and the science of the mind; and what is wrong with the second person?

[Feb 8] From Globalization, Jennifer Eagan (CSU-East Bay): The Feminist Desire for a Primordial Place, Or Why Feminist Philosophers Avoid the Issue of Globalization; Vasiliki Karavakou (Macedonia): Hegel on Culture and Globalization; Arthur L. Dunklin (WWU): Globalization: A Portrait of Exploitation, Inequality, and Limits; Jamus Jerome Lim (UC-Santa Cruz): On the Role of the State in an Increasingly Borderless World; Mahmood Ahmad (FF): Religious Resurgence in an Era of Globalization: Islam's Quest for Global Participation; and Timothy McGettigan (CSU-Pueblo): The Return of the W: King George XLIII and the Bankruptcy of Democracy. Peter Charles Hoffer (Georgia): An Essential History of the United States Supreme Court pdf. From 49th Parallel, Michael Broek (Essex): Hobbes and Locke: Puritans, Pilgrims, and the Conflicted American Mythos. Noel Malcolm (Oxford): What Hobbes Really Said. From Animus, James Crooks (Bishop's): Heidegger, Self and State: Doull, Nicholson and the Problem of Postmodern Politics. A review of Heidegger and Plato: Toward Dialogue. A review of A Democracy of Distinction: Aristotle and the Work of Politics. From Cultural Logic, a review of Racism and Cultural Studies: Critiques of Multiculturalist Ideology and the Politics of Difference, and a review of The Politics of Critical Theory: Language Discourse Society. A review of Relativism. An interview with Thomas Pogge on global justice. A review of Past Futures: The Impossible Necessity of History. More on Civilisation. A new issue of ephemera is out. An article on how Malcolm Bradbury killed sociology. A review of Postmodernism and Big Science: Einstein, Dawkins, Khun, Hawking, Darwin. A review of Michael Ruse’s The Evolution-Creation Struggle. Should we treat religion as a science? Julian Baggini investigates. From The Wilson Quarterly, a review of The Future Without a Past: The Humanities in a Technological Society. From The Scientist, is peer review broken? And an article on the myth of the math and science shortage

[Feb 7] John Mikhail (Georgetown): Moral Heuristics or Moral Competence? Reflections on Sunstein. Norman Madarasz (Gama Filho): Rejection of the Oligarchs: Scouring the Atlantic Rim for Signs of Capitalism. From Norway's Dictum, Heidi Isaksen (Tromsø): Freedom Through Knowledge: Bourdieu, feminist theory and literary gender research, concurrent projects? About Bourdieu's contribution to feminist research; Emma Engdahl (Örebro): G. H. Mead’s Symbolic Interactionism: On the significance of emotional experience for self-formation; and an interview with Gro Hillestad Thune on rules and human rights. A look at the life and work of Jean Malaurie, adventurer in a "Terre Humaine". A review of Donald Davidson's Truth, Language, and History. A review of Satisficing and Maximizing: Moral Theorists on Practical Reason. More on Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian. A review of For Lust of Knowing: The Orientalists and their Enemies. An article on the life and work of Ibn Khaldun, 14th century Arab libertarian. An interview with Susan B. Carter and Richard Sutch, the people behind the new edition of Historical Statistics of the United States. From the first issue of Engage, an editorial, an essay on How Neoconservatives' Shift from Left to Right Inspired Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Thinking, and an article on academic freedom and the limits of boycotts: some Kantian considerations. From The Chronicle, the academy, it seems, has learned its lesson from the McCarthy era. Or has it? From MIT, courtesy and courtship join computer science and chemistry among course offerings. From Yale, historian Paul Kennedy charged with DUI. From Stanford, Alec Rawls, son of John, rips into Larry Diamond. The idea of an Osama reading club is no joke at Vanderbilt. A review of Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History and The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative. Who is the greatest artist of the 20th century? An economist figures it out. And a figure in JT Leroy case says partner is culprit

[Feb 6] Science and more: From Natural History, an article on the origins of life: Have too many cooks spoiled the prebiotic soup? A look at the life and work of Gilbert White, author of The Natural History of Selborne. Ghost in the machine: An article on neurofeedback and the ecology of Mind. Scientists are using brain imaging and other tools as new kinds of lie detectors. But trickier even than finding the source of deception might be navigating a world without. The brain has become a pop star. But what does its glossy, computer-enhanced image really tell us about what motivates us and who we are? A mandate to defend turf is at the root of some of the species' most irrational and violent behavior: jealousy, assaults, murder. Religious critics of evolution are wrong about its flaws. But are they right that it threatens belief in a loving God? More and more on Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell. More on The Church and Galileo. In the wake of the Dover trial, scientists are being criticized for working on anything that might be construed as pseudoscience and string theory is drawing most of the heat. More on The Fated Sky: Astrology in History. More on The Devil's Doctor. A review of William T. Vollmann's Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (and more). Pythagoras' theorem is about way more than determining the length of the hypotenuse. Literature has been slow to grasp the implications of Einstein's theories. A review of Deeper Than Reason: Emotion and Its Role in Literature, Music, and Art. A review of Javier Marias' Written Lives. It's seems a ripe time for the debut of Plagiary, an academic journal subtitled "Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication and Falsification". And it may seem odd that scientists in the Internet age spend years on a line of research without having first determined that their mountain had not already been climbed

[Weekend 2e] Avner de-Shalit (HUJ): Political Philosophy and Empowering Citizens: "This paper defends the idea of empowering citizens by means of teaching them political philosophy". Does can imply ought? A meditation on moral philosophy. A review of Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s. A review of Athenian Legacies: Essays on the Politics of Going on Together. A review of Friedrich Nietzsche by Curtis Cate. A review of The Cambridge Companion to Adorno. Peter Berkowitz reviews Theory's Empire. From Literary Review, Paul Johnson reviews Tête-à-Tête: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre; and a review of Righteous Gentiles: How Pius XII and the Catholic Church Saved Half a Million Jews from the Nazis. From Citizen, the magazine of James Dobson's Focus on the Family, how could the atrocities of Nazi Germany ever have happened? Darwinism helped set the stage. From New Internationalist, a special issue on justice after genocide. The first chapter, "Genocide and Anthropology", from Genocide: An Anthropological Reader. More on Mao: The Unknown Story. A review of The Bismarck Myth: Weimar Germany and the Legacy of the Iron Chancellor. A review of Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. From Yale, dorm bathrooms may have soap, but they are a long way from civilized yet, because the bathrooms are co-educational. From Stanford, virtually all undergraduates think politicians are gross: "Politics are so lame". A new high-school mathematics might someday model complex adaptive systems. The way books are marketed is one reason people think fiction is for girls. The other reason? Many men just hate reading novels. Why are fairy tales becoming so soppy? And yes, your kids are smarter than you -- there's proof

[Weekend] From Metanexus, Thomas King (Georgetown): God and the Unity of Nations; Kathleen Duffy (Chestnut Hill): Teilhard and the Texture of the Evolutionary Cosmos; an essay on The Varieties of Mystical Experience: Paul Tillich and William James. From Markets & Morality, James V. Schall (Georgetown): Justice: The Most Terrible of the Virtues; Andrew Schein (NAC): A Biblical Precedent for the Coase Theorem?; Is there only secular democracy? George Cardinal Pell on imagining other possibilities for the third millennium; and a debate on the influence of Kant on Christian theology. A review of Kant's Transcendental Proof of Realism. From Algemeiner, on what Nietzsche didn’t understand about Judaism. A review of The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. From Blackwell, the first chapter, "Skepticism and the Retreat from Realism", from Skepticism: The Central Issues. Pope Benedict XVI has sent a clear message: No one has anything to fear from a God who is love, but though he can accuse secularists of believing in the wrong things, that' s not the same as believing in nothing. Galileo Groupies: The unlikely rock star of intelligent design. From Eurozine, identity as problem: An article on silences and parodies in the East-West feminist dialogue. From Australia, a review of Oh No, We Forgot to Have Children!: How Declining Birth Rates Are Reshaping Our Society and Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? and a review of books on poverty and fairness. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales James Spigelman on the importance of institutions. And from Ghana, what's with academia? Why do they get the jitters when it comes to politics?

[Feb 3] Josep M. Colomer (Pompeu Fabra): It's Parties That Choose Electoral Systems (Or Duverger's Laws Upside Down) pdf. Chad Oldfather (Marquette): Defining Judicial Inactivism: Models of Adjudication and the Duty to Decide. Randy Barnett (BU): Scalia's Infidelity: A Critique of Faint-Hearted Originalism. Tyler Cowen (George Mason): The Future of Culture in a Globalised World pdf. An excerpt from Market Day in Provence, "A Commerce of the Imaginary". From The Nation, Richard Wolin reviews Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927-1961 and Origins of the Other: Emmanuel Levinas Between Revelation and Ethics. A review of Exploring the World of Human Practice: Readings in and about the Philosophy of Aurel Kolnai. A review of Philosophy between Faith and Theology: addresses to Catholic intellectuals. From Canada, a review of The Hanging of Angelique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal (and more). From Norway, author Stig Saeterbakken asks whether literature helps maintain individual and collective identity, or whether it inspires us to discredit it. From Eurozine, a series of essays on Literary Perspectives: Hungary, including an article on mastering history through narrative, and an interview with novelist György Spiró. From the Cairo Review of Books, Columbia's David Damrosch gives the first Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture at the American University in Cairo, "Secular criticism meets the world", with notes from a life of music; nobody seemed very interested in Beginnings, his first book, but everyone was stunned by Orientalism; and a review of a special issue of Alif: A Journal of Comparative Poetics on "Edward Said and Critical Decolonisation". A review of Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, Politics. And a review of books on Britain's Glorious Revolution

[Feb 2] From Ethics & International Affairs, Jeff McMahan (Rutgers): Just Cause for War; Anthony Burke (NSW): Against the New Internationalism; a response by Jean Bethke Elshtain on the New Utopianism; and a reply. A review of Hilary Putnam's Ethics Without Ontology. A review of The Social Psychology of Good and Evil. The introduction to Don Herzog's Cunning. More on The Courtier and the Heretic. The first chapter from Bernard Williams' Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline. A review of There's Something about Mary. From Monthly Review, Debunking as Positive Science: Reflections in honor of the 25th anniversary of Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man. The Discovery Institute launched the intelligent-design movement with a simple memo. The idea has evolved into a media sensation--and the cause has mutated beyond rational control. What's the hot new frontier of neuroscience? Meditation! (Just ask the Dalai Lama). From the JASSS, an essay on Dialogues Concerning a (Possibly) New Science. A review of Inconsistency, Asymmetry, and Non-Locality: A Philosophical Investigation of Classical Electrodynamics. Extra dimensional theories are claimed to work in 10 or 11 dimensions. Why these numbers and not, say, 42? From Canada, Ontario is deciding where calculus fits in the packed four-year high school curriculum or whether it should be sacrificed in favour of more algebra, geometry and trigonometry. An article on why the gender lens may not shed light on the latest educational crisis. From TLS, an essay on the trials of Orhan Pamuk and Turkey. An interview with Nadine Gordimer. Scott McLemee catches up with the field of Oprah studies, leaving his brain in a million little pieces. More on Naomi Wolff's The Treehouse. An the University of Chicago Press has a new blog, The Chicago Blog

[Feb 1] Richard Nelson (Columbia): The Market Economy and the Scientific Commons pdf. A new issue of Forum: Qualitative Social Research is out, on learning about risk. From NDPR, a review of Maimonides on the Origin of the World, and a review of Philosophical Myths of the Fall. A review of Written in the Flesh: A History of Desire. A review of Regulating Sex: The Politics of Intimacy and Identity. Freud was wrong. It's not women who suffer penis envy, but men - they all want a bigger one. But they should be careful what they wish for. Research shows it takes about a hundredth of a second to assess the attractiveness of a human face. A review of Cognition and the Brain: The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement. Science will soon give some of us the tools to make ourselves cleverer and stronger. New study shows that variety is overrated, especially in our choices for others. A study ties political leanings to hidden biases: "George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice." When it comes to math, students in regular public schools do as well as or significantly better than comparable students in private schools. An interview with Katharine Lyall and Kathleen Sell, authors of The True Genius of America at Risk: Are We Losing Our Public Universities to De Facto Privatization? From ReadySteadyBook, an interview with Amanda Anderson, author of The Way We Argue Now: A Study in the Cultures of Theory. Modernism is the idea that just won't go away. And Michael Dirda reviews What Good are the Arts?

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