[Jul 31] From The Toronto Star's "Ideas", citoyen? bürger? Around the world, "citizen" means many different things. From "citizen" to "passport": Belonging to a country used to mean something. Is that still possible in the 21st century? From Salon, the "hiding among civilians" myth: Israel claims it's justified in bombing civilians because Hezbollah mingles with them. In fact, the militant group doesn't trust its civilians and stays as far away from them as possible. A letter from Tel Aviv: The view from the bubble, a local variation on Saul Steinberg's famous New Yorker cover "View of the World from 9th Avenue". What was clearly conceived as a quick battle using air power and strikes on specific targets against Hezbollah has turned into a crisis. If this is the third world war, we’re losing: There are lessons in the cold war for those who fear the rise of Islamo-fascism. John Keegan on why it's not another World War One. A review of The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq by Fouad Ajami and The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End by Peter W. Galbraith. Where the collateral damage is in the mind: The randomness and ubiquity of the violence has reconfigured the emotional geography of Iraq. More on Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. A review of Guantánamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power by Joseph Margulies. From The Boston Globe's "Ideas", after three terms in the Senate, Joe Lieberman may be headed for defeat, and a possible independent run. But it's not Joe Lieberman who's changed. It's partisan politics; an interview with Geoffrey Nunberg, author of Talking Right; and pious and prochoice: The religious abortion-rights movement is playing a greater role in the national debate on abortion. And insulting heterosexuals and discriminating against children with same-sex parents may score the other side a few runs, but these strategies won’t win the game

[Weekend 2e] Potpourri: Peter Doran would like to remove his name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming. And he knows his coauthors would as well. Moguls of New Media: The MySpace member with a million 'friends.' The receptionist with a production deal. Some of the Web's amateur entertainers are becoming powerful players. After 4 decades, Cold War symbol Cheyenne Mountain stands down. How much has sex changed through the millennia and even in past decades? Are humans doing it more? Are we doing it better? It’s called NewAssignment.net, and the idea is for everyday citizens to fund specific reporting projects that will be assigned to professional journalists. Sweating your way to enlightenment: A look at the social politics of climate control. Food manufacturers are embracing new media to market their products directly to children. Ten months have passed since The Wall Street Journal unveiled its Weekend Edition, and it isn't truly scary or disastrous, but the Saturday Journal still doesn't get it quite right. From OstEuropa, an article on men, middlemen, and migrants and the demand side of "sex trafficking". Coal-burning utilities are passing the hat for one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of global warming, Pat Michaels, Virginia's state climatologist, a University of Virginia professor and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. An interview with blogger Stephanie Klein, author of Straight Up & Dirty. John Dean reviews Robert Scheer's Playing President: My Close Encounters with Nixon, Carter, Bush I, Reagan and Clinton - and How They Did Not Prepare Me for George W. Bush. Chairman PJ O'Rourke writes from The Editor's Chair. From Infoshop, on the politics of porn: Two short essays. Victor Davis Hanson on the fragility of the good life. Soccer goes green: At the world cup, a new way to offset carbon emissions. Jack Shafer on how The New York Times makes local papers dumber. UPS vs. FedEx: Which shipping company is right about the economy? From Znet, an article on the Spanish anarchists, through a participatory lens. Bench-clearing brawl: A look at why judges need to join the fight to save the courts. Requiem for a Rookie Card: How baseball cards lost their luster. An article on sending sex offenders into exile. From Blueprint, an essay on how to democratize capitalism. And it's not the heat, it's the stupidity: Is California's hot summer a sign of things to come? 

[Weekend] From PS: Political Science and Politics, a symposium on Voting Gaps in the 2004 Election, including an introduction; Karen Kaufmann (Maryland): The Gender Gap; Laura Olson (Clemson) and John Gree (Akron): The Religion Gap; Jeffrey Stonecash (Syracuse): The Income Gap; and James Gimpel and Kimberly Karnes (Maryland): The Rural Side of the Urban-Rural Gap; and more on the myth of the security mom pdf. From TAP, an interview with Chuck Schumer on his vision of the Democratic Party. From The Democratic Strategist, an essay (with responses) on The Redistricting Myth. If the Founders could do it all over again, might they look at the House of Representatives today and wonder, "What were we thinking?" From the Democratic Leadership Council's Blueprint, a cover story on Saving the American Dream, an article on Winning the Future; Democrats have a winning governing philosophy they can offer the country. It's called Clintonism; winning a Red State: Sen. Ken Salazar on how issues and authenticity beat money and name recognition in a Colorado senate race; why Americans vote their values: Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger on how, in a post-material era, people seek status, purpose, and happiness -- and cast their ballots accordingly; a review of American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia; and more on Crunchy Cons. More on Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy. From Christianity Today, an interview with Michael Gerson, recently resigned Bush speechwriter on evangelicals and public square. Spreading the Word, fast: A new system makes church membership grow exponentially. Sound familiar? That society was Germany of the 1920s -- the ill-fated Weimar Republic. But it also describes more and more the political climate in America today. From The Mises Institute, an essay on the idea of a private law society. Beside ourselves: An article on the lonely lost in our social labyrinths. A review of Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security (and a sample chapter). And the fate of Bill Frist's family empire tells a larger story, the troubled boom-and-bust history of for-profit hospitals in America

[Jul 28] From The Nation, Jonathan Schell on Bush's Failed Empire. An interview with Douglas Murray, author of Neoconservatism: Why We Need It.  An interview with former Pentagon official Eli Flyer on military recruiting and abuses in Iraq. An interview with Peter Laufer, author of Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq. More on Peter Beinart's The Good Fight. The US isn't immune to nuclear attack. But you can bet it's not going to come courtesy of the Taepodong-2 missile the North Koreans fired recently. The first chapter from In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America. Texas preacher John Hagee leads a campaign to let Israel fight, arguing the Jewish state fulfills Biblical prophecy: "It's the end of world as we know it", and he feels fine. (Sorry...) In Daniel Pinchbeck's world, Apocalypse is not such a bad thing: A review of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. From First Things, a review of American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century; The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us; Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism; and Thy Kingdom Come: How The Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical’s Lament. Alan Wolfe on Richard John Neuhaus and the territory of belief. When Pat Buchanan, of all Beltway belligerents, pleads for an "armistice in the culture war," you know something pretty funky is going on. All parental consent laws for abortion include a judicial bypass process. On the ground, in state after state, that process is dysfunctional. Even Supreme Court justices ruling on major constitutional issues can be swayed by their families. Is that a bad thing? Dahlia Lithwick on how to make a thorny constitutional question disappear.  From The Economist, an article in praise of America's fearless consumers of new ideas and products. Erin Aubry Kaplan is fed up with Ghettotainment: Blacks and Hollywood need a fresh vision. A review of White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele (and an interview ). Yes, African-Americans distrust Mr. Bush's party -- with good reason. And borrowing the language of civil rights movement, a drive is on to unionize security guards

[Jul 27] From Prospect, the English question has been revived. What does it mean? A symposium; and Blair's "tough on the causes of crime" and Cameron's "hug a hoodie" speeches reflect the dominant sociological model of crime. But research into the "criminal personality" suggests some people are far more likely to offend than others. From Monthly Review, here are six points on class. From New Statesman, a look at why hedge funds will destroy the world. A consideration on Give a Penny, Take a Penny. The bottled water industry is a prime example of why P.T. Barnum, not Adam Smith, should be anointed as capitalism's patron saint. A review of Profit With Honor: The New Stage of Market Capitalism by Daniel Yankelovich.  From The New Yorker, James Surowiecki on Airbus and the dangers of flying to conclusions . Air travel is solitary and alienating. Can the microjet bring camaraderie to the skies? Jane Jacobs, reconsidered: A review of The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Barbara Ehrenreich on how guys just want to have fun, and why they know exactly what they're doing.  Linda Hirshman courts controversy by insisting that a mother's place is at the office. More on Manliness. More and more on Friendship: An Exposé by Joseph Epstein. From Skeptic, an article on religious belief and societal health: A new study reveals that religion does not lead to a healthier society; Orthodox Jews and science An empirical study of their attitudes toward evolution, the fossil record, and modern geology; a look at the other Intelligent Design theories: Intelligent Design is only one of many “alternatives” to Darwinian evolution; and a review of Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science. Michael Shermer on why our intuitions about how the world works are often wrong. A review of Why People Believe Weird Things. A review of The Language of God, The God Delusion, Breaking the Spell, God's Universe, Evolution and Christian Faith, The Creation and Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast. A review of Natural Atheism, and a review of Susan Jacoby's Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism. Right-wing activists deliberately provoke many of the fissures currently wracking mainline churches. A review of God’s War: a new history of the Crusades. And Edward Rothstein on how Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History shows just how similar stories about evil have been

[Jul 26] From Foreign Policy, religion was supposed to fade away as globalization and freedom spread. Instead, it’s booming around the world. Democracy is giving people a voice, and more and more, they want to talk about God. From LRB, three dispatches from Lebanon: Seeing and remembering; here are siege notes from Beirut; and how will the war end? From NYRB, a review of America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy; Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy; Diplomacy Lessons: Realism for an Unloved Superpower; and a review of Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq; Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco; The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq; and Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace: Surviving Under Saddam, Dying in the New Iraq. While the Bush administration professes a commitment to Iraq’s unity, it has no intention of undertaking the major effort required to put the country together again. A review of Holy Terror by Terry Eagleton. Are questions of war and peace merely one issue among many for libertarians? Robert Higgs wants to know. A review of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. A review of Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq. From The Progressive, an interview with Gore Vidal: "There is something really wrong with Bush". Duke's Erwin Chemerinsky, co-counsel for Joseph and Valerie Wilson, on why Cheney's leaking represents an abuse of power, not freedom of speech. From TNR, a look at why stem-cell research won't drive a wedge through the Republican Party. Frank Rich on The Passion of the Embryos. Perhaps you have thought, "If the voters knew how venal a GOP member of Congress was, they could never get re-elected". MoveOn is testing that. An interview with Kevin Mccullough, author of Musclehead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism With Commonsense Thinking. Guest workers as 21st century slaves: An excerpt from Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders by Jim Gilchrist and Jerome R. Corsi. Peter Beinart on why conservatives have lost sight of an immigration solution. And if we are really serious about turning back the tide of illegal immigration, we should start by raising the minimum wage

[Jul 25] American politics: From TAP, it's a myth that judicial interventions inevitably provoke a stronger public backlash than those made by legislatures. David Cole on why the Justices said no to the Bush administration's detainee policy. Silence in the Court! Why are liberals urging that the Supreme Court do next to nothing? Jeffrey Rosen's The Most Democratic Branch argues that judges serve America best by sticking close to popular sentiment on the most controversial issues. Not all judges agree. The American Bar Association says President Bush flouts the Constitution and undermining the rule of law with signing statements. Almost 10 years after President Bill Clinton signed the welfare reform law, it's pretty clear that it has, as promised, ended welfare as we knew it. The case for breaking up Wal-Mart: Is it time to bring in the government to break up the mega chain? From Grist, Al Gore takes his green message to Wal-Mart headquarters. MIT professor Richard Lindzen is a scientific mule: Scientists agree the Earth is warming, and human activities are the principal cause. From Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens on The Vietnam Syndrome: The poisoned legacy of Agent Orange lives on in the children whose deformities it is said to have caused. From Mother Jones, how a football tycoon took George H.W. Bush's oil company and used it to go after the fish that built America. On the authoritarian streak in the conservative movement: An excerpt from John Dean's Conservatives Without a Conscience (and a review). William F. Buckley says George W. Bush is not a true conservative. Cathy Young on the chasm in conservatism today. An article on how Ohio’s gubernatorial race tests the power of the Christian right. Christian perfume's not your thing? Try golf balls. Or candy. This booming market has piles of products and a single message. More on Hostile Takeover and Whose Freedom? As progressive bloggers seek the ouster of Joe Lieberman, they have recruited "Reagan Democrat" Jim Webb to challenge George Allen in Virginia. What does this say about netroots Democrats' emerging electoral strategy--if there is one? And the Weather Underground rises from the ashes: They're baack! 

[Jul 24] Global warming is having its moment in the sun. But Americans are still less concerned about the issue than non-Americans, and less willing to support dramatic action to address it. There's a logical job for Al Gore that would give him the power to do something about global warming. Here's a hint: He's held it before. A review of The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock (and more). Daniel Gross on how we're irrationally exuberant about alternative energy, but that's good. Is the best way to market ecofriendly products to keep quiet about the environment? An interview with Arthur Kleinman, author of What Really Matters: Living a Moral Life Amidst Uncertainty and Danger. A painful constant through history: How exile and evacuation have shaped the world. From HNN, why it's time to nationalize the US defense industry. A review of books on the military's love affair with technology, from video game to secret weapons. A review of Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control. A review of Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror. More and more on The One Percent Doctrine. More on The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End. More on Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America. More on Failed States.  A review of Neoconservatism: Why We Need It. Andrew Sullivan on how the neocons are caught in their very own civil war. More on Islamic Imperialism: A History. Can the clash between scantily clad secularism and conservative religious ideology produce a third way in the Arab world? A review of Muhajababes. A review of Misogyny: The World’s Oldest Prejudice. Some women insist on a drug-free childbirth while others opt for a numbing epidural. Is this all part of the debate between natural and modern medicine, or are some women embracing labor pain for a more heroic cause? For child-welfare social workers, there is no more wrenching decision than whether to reunite children with their troubled mother or to sever those ties forever. Cities shed middle class, and are richer and poorer for it: Does it matter if there is less room for a middle class? Historians are finally giving the suburbs their due--and changing their lily-white image. And a review of The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality

[Weekend 2e] From American Heritage, is America really so unique? A review of Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America, by Eric Rauchway, a historian at the University of California at Davis. A review of England in Particular: A Celebration of the Commonplace, the Local, the Vernacular and the Distinctive. An apartheid-like system existed in early Anglo-Saxon Britain, which wiped out a majority of original British genes in favour of German ones, according to research. An excerpt from The English School of International Relations: A Contemporary Reassessment, and an excerpt from International Relations: The Path Not Taken.  An article on developments in international justice in the last 15 years. From The Mises Institute, Hans-Hermann Hoppe on Natural Elites, Intellectuals, and the State. Income inequality used to be about rich versus poor, but now it's increasingly a matter of the ultra rich and everyone else. Women have led space shuttle flights. Women are chief executives of huge corporations. Still, who takes care of the kids? From Financial Times, down with conformity: The current rose-tinted view of the 1950s is nostalgia; on the shops that time forgot: Amid the supermarkets and chain stores, small, family run businesses still thrive; a review of The Secrets of Happiness: Three Thousand Years of Searching for the Good Life; A Brief History of Happiness; The Pursuit of Happiness: A History from the Greeks to the Present; Stumbling on Happiness; and The Happiness Hypothesis: Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science; catch them young: A new approach to tackling addiction; and a review of Allergy: The History of a Modern Malady

[Weekend] Potpourri: From TAP, why Democrats should pursue "progressive realism" at home. Do progressives need better ideas, or better campaigns? From Writ, Valerie Plame's lawsuit against Vice President Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove: Was it a good idea, or a bad one?  More on Active Liberty by Stephen Breyer. From Salon, Happy 14th Amendment Day! Thanks to the visionary constitutional reformers of 1868, America enjoys equal rights for all. Today's anti-immigration zealots want to destroy their legacy. Rechecking the balance of powers: Glenn Greewald on how the Bush administration has finally been rebuked for its repeated efforts to evade judicial review. Is Right Wing America becoming palingenetic ultranationalist populist? An essay on the history of insurrections in anarchism and of the modern ideas of insurrectionalism. From The Black Commentator, a cover story on voting rights: It's time to think the unthinkable. A review of A Companion to African-American Philosophy. Michael Erik Dyson on the injustice Bill Cosby doesn't see. From The Mises Institute, an article on the Three Stages of Invention. Coverage of the booming real estate market is pretty thin because reporters tend not to recognize the value of the beat or how to cover it. But David Streitfeld is exceptional. Why an issue of Multinational Monitor focused on bird flu?  An interview with Al Gore on " An Inconvenient Truth". And Gordon Marino on white lies and the lies that we tell ourselves

[Jul 21] From PINR, an article on the role of Iran and Syria in the Israel-Lebanon crisis. The Minister of Civil War: An article on Bayan Jabr, Paul Bremer, and the rise of the Iraqi death squads. Reaping what Bush sowed: A grim tally of civilian deaths are the new currency of daily life. As the Middle East burns, GOP pols, neocon pundits, and a powerful Christian right leader all sing the same (crazy) tune. Paul Krugman travels down memory lane, while Frank Rich writes about those wonderful folks who gave you "Axis of Evil". Here are the results of a Stars and Stripes' survey of deployed troops. ESPN reports on An Un-American Tragedy: Pat Tillman's Tragedy (and part 2). From Global Media Journal, Thomas B. Christie, Ph.D., Andrew M. Clark, Ph.D., and Lara Zwarun (UT-Arlington): Finding a Credible Message to Win Hearts and Minds of the Muslim World; a review of The Al-Jazeera Phenomenon; a review of Al-Jazeera: The Story of the Network That is Rattling Governments and Redefining Modern Journalism. From Neiman Reports, a special issue on Journalists: On the Subject of Courage. From CJR, an article on the sordid history of blackmail in journalism. Does America's press believe in freedom of the press? A new research paper seeks to answer a riddle for publishers, editors and even readers: when does new news become old news? Shrinking circulation! Fact-checking goofs! Partisan reporting! Despite the scare headlines, journalism's sob story may still have a happy ending. From Esprit, beyond information and opinion sharing, does the Internet facilitate exposure to views we do not share? Bernard Manin investigates. From Springerin, B@bel, Aymara and the internet as language graveyard: Multilingualism campaigns create a basis for putting a language online but do not manage to reflect upon what kind of environment the Internet really represents for the respective language and its development. Timothy Garton Ash is mugged by the blogosphere; or how to find nuggets in a cyberswamp. Who are all these bloggers? And what do they want? A review of The Best of Slate: A 10th Anniversary Anthology. And Michael Kinsley has brain surgery, but wakes up with crazy ideas in his head

[Jul 20] From TNR, why Israel is entitled to act: Michael Walzer on just war theory and the Middle East conflict; and John Judis on why only American diplomacy can resolve the Middle East crisis. An interview with Augustus Richard Norton, a professor of anthropology and international relations at Boston University, on Hezbollah. What's behind the enduring alliance between Syria and Iran? President Bush is facing a new and swiftly building backlash on the right over his handling of foreign affairs. Watching the President of the United States try to fulfill his responsibilities at an international summit is a sobering experience these days, with the open mike, closed mind mishap that reveals the undeniable fact that Bush is an imbecile: "Russia's big and so is China??????? This guys sounds like a third grader". How screwed is the world today? Citigroup's Geo-Political Risk calculator has the answer. Robert Kaplan reviews Insurgents, Terrorists and Militias: The Warriors of Contemporary Combat. An excerpt from Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy by Francis Fukuyama. From Mother Jones, an interview with Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer on the Israel lobby. An essay on The Great Israel Lobby Fuss. An interview with Michelle Goldberg, author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. A review of The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals edited by Robert P. George and Jean Bethke Elshtain. A review of Roger Scruton's A Political Philosophy: Arguments for Conservatism. America has lots of conservative pundits. But thinkers? Not so much. Scott McLemee recalls one of the few, Philip Rieff. From TomPaine, if Bush really believed stem cells equal life, he would liberate them. An excerpt from Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization. A new issue of The Cato Institute's Regulation is out. A review of Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World by Linda R. Hirshman. An excerpt from The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century.  A review of Emotions in Finance: Distrust and Uncertainty in Global Markets. Do you think your high-paid managers really know best? Perhaps computer models, by and large, can do a better job of it. And there was a period in the 1970s when walking into any boardroom was like landing on the set of "Planet of the Apes". In recent decades the beard has become something of a taboo

[Jul 19] The law, the left, and dogs: From TNR, Jeffrey Rosen on Dick Cheney, John Yoo, and the frightening rise of unitarians--no, not those Unitarians--in the White House. From Slate, Akhil Reed Amar on Dick Cheney as the next First Amendment poster child; and Bruce Ackerman on how Congress can make Guantanamo even worse. Here are some essential elements that will allow us to test Congressional resolve on the rule of law. From Crimes of War Project, the book Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know is free online. From State of Nature, an article on US militarism: Talking peace, making war; a review of Morris Berman’s Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire; and a review essay on the centrality of state violence. More on Peter Beinart's The Good Fight (and an interview). From New Politics, an article on Pentagon Strategy, Hollywood, and Technowar; Ronald Aronson on The Soul of Socialism; and a special section on caregiving, including Foster Care, The Wages of Care, and The Ups and Downs of the Swedish Welfare State. From Monthly Review, an article on women and class: What has happened in forty years? From International Socialist Review, an essay on the fading relevance of permanent revolution, and response.  From Synthesis / Regeneration, why dialects? why now? How to study the communist future inside the capitalist present. From Anarchy, an article on Democracy versus Desire: Beyond the Politics of Measure; a review of Democracy and Conspiracy: Overlaps, Parallels, and Standard Operating Procedures; and a review of Beyond Exclusion: Democracy and an Anarchist Ethic. A review of The Intellectuals and the Flag by Todd Gitlin. More on George Lakoff's Whose Freedom? From Bad Subjects, an article on understanding religion and estimating justice in the final term of George II. From Arena, an essay on The Cultural Contradictions of Christian Fundamentalism; and the Reality of TV: Television isn’t to blame for every social ill but neither is it neutral. From Entertainment Weekly, a cover story on Al Gore as a movie star. Form E Magazine, an article on the Poisoner's Tale: What to learn from prairie dogs. Thanks to their domestication and favored pet status, dogs have enjoyed a genetic variability known to few other species. Is there an evolutionary basis to behavioral differences between cats and dogs? An almost-serious scholarly debate. And the introduction to Pets in America: A History 

[Jul 18] From Think Tank, an interview with Richard Epstein on the future of the constitution (and part 2); and Epstein on the problem with presidential signing statements. Is Justice Scalia's faith in the criminal justice system, expressed in a recent opinion, based on the fuzzy math of the death penalty lobby? The law is clear that the president has absolute immunity from lawsuits for anything he does while in office. Less clear is how far that immunity extends to the vice president and White House aides. The untested War Crimes Act of '96: Has any American -- or anyone -- ever been punished under the War Crimes Act? The administration now says it will abide by the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of detainees. But the devil, as they say, is in the details, and important questions remain unanswered. Dahlia Lithwick on how the US inches ever closer to criminalizing bad thoughts. Suspicion of foreigners, fears over terrorism, suspects held without charge - an Elizabethan episode has useful lessons for today's times. From The Occidental Quarterly, a review of Russell Kirk and the Age of Ideology pdf. From The Public Eye, a cover story on White Power Cyberculture; how anti-abortion myths feed the Christian Right agenda; and a review of Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade. A review of John McWhorter's Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America. A review of Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture (and more). Here's a open letter to Oriana Fallaci on Islam and racism. From Slate, friends aren't what they used to be: An article on the new ethos of intimacy. Americans have fewer close friends than before. Is that a problem? More on Friendship: An Exposé. More and more on Manliness. The makers of WholesomeWear swimsuits would like women to cover up their tummies. And their backs. And their arms. And half their legs. Sex and the Liberal Christian: What the left-wing followers of Jesus think about the birds and the bees. An interview with Katha Pollitt on Virginity or Death! Does everybody have the right to have a baby? And who should pay when nature alone doesn’t work? From Lilith, who cleans your house? A feminist perspective on social justice pdf. And from Lip, if women ruled the world, nothing would be different: The biggest problem with American feminism today is its obsession with women; and what if gay marriage is the wrong fight?

[Jul 17] From Harper's, stabbed in the back!: The past and the future of a right wing myth. A review of Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean. The clash of conservatives: An interview with Francis Fukuyama. Robert Wright on an American foreign policy that both realists and idealists should fall in love with. From Tikkun, was the invasion of Iraq a Jewish conspiracy? From Foreign Policy, more from John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt on the Israel lobby. A beautiful friendship? In search of the truth about the Israel lobby's influence on Washington. From Quadrant, an essay on what history teaches the Jews. Daniel Pipes on how Muslims think. The case for reducing our commitment to Iraq is built on a compelling proposition: that the administration made a huge bet on Iraq and it lost. A review of America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked. More on Überpower: The Imperial Temptation of America. A review of The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy From 1940 to the Present. A review of Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror. Peter Bergen and Warren Bass pick the best of the recent flood of books on terrorism. Among the shifting rationales for the war in Iraq, Kevin Phillips says, the most plausible motive may be the least discussed: access to oil. From Boston to St. Petersburg, natural gas is changing the way the world thinks of energy. But as gas goes global, will Russia become the new Saudi Arabia? For the first time in decades, increasing the role of nuclear power in the United States may be starting to make political, environmental and even economic sense. We must all risk becoming "environmental bores": To see the crisis coming and not act would be worse than denying climate change. A review of The Last Generation: How Nature Will Take Her Revenge for Climate Change. A review of The Economics of Attention by Richard Lanham. From Socialist Review, an interview with John Rees, author of Imperialism and Resistance; Alex Callinicos on alternatives to neo-liberalism; and an interview with Andrew Glyn, author of Capitalism Unleashed. From Monthly Review, John Bellamy Foster on aspects of class in the US, and an essay on the power of the rich. Paul Krugman on Left Behind Economics. And from Dissent, an article on avoiding debacle in the US auto industry

[Weekend 2e] Media, politics and more:  Daniel Solove (GWU): A Brief History of Information Privacy Law. A review of Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age. Free Speech Fiasco: Stephen Carter on why it's not the government's job to decide whose feelings need protection. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann carves anti-Fox niche. A plea to Ann Coulter: Steal This Column! A review of Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show. Brad DeLong on the tabloid syndrome in economics reporting. In the language of gastronomy, those Michelin stars translate as dollar signs. Bill Hillsman, a Minneapolis based advertising executive, has shown that election commercials can be more entertaining than the sitcoms they interrupt. From Columbia Journalism Review, an essay on The End of Ambiguity. Jack Shafer on why The New York Times shouldn't have published its story. Nick Denton, publicity cat: How the Gawker Media guy reaps so much media attention. Here comes everybody: The look of truly democratic media: rude, funny, creative, and fickle as fashion. The website "Into the Blue" works with swing counties to create environments in which progressive candidates can win. Yearly Kos revealed a blogosphere whose media critique is hampered by its political ambitions. Why can't progressives repair the press, not dismantle it? A review of Money, Power, & Elections: How Campaign Finance Reform Subverts American Democracy. The Wall Street Journal reporters reject Paul Gigot line. A review of The Invention of Journalism Ethics: The Path to Objectivity. Does your life suck? In the MySpace meets Matrix online world of Second Life, everyone is sexy, real money flows, and pixels are the only limitation. A wave of indie entrepreneurs see do-it-yourself as an ethic, not an aesthetic. Like Calvinists who stockpile life's finer things in hopes of shoring up their sense of themselves as elect, hipsters surround themselves with the trappings of creativity and trust that this substantiates their claim to being cool. Soon you may be listening to one-second radio ads embedded in your favourite Top 40 songs. Does the Samuel L. Jackson thriller "Snakes on a Plane" signal the End of Days in Hollywood? And anyone in the know knows that the master of the links today is not Tiger Woods but Jim Romenesko (ahem)

http://www.politicaltheory.info/2006/july.htm