[May 15] From Small Wars Journal, an introduction to the journal, "Why Study Small Wars?"; an article on fighting the war of ideas; an essay on A Hundred Years of Irregular Warfare; a look at the Timeless Theories of War in the 21st Century; an article on Law of Occupation and Democracy; and essay on The Political Warfighter; and a review of P. W. Singer's Children at War. Frank Rich wants the real traitors to please stand up. A battle has begun over the future of the C.I.A. Can it still pull together big-picture intelligence? Or will it become a provider of small-bore information? Some see a troubling 'militarization' of American intelligence. What that means for national security may have less to do with bureaucratic turf wars than with what the military thinks intelligence is for. A review of House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. In the last 100 years, the U.S. has ousted the governments of at least 14 countries and forcibly intervened in dozens of others -- to what end? More on Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change From Hawaii to Iraq. A review of Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century and America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked. The perils of soft power: Why America's cultural influence makes enemies, too. Why they hate our kind hearts, too: An article on the NED, NGOs and the imperial uses of philanthropy. In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's words we in the West hear a distant recollection of our own past, and his letter to President Bush is eerily reminiscent of a letter sent in 1989 by Ayatollah Khomeini to Mikhail Gorbachev. More and more on Guests of the Ayatollah. A review of Open Target: Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack. A review of Nuclear Terrorism by Graham Allison. A review of Madeleine Albright's The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs. And an essay on Globalized Terror and the Postcolonial Sublime: Questions for Subaltern Militants

[Weekend 2e] Open Democracy celebrates its 5th birthday, with messages from contributors. The American triumphalism of Francis Fukuyama's work is encoded in its key concepts. From Der Spiegel, is neoconservativism dead? From TAC, history has not dealt kindly with imperial ambitions, and America, however benevolent her intent, cannot hope to be an exception. Is there a case for conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the Iraq war? For Washington's opponents, the truth is less important than the image of an America gone mad. Richard Posner on the reorganized US Intelligence System after one year. Ethan Leib on the problem of hung juries, and how to solve it. We are witnessing a strange new controversy in this country over whether lethal injection is too cruel and unusual to be used to kill unusually cruel people. From Legal Affairs, Christopher Yoo and Timothy Wu debate Net neutrality. From Salon, Walter Shapiro on the greedy truth about media consultants. Tony Snow on his first press gaggle: "This is Just a Mess". A review of Where the Truth Lies: Trust and Morality in PR and Journalism. A look at how more pressure is on reporters to name sources. Jack Shafer remembers A.M. Rosenthal, ugly genius (and more). From The New York Observer, the Land Time Forgot: You might ask: Is anyone really reading them? Let the quibbling begin; and with a televised Question Time, Americans would have a regular, dramatic way to follow what their President and Congress were doing. Students and White House veterans alike bid farewell to The West Wing. Reporting from the blogosphere has already changed the face of politics, journalism and even publishing. How to avoid a Blog War: Some words of advice for the MSM. Microsoft is planning to map the world and is slowly refashioning itself as a media powerhouse. In a few short years, Google has turned from a simple and popular company into a complicated and controversial one. If it's cool, it's probably Web 2.0. Web etiquette goes wacky when ranking friends becomes an exercise in lifeboat ethics. And a look at how internet addiction is affecting lives

[Weekend] From Think Tank, an interview with Tamar Jacoby on fixing immigration (and part 2). Harvard professor D. Quinn Mills worries about America's coming civil war. Eric Alterman on three liberal lives: John Kenneth Galbraith, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, and Rev. William Sloane Coffin. Stephen Carter on why the ACLU is not evil, and neither are many people with whom we disagree. Why religion must end: An interview with Sam Harris (and a response by Gregg Easterbrook). From Salon, it's no accident that pro sports often resemble holy revival meetings. Devout athletes who praise God are coached by evangelical ministries with ties to the Christian right; and an excerpt from Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. A look at the frightening world of a Christian evangelical youth movement that is holding rock concerts and rallies at City Halls. Mikey Weinstein, a fiery Air Force veteran-turned-gadfly, is stepping up his fight to stop Christian proselytizing in the military. An interview with Jonathan Hill, author of What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us?; and is religious art, like Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam", a violation of the second commandment when God is portrayed? A interview with Jonathan Englert, author of The Collar: A Year of Striving and Faith Inside a Catholic Seminary (and an excerpt). From Reason, Jesus: A conspiracy vaster than anything in The Da Vinci Code. Listen to Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens debating blasphemy. Terry Eagleton reviews Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. A review of Ramesh Ponnuru's The Party of Death. From Human Events, here are the Top 10 Liberal Foundations. Thomas Eddlem is a life member of the John Birch Society. So why should any left-winger care a fig about what he has to say? How fraudulent crusader Steve Wilson snookered the left—and is threatening the First Amendment. Peter Day on the new crypto-capitalists, or liberal communists. An article on why "the common interest" is no answer for Democrats. A review of Robert Wuthnow's American Mythos Why Our Best Efforts to Be a Better Nation Fall Short. And you can download the free online book, The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer

[May 12] Potpourri:  From Prospect, two responses to " The End of Sisterhood". Right for the wrong reasons: Robert Frank on why Galbraith never got the Nobel Prize. An excerpt from Glenn Greenwald's How Would a Patriot Act? An op-ed on the need for immigrant assimilation. An interview with Lester Brown on Plan B 2.0. More on Jean-Francois Revel. The idea of an unbroken Indian tradition is probably an Orientalist invention. One of the earliest writers to perceive its great political potential is Tagore. The gap between the economy's biggest earners and typical workers is growing, and economists see an array of forces at work widening the divide. The limits of sociobiology: Theodore Dalrymple reviews The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill. A review of Legal & Ethical Aspects of Healthcare. A review of BHL's American Vertigo. What are you buying when you buy organic? Evolution's bottom line: We need to allow everyone to participate and increase the chance of finding the innovations to improve society and compete globally. The magazine Swans celebrates its 10th anniversary . Did the birth control pill really change how we live? Daniel Gross on the Free Enterprise Action Fund, a very curious right-wing mutual fund. Where does talent really come from? Dubner and Levitt are on the case.  A look at how the Iraq War changed the American mood for vengeance. The Numbers Guy on how much it would cost to pay professionals to replace a mother's work at home. From Slate, Junkyard Wars: Daniel Gross on why scrap heaps are the gold mines of the future. The political truth for state officials about health care coverage is that "you’re going to have to do it". Prisoners have become unwitting pawns in a lowest bidder gets the convict shuffle game. Will share prices crash as baby-boomers sell their assets to pay for retirement? An interview with James Kuntsler: Has the Long Emergency begun? Philip Tetlock, author of Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? on how accurate are your pet pundits. And why not "Farms for Fuel" like farms for food? Biofuels will also reduce global warming

[May 11] From Slate, Dahlia Lithwick on why Guantanamo Bay isn't necessarily a law-free zone. An excerpt from AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service-and How it Hurts Our Country. They should come out as imperialist and proud of it: There is a progressive tradition of support for colonialism, which the Euston manifesto group could champion. A review of Lawless World: Making and breaking global rules and The Powers of War and Peace. A review of The Age of War: The United States Confronts the World. An essay on the US's Geopolitical Nightmare. An excerpt from Iraq: the Logic of Withdrawal. If we can fund the War in Iraq, why can't we fund the Kyoto Protocol? Cass Sunstein wants to know. Lester Brown on The Two Sides of Green: Money and the environment. A group Al Gore is helping to launch intends to spend millions of dollars convincing Americans that global warming is an urgent problem. The perversion of "wise use" An excerpt from Divine Destruction: Dominion Theology and American Environmental Policy. An interview with Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums (and a review). From TCS, America's ability to absorb immigrants has changed: it's higher today than at any time in history. The Latino version of the national anthem caused such alarm because it was a reminder that those mojados had smuggled into El Norte. Nearly half of the nation's children under 5 are racial or ethnic minorities, mainly because the Hispanic population. And Lou Dobbs ain’t no damn Indian. From ZNet, an essay on Race, Culture, and Leftists. The introduction to Troubling the Waters: Black-Jewish Relations in the American Century. A review of Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics. Abigail Thernstrom reviews Shelby Steele's White Guilt. A study finds that a person's racial identity influences who he or she sees. And a review of Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights

[May 10] The Economist takes a look at noteworthy articles from business journals. From the Mises Institute, an article on how prosperity generates poverty. It's the economics, stupid: Has the corporate responsibility movement lost sight of the big picture? An article on Universal Health Insurance: Are CEOs about to join in the call for universal coverage? In the pro-life movement's vast agenda, is abortion just a red herring? An interview with Cristina Page, author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America. Ruth Conniff on the Democratic search for a soul. An interview with John Podhoretz, author of Can She Be Stopped? (and an excerpt). From TCS, a review of Shelby Steele's White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. The first chapter from People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States. Andrew Sullivan has a problem with Christianists. From Forward, a review of Did God Have a Wife? Archeology And Folk Religion in Ancient Israel and The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature. From Tikkun, an article on self-haters, anti-Semites, and the writing of history. Alexander Cockburn on the row over the Israel Lobby (and more). From ZNet, an essay on Autonomous Politics and its Problems: Thinking the Passage from Social to Political. An interview with Noam Chomsky on subordinate and non-subordinate states. How we lost Iraq: More on Cobra II (and more). Ray McGovern explains his meeting with Rumsfeld. When the Devil still matters: An article on extrinsic and intrinsic violence in Islam. It has been rather stupid for Western policy-makers to pay the least attention to those who pretend to offer hope for a moderate let alone democratic Islam. Today, an outright attempt to make an accusation of sedition can backfire. The word is out of favor, but aspects of the concept retain vitality. Shorter Linda Kimball: If you talk about 'social justice', you're a communist. And it's easy to debate among people who share a common world view, but a lot harder and rarer to play to a mixed crowd

[May 9]  From The Atlantic Monthly, Jonathan Rauch on Starving the Beast. Don't feed the beast: Bush should end this tax cut myth. Adolph Reed on liberal bad faith in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. David Mamet on the inevitable decay of governments. An article on why Athenian democracy is no help to 21st century. Niall Ferguson on why Leftism is the stealth disaster. Madeline Albright on realistic idealism. An interview with Francis Fukuyama. From Open Democracy, the end of history, or history all over again? The institutions of liberal democracy may have to change for its values to be sustained; and Europe revisited: An article on neighbourly conflict and the return of history. An interview with Melanie Phillips, author of Londonistan. More on Cobra II. Hendrik Hertzberg on the fate of Zacarias Moussaoui. A terrorist attack on a "soft target" such as a school or a mall in the US could bring the nation to its psychic knees, making everyone feel at risk. From Arena, with talk of a "long war", the US has committed itself to a high-intensity, asymmetrical war against civilian populations; and meeting the novel challenge of global terrorism requires reconsideration of long-standing views, including our knee-jerk dismissal of pacifism. More on Guests of the Ayatollah. Defend America, buy more Iranian oil: Energy independence isn't a good national security strategy. An interview with Mark Jaccard, author of Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy. From Salon, an interview with Peter Singer on The Way We Eat. A review of Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food. Robert Rubin on a new strategy for medicine. A review of Jonathan Alter's The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (and more). More and more and more and more and more and more on John Kenneth Galbraith: Who will inherit the mantle? An article on the obscure government report that reveals everything you need to know about foreign workers. The immigration is a road well-traveled: Early 20th century concerns resurface. And why the O.C. hates Mexicans: The land of Mickey is the Mexican-bashing capital of the US

[May 8]  The Top Takes Off: That rhetoric about giveaways for multimillionaires? It's accurate. Charles Koch applied the "science of liberty" to become one of the world's richest men. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans pick up and move to someplace new, and they are increasingly choosing places like Archer County, TX. Highly skilled migrants are much in demand. Why aren't they always welcome? The Fear Factor: A tussle is playing out today in streets and capitols, much like in 1964, with the fate of minorities perceived as outsiders hanging in the balance. Forget skyscrapers - the cities of the future will be shantytowns of scrap plastic and tin surmises: A review of Planet of Slums. A review of Michael Eric Dyson's Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. In The Trouble Between Us, sociologist Winifred Breines looks at the rift between feminists of two different races. To what extent have the movements for women’s emancipation that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s achieved their ambitions? Fred Halliday draws up a balance-sheet. An excerpt from Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner's The Motherhood Manifesto. More and more on To Hell With All That.  Contra contraceptions: A growing number of conservatives see birth control as part of an ailing culture that overemphasizes sex and devalues human life. Is this the beginning of the next culture war? A review of The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade. Bernard Lewis on the role of women in the Middle East. A review of In Modern Bondage: Sex Trafficking in the Americas pdf. Sexonomics, prostitutes' incomes:  John Allen Paulos takes a look at the economics behind the world's oldest profession. An article on the changing nature of sexual attitudes. Suggestions that the Catholic Church could be about to abandon a key teaching on contraception has opened old wounds in its ranks. And a review of A Church in Search of Itself: Benedict XVI and the Battle for the Future

[Weekend 2e] Sex, religion, and the culture war:  From Axess, a special issue on sex through the ages: Is sexuality a social construction? Absolutely: Nature made it that way; the ancient Greeks give us a tantalisingly ambiguous image of how much sexuality is in-built, and how much it is socially constructed; the church wanted to enforce abstinence for priests, which wasn’t easy. Double standards flourished and the lecherous cleric became a stock character of popular satire; and the Christian view of sexuality was dominant from the middle ages until the 1960s. The exception was the libertine 18th century. From First Things, Michael Novak on The Truth About Religious Freedom; an essay on The Saints of John Paul II; a review of Avery Cardinal Dulles' A History of Apologetics; and a review of The Jewish Social Contract: An Essay in Political Theology. On cultural Catholicism: A review of The Enemy of God. From Crisis, Georgetown's James V. Schall, S. J. on God's Governance; an essay on the future of the Jesuits; a review of The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success by Rodney Stark; and a review of "A Country I Do Not Recognize": The Legal Assault on American Values, edited by Robert H. Bork. From The New Pantagruel, Professor Schall on Beginning in Gladness; and an article on theocracy as a parlor game. From Three Monkeys Online, an interview with Richard Holloway, former Anglican Archbishop of Edinburgh, and a response by Rocco Buttiglione. Have you visited a Christian bookstore lately? Could this be Babylon? From Americans United, Opus Dei may mean "work of God", but in Washington, D.C., that divine task has a decidedly political bent (and more). It is easy to blame the Christian right for the political malaise in the US. But Washington lobbyists and presidential advisers have more to answer for: A review of American Theocracy, The K Street Gang, and Politics Lost. Red States, Blue States: New labels for long-running differences. And the use of contraception drops, slowing a decline of abortion rate that has been taking place, while support for Roe v. Wade is at its lowest level in decades, according to a new Harris poll

[Weekend] From Writ, John Dean analyzes the conservative case for President Bush's exercise of presidential powers; and a review of No Litmus Test: Law versus Politics in the Twenty-First Century and When Courts & Congress Collide: The Struggle for Control of America's Judicial System. From The American Lawyer, the Supreme Court justices, sometimes with vulgar hand gestures, are lashing back at their critics. Is that such a bad thing? A civil rights activist has been fighting to free prisoners from Guantanamo. Is he about to win? The preface to Glenn Greenwald's How Would a Patriot Act? pdf David Cole on how not to fight terrorism. An interview with Mark Danner, author of The Secret Way to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History. From Air Force Magazine, are we losing nuke expertise? Technology and terrorism are fueling democracies' drives to make sensitive information less accessible, but the movement is making it more difficult for journalists to do their jobs. The calls by retired generals for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation are utterly unsurprising to anyone who has spent time with senior military officers. A global constitutional insurgency can be described in terms of a people’s concept of world law. What is a Wilsonian realist? More on the clash of civilizations by Amartya Sen and Robert Kagan. Francis Fukuyama's defence of the universalism of western values and institutions is challenged by modern global political realities. Paul Johnson reviews John Lewis Gaddis' The Cold War. From Military Magazine, why did President Truman drop the bombs? From Business Week, a cover story on the future of Big Oil. An interview with Antonia Juhasz, author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (and an excerpt). Why can't the US current-account deficit remain at its 2006 value indefinitely? Brad DeLong explains. Michael Thomas writes to Roger Altman with respect to the Hamilton Project.  John Bellamy Foster on the household debt bubble.  Ezra Klein on the tide that lifts only yachts. Why isn't socialism dead? Lee Harris wants to know. And more on Charles Murray's In Our Hands

[May 5]  From LRB, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt answer their critics. France’s Jewish Prophets: An article on Alain Finkielkraut, Albert Memmi, and the looming crisis of liberalism. More on Jean-Francois Revel. From NYRB, Andrew Hacker reviews Class Matters Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, Forbes 400: The Richest People in America 2005, and Individual Income Tax Returns (IRS). An interview with Studs Terkel on an alternative America. A review of Attention Deficit Democracy. From Liberty, in 1906, an innocuous law started us down the slope that led to the War on Drugs; and an outline of a plan for selling freedom in an unfree world. From American Heritage, an article on deadly terrorism in Chicago -- and deadly overreaction. Evolving intelligence: an article on Clinton, al-Qaeda, and the CIA. The wrong way to combat terrorism: A militaristic approach and a law-based vision are competing to shape the world's anti-terrorism efforts. When civilizations meet:  An article on how Joseph Ratzinger sees Islam. From Slate, more on the clash of civilizations by Amartya Sen and Robert Kagan. Iraq, whose model? An article on Bernard Lewis and grand design in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia as an oil bust: An excerpt from Matthew Simmons' Twilight in the Desert. From Grist, an interview with jailed "eco-terrorist" Jeffrey Luers. How should humanity prosper? An interview with Paul Ehrlich. From Vermont Commons, an essay on republicanism and size (and part 2), and Kirkpatrick Sale on agriculture, civilization's great mistake. An article on The Rape of Appalachia. A review of Predatory Bureaucracy. The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West.  Physics is helping researchers understand the critical transformations taking place in Antarctica. From The Sun, a look at how the food industry has changed the way we eat pdf. Behind today's trendy arguments about environmentalism, ethical living and happiness, there lurks a deep disdain for material progress. Pamela Anderson on why chimps should not be forced to live like her. And monkeys keep turning out to be smarter than people think they are, but beware escaped chimps!

[May 4]  Is there a clash of civilizations? Amartya Sen and Robert Kagan debate. The clash of civilisations often cited in editorial comments since the appearance of Samuel Huntington’s famous book by that name is just that: a clash, not a competition. A review of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within and Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis is America's, Too. Saskia Sassen on how Fukuyama's vision falls short of recognising how the deficits in liberal democracy are being generated from within. Christopher Hitchens on the Cole Report: When it comes to Iran, he distorts, you decide (and a response by Juan Cole).  Lt. Gen. William E. Odom: Cut and run out of Iraq? You bet. Tony Judt on the Walt-Mearsheimer study and the Haaretz factor. Moisés Naím on how economic disparities have not changed. Our tolerance for them has. More on John Kenneth Galbraith by Arthur Schlesinger Jr, George Will and Scott McLemee. From The New Yorker, James Surowiecki on understanding the housing market. A conversation with economists Laura Tyson and Glenn Hubbard. To each according to need: An anarchist look at communist economics. Gary Becker on the morality of capital punishment. From Algemeiner, did the Talmudists know of the game theory? A History of Faith: Deconstruction at its Best. From Christianity Today, a review of Junia: The First Woman Apostle, and Paul would have flunked hermeneutics: A review of Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. An interview with Jonathan Hill, author of What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? A purple patch on the necessity of religion by Arnold Toynbee. Part of the problem with assessing how religious we are is that it is not clear what "being religious" means. And an interview with Peter Singer on ethical eating, fast-food burritos, and why local food is overhyped

[May 3]  From Open Democracy, the introduction to the second paperback edition of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man (and the introduction to a symposium). An excerpt from Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism by Steven B. Smith: "Why Strauss, Why Now?" A review of Marx After Marxism: The Philosophy of Karl Marx by Tom Rockmore (and part 2). A review of Darwinian Conservatism. by Larry Arnhart (check out the blog, too). From the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology, a look at why virtual reality is ready for prime time and is catching up with science fiction literature; and an article on universal superlongevity: Is it inevitable and is it good? From Salon, John Kenneth Galbraith biographer Richard Parker recalls how the late economist warned JFK about Vietnam -- and faulted conservative policies for worsening inequality in America; and hipster rebel punk outsiders -- 99 cents a dozen: A review of Hello, I'm Special. A review of Noam Chomsky's Failed States. A world without borders: An interview with Howard Zinn. Chalmers Johnson on exporting the American model: Markets and democracy. From In Motion, a review of Kwame Anthony Appiah's essay, "The Case for Contamination", and a review of Cindy Sheehan's Not One More Mother's Child. A review of My Life is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing. White guilt and the Western past: Why is America so delicate with the enemy? Shelby Steele wants to know. An interview with Mark Oppenheimer of the Thora Institute on race and racism. Lee Harvey Oswald and the Liberal Crack-Up: In killing JFK, an assassin inadvertently helped to expose the contradictions of a whole movement. The Manifesto Club: The convenor of a new political project explains why now is the time for an enlightened alternative. John Tierney on immigration: What Would Rawls Do? The Star-Spangled Banner was made to be mangled: There's nothing sacred about the national anthem's past. Roger Scruton reflects on the relevance of Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities and its message today. And here's the Top 10 Conservative Cities, ranked by Human Events

[May 2] From Commentary, George Weigel on Europe's two culture wars; Christopher Leighton on Oprah, Elie Wiesel, and My Fellow Christians; a review of The Moral Imagination by Gertrude Himmelfarb; a review of Steven Smith's Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism; and a review of Thicker than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia. George Packer is looking for the exit in Iraq. A sage in Christendom: A personal tribute to Bernard Lewis by Fouad Ajami. From TNR, Alan Wolfe reviews A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America by Aristide Zolberg of the New School for Social Research. Wage-ing war on immigrants: Ezra Klein examines the right wing's newfound concern for America's working class. Here's what you need to know about May Day (and more). From Salon, the case for globalized labor: It is economically and morally wrong for the world's poor immigrants to be locked out of work in the richest countries. An excerpt from David Sirota's Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government—and How We Can Take It Back. From The Chicago Tribune, an article on how the Bush team imposes a thick veil of secrecy. From The Boston Globe, President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office (and more). From Cato Institute, a white paper on Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush. From Cato Unbound, David Frum on Republicans and the Flight of Opportunity. A Virginia company that sells mailing lists of far-right and racist groups has found willing clients in establishment GOP organizations like the Republican Governors Association. Caitlin Flanagan on why the Democratic Party is losing the housewife vote. An interview with Carrie Lukas, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism. From Enter Stage Right, articles on the birth of modern American liberalism, and on Charles Beard and the growth of modern American liberalism. For J. K. Galbraith, economics was about real people, rather than abstract theory and formulas (and more and more). Columbia's Edmund Phelps on subsidies that save. Niall Ferguson wants you to put some sugar in your tank. Here is the message Benedict XVI addressed to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and President Mary Ann Glendon. And a review of John Paul II: Man of History (and more)

[May 1] Peter Beinart on The Rehabilitation of the Cold-War Liberal. Misguided support for dictators destroyed the left’s credibility: Christopher Hitchens welcomes a volte-face with the Euston Manifesto. A review of The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj. A review of Empire and Superempire: Britain, America and the World. A review of House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. More and more and more on Cobra II. For chaplains in Iraq, the constant battle is the fear, loneliness and tedium that can test a soldier's faith. Amr Khaled's many followers are looking for an alternative to secular liberalism and radical Islamism. Is a former accountant with no formal religious training the right man to help them find it? An article on Tocqueville’s lessons in democracy. What can explain such ''communist chic?" How can people who wouldn't dream of drinking in a pub called Gestapo cheerfully hang out at the KGB Bar? From Socialism and Liberation, an article on the evolution of the modern capitalist state. Even those at the very top of the ladder seem to be sheepish about describing themselves with the R-word. A review of books on a crabby Congress, cranky liberals and crunchy conservatives. A review of Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser. A review of Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads. A review of Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity. More on SHAM, Self-Help and Actualization Movement: How the Gurus of the Self-Help Movement Make us Helpless. Why are certain children able to cope with sexual abuse while most others fall apart? Researchers are looking hard at a gene and exploring a new paradigm. A review of To Hell With All That, Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face Off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families and Unsung Heroines: Single Mothers and the American Dream (and more). And men are catching up to women in the life expectancy game. This is better news for men than for women, if you believe some economists and therapists

http://www.politicaltheory.info/2006/may2.htm