Slate Magazine

Slate V: Things My Mother Taught Me: Knitting

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:10:30 -0800

In this episode of "Things My Mother Taught Me," Double X founding editor Emily Bazelon demonstrates how knitting can calm even stressed-out professionals.

Why the last decade has been an economic disappointment for most Americans.

Daniel Gross — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:36:17 PST

As we dig out from the rubble of the financial sector's collapse, it's common to hear analysts fret that the United States may now be facing a Japan-style "lost decade." Throughout the 1990s, after its real estate and stock bubble burst, Japan struggled with low growth for more than 10 years. It emerged from the decade shrunken and sapped of confidence, with very little to show for a large amount of government spending and near-zero interest rates.

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United States - Japan - Financial services - Real estate - Asia

Is protecting consumers from uncooked oysters a rotten plan?

Arthur Allen — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:02 PST

Since the Food and Drug Administration announced last month that it plans to ban the sale of unprocessed Gulf of Mexico oysters from April through October, people in New Orleans have been gobbling the things down as if there's no tomorrow. That's the Big Easy for you. Risky as it is just to live there, you think dey go worry about itty-bitty bacteria?

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Food and Drug Administration - Gulf of Mexico - New Orleans - United State - Oyster

The Slatest: Afternoon Edition

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:32:50 PST

Obama has little to offer Asian leaders; Secret Service vehicles hit and kill pedestrian; Mormon church issues first public endorsement of gay rights.

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Are holiday "adopt-a-family" programs a waste of my charitable giving?

Sandy Stonesifer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:07:10 PST

Do you have a real-life do-gooding dilemma? Please send it to ask.my.goodness@gmail.com and Sandy will try to answer it.

[more ...]

Gmail - Ask an Expert - Home - Family - United States

Mad Men: The TV Club has been sold to McCann-Erickson.

Patrick Radden Keefe, John Swansburg, and Julia Turner — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:55:52 PST

Patrick, are you guys staying at the Paris Hilton?

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MadMen - Television - Sesame Street - Paris Hilton - Travel and Tourism

Slate's Culture Gabfest on Precious, the novel Black Dogs (and the fall of communism), and a Vanity Fair article on the rise of cute.

Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:34:02 PST

Listen to Gabfest No. 60 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

[more ...]

Modern Family - American Broadcasting Company - ABC - Economic - United States

A photojournalist recalls the tumultuous days of the Iranian revolution.

David Burnett — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:29:31 PST

On Christmas Day, 1978, photojournalist David Burnett arrived in Iran to cover the unrest that became the Iranian revolution. On one side was Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the nation's West-leaning but authoritarian and unpopular ruler; on the other, a coalition of angry opposition interests from secular leftists to ultra-conservative mullahs. For six weeks, Burnett photographed everything from the shah posing outside his lavish palace to scenes of horrific, sudden violence; massive protests on the streets of Tehran; and intimate moments with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In his new book, 44 Days: Iran and the Remaking of the World (preface by Christiane Amanpour; introduction by the New York Times' John Kifner), Burnett collects photographs from that tumultuous period along with diarylike recollections of how he got the shots and got the story out of the country.

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Iran - David Burnett - Ruhollah Khomeini - Iranian Revolution - Middle East

How John Cassavetes' Shadows changed American movies forever.

Elbert Ventura — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:11:32 PST

If American independent cinema could be said to have a birthday, Nov. 11 is as good a date to celebrate as any. On that night 50 years ago, John Cassavetes, an actor then best known for his TV roles, unveiled for a downtown New York audience his directing debut, Shadows. Cassavetes had financed the production with his paychecks from Hollywood and made the film with a cast and crew of novice actors from his drama workshop. The finished product betrayed their inexperience: mismatched cuts, shots out of focus, audio out of sync. But it was also unlike anything audiences had seen before: a raw, kinetic, jazz-scored dispatch from bohemian New York that was frank about sex, progressive on race, and intoxicated with youth. The film radiated a sense of urgency, even desperation—it felt like something Cassavetes just had to get out of his system.

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New York - John Cassavetes - Cinema of the United States - New York City - Lower Manhattan

New AIG CEO ready to walk.

Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:09:52 PST

A summary of what's in the major publications.

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A taxonomy of left-liberal opposition to the health care reform bill.

Timothy Noah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:14:36 PST

Conservative arguments against health care reform tend to be monochrome: too many pages, too costly, too much government interference in our lives. But while the right supplies nearly all opposition to the health care bill, it does not have a monopoly. There is also an emerging opposition from liberals and the left. Thus far, it remains small, but its arguments are more diverse and more interesting—though ultimately, I think, mistaken. Among left-liberal opponents, I count three factions.

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Health care - Conservatism - Health - Government - Health Policy

President Obama's small masterpiece of a speech at Fort Hood.

John Dickerson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:11:26 PST

President Obama's speech at Fort Hood was a small masterpiece—less than 15 minutes—in part because it was so modest. The president had great material and he knew not to get in its way.

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Barack Obama - United States - Fort Hood - Politics - Society and Culture

Can a prisoner request anything for his last meal?

Christopher Beam — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:04:45 PST

John Allen Muhammad, the "Beltway sniper" who went on a two-week shooting spree in the Washington, D.C., area in 2003, is scheduled for execution in Greensville, Va., Tuesday night. In death row tradition, Muhammad requested a special last meal, but he asked the Virginia Department of Corrections not to announce the menu. Can a death row inmate request anything he wants for his final meal?

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John Allen Muhammad - Virginia - Washington DC - Capital punishment - Virginia Department of Corrections

Photographs of the places where the D.C. shooters struck.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:00:55 PST

Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad will be executed Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. In the fall of 2002, Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people and wounded three others in a series of attacks in the D.C. metropolitan area. Sean Hemmerle of Contact Press Images photographed each crime scene from two points of view: the snipers' vantage point (on the left) and the place where the victim fell (on the right).

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John Allen Muhammad - Lee Boyd Malvo - Washington DC - Contact Press Images - Sniper

What's behind Rupert Murdoch's trash-talking of Google?

Jack Shafer — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:49:15 PST

Rupert Murdoch knows two modes: doing things and talking about doing things.

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The winner of the Google Suggest contest.

Michael Agger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:44:47 PST

From all across this great nation (and Canada), entries arrived in my inbox for Slate's Google Suggest contest. The question at hand: What's the best example of "less intelligent" Google query contrasted with a "more intelligent" Google query?

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Google - Google Suggest - Slate - Searching - Search Engines

How nagging text messages can make you healthier and richer.

Daniel Gross — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:02:43 PST

The ability to blast messages to large numbers of people at very little cost has been a boon to marketers, although it is frequently inefficient and always annoying. The overwhelming majority of customers brush off the pitches, reminders, come-ons, exhortations—Subscribe to our magazine! Stop Nancy Pelosi! Buy gold!—that arrive via e-mail and text message. Like older forms of direct marketing (telemarketing, direct mail), texting and e-mails are a low-percentage business.

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Marketing - Business - Direct marketing - Telemarketing - Advertising and Marketing

Which fruits, vegetables, and other crops have the smallest environmental footprints?

Brendan Borrell — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:54:34 PST

I know you can buy local or buy organic, but I've heard that some crops are simply more resource-intensive than others, regardless of how or where they are grown. So what's the key to picking foods that have the smallest environmental footprint?

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Business - Fruit - Vegetable - Food and Related Products - Produce

The best automated breadmaker.

Mason Currey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:30:37 PST

The onset of winter is accompanied by numerous hassles—nagging colds, miserable commutes, enormous puffy coats—but for me the worst part is just getting out of bed in the morning. When the temperature drops, my apartment's feeble radiators can't keep up, and pretty soon my early-a.m. routine starts to feel like a new leg of the Shackleton expedition. Which is why, this winter, I decided I needed to do something drastic. I decided I needed to buy a bread machine.

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Temperature - Ernest Shackleton - Cook - Home - Breads

Nabokov's The Original of Laura (Dying Is Fun).

Aleksandar Hemon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:06:14 PST

Back when I was a young viewer of Sarajevo TV, there was a cult show along the lines of Monty Python that once featured a skit with a poem presumably found in the papers of a deceased genius poet. An actor ponderously declaimed the newly discovered verse—"Bread/ Milk /Cooking oil …"—as it became clear that the masterpiece was in fact a grocery list. The last, crushing line was: "And some fish, if you can find any."

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Monty Python - Television - Original of Laura - Actor - Comedy

"Daily Threads"

Wyn Cooper — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:04:17 PST

Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Wyn Cooper read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes..

[more ...]

National Geographic Channel - Expedition Week

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Slate - Wyn Cooper - iTunes - Poetry - Arts

The Supreme Court looks at life sentences for teen offenders.

Dahlia Lithwick — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 20:04:58 PST

In honor of 40 years of Sesame Street, today's Dispatch is brought to you by the letters L, W, O, and P (stands for life with out parole). And by the numbers 13, 17, and 2,574. And 73. And 9. And also 2. And by many, many other numbers that make you wonder how a roomful of people who went to law school presumably to avoid doing math could possibly spend two hours in a protracted exercise of freewheeling public accounting.

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Supreme Court of the United States - Life imprisonment - Sesame Street - Supreme Court - Parole

A guide to the shifting political factions in the health care debate.

John Dickerson — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 20:00:06 PST

President Obama on Sunday celebrated the House's passage of health care reform with a vivid metaphorical message to the other side of the Capitol. "Now it falls on the United States Senate," he said, "to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people." He wishes this were as simple as a relay race. The legislative process does work in stages, it's true, but in other ways, the president's metaphor falls apart. First, the competitors aren't running in the next lane. They're rolling out hurdles (or gurneys, as the case may be). Second, the runner who just finished the first leg is now trying to tackle the guy with the baton.

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United States Senate - House - United States - Health care - Barack Obama

Why insurers aren't complaining about the House bill's anti-abortion amendment.

Timothy Noah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:14:36 PST

Planned Parenthood is incensed that the House of Representatives accepted an eleventh-hour amendment to its health reform bill sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D.-Mich, and embraced by the U.S. Conference of Bishops, that prohibits the sale, through a proposed new health insurance exchange for the previously-uninsured, of virtually any private health insurance policy that covers abortions. The National Organization For Women is pretty angry, too. Even President Obama, after some initial circumspection, expressed annoyance ("This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill"), in spite of Sen. Ben Nelson's threat to veto any Senate bill that lacks the Stupak amendment.

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United States - Ben Nelson - Barack Obama - Health insurance - Health care

Health care reformers' million-dollar thank-you card to moderate Democrats.

Christopher Beam — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 18:29:51 PST

Lobbying—in Washington, it's often called "issue advocacy"—is a game of carrots and sticks: Support our issue and we'll make life good for you. Oppose it and we'll make it hell. Sometimes groups take a moment to just pause and say, "Thank you." But what looks and sounds like gratitude is just another form of persuasion.

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Washington - Health care - Democratic - Lobbying - United States

Was it difficult for the Fort Hood shooter to fire 100 shots in seven minutes?

Brian Palmer — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 18:25:18 PST

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at Fort Hood on Thursday, managed to fire 100 rounds with a semiautomatic handgun between the start of his rampage at 1:20 p.m. and the time he was shot at 1:27 p.m. How many rounds can a handgun shoot in seven minutes?

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Handgun - Fort Hood - Military - United States - Government

Obama needs to show Americans how health care reform, Wall Street reform, and the stimulus are connected.

Eliot Spitzer — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 18:00:08 PST

The most important elections of last week took place not in Virginia or New Jersey or even in New York's 23rd congressional district, but in Westchester, Nassau, and Rockland counties, New York suburbs voting for county executive. These are three prosperous suburbs of NYC that voted solidly Democratic recently in almost all races but are actually dominated by independent, nonideological voters. In Westchester and Nassau, incumbent Democrats who were expected to coast to victory were either thrown out—Andy Spano lost in Westchester by 14 percent—or are hanging on—Tom Suozzi of Nassau is in a dead heat with 8,000 paper ballots to be counted. Yet in Rockland County, Republican incumbent C. Scott Vanderhoef coasted to an eight-point win over a well-liked challenger.

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New York - New Jersey - Democratic Party - New York's 23rd congressional district - C. Scott Vanderhoef

Slate's sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen, for the week of Nov. 9, 2009.

Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 17:04:01 PST

Listen to "Hang Up and Listen" with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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Podcast - Slate - Mike Pesca - Recreation - Directories

An off-puttingly sexual ad for Halls Refresh.

Seth Stevenson — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 15:11:30 PST

The Spot: It's move-in day at a college dorm. A student asks his new roommate's mom whether she'd care for a Halls Refresh. The young man and the middle-aged mom suck on their lozenges, staring lasciviously into each other's eyes. We hear their thoughts. "So juicy!" thinks the mom. "Yeah, she likes it," thinks the student. The woman's husband and son walk in on this intimate moment. "Mom!" shouts the horrified son as the dad recoils. "New Halls Refresh with moisture action," says the announcer. "Surprisingly mouthwatering."

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Dormitory - Home - Parenting - Family - Mothers

Dear Prudence: Live-In In-Laws

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:47:39 PST

A daily video from Slate V.

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Dear Prudence - Slate - Business - Construction and Maintenance - Materials and Supplies

Dear Prudence answers readers' questions live at Washingtonpost.com.

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:42:30 PST

Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is on Washingtonpost.com weekly to chat with readers about their romantic, family, financial, and workplace problems. A transcript of this week's chat is below. (Read Prudie's Slate columns here.)

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Emily Yoffe - Dear Prudence - Slate - Washington Post - Chat Rooms

The music of the castrati.

Jan Swafford — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 13:28:41 PST

It's not the pyrotechnic pieces that are the most difficult, Cecilia Bartoli says. "The beautiful sad arias are the hardest to sing, because I am moved almost to tears. I know they were singing those arias out of their own sorrow." Bartoli is talking about her new recording, Sacrificium, which concerns the most exquisitely unsettling episode in the history of music: the castrati and the music written for them.

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Music - Arts - Shopping - Cecilia Bartoli - Education

How to reform the broken medical malpractice system.

Darshak Sanghavi — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 12:18:37 PST

For many doctors, the malpractice case against a family physician named Daniel Merenstein epitomized how the broken medical liability system drives up costs. In 1999, Merenstein, then a resident, saw a 53-year-old man for a routine checkup and discussed with him the dubious value of a blood test to screen for prostate cancer. Since the test leads to many false positives and pointless treatments that can cause impotence and other harm, neither the American Cancer Society nor U.S. Public Health Service support its routine use. Presented with the data, the patient chose not to get the test.

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American Cancer Society - Prostate cancer - Cancer - Medicine - Health

After the Fall of the Wall, Central Europe's fate was supposed to be uncertain and bleak. Today the region prospers more than ever.

Anne Applebaum — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 11:22:32 PST

BERLIN—For some time now, I've been trying to put my finger on what has been bothering me about the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is nothing wrong with holding dozens of conferences, after all, and I'm all in favor of the many new books. In Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint meeting of Congress. In Los Angeles, a fabulously kitschy "Wall" was constructed and then knocked down by "invited dignitaries." (Although, in deference to the habits of the natives, the timing of that event had to be changed from afternoon to midnight, so as not to disrupt L.A. traffic.)

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Berlin Wall - Berlin - Angela Merkel - Los Angeles - Central Europe

Selling out abortion rights for health care reform.

William Saletan — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 08:21:48 PST

Abortion rights have been sold out for health care reform.

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Pro-choice - Health care - Health - Abortion - Pro-life

The lessons of 1989.

Christopher Hitchens — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 06:59:24 PST

Lenin once defined a revolutionary situation as one that occurred when the rulers could not go on in the traditional way and the ruled did not wish to continue in that old way. Engels was more metaphorical, saying that revolution was the midwife that delivered a new life out of an older body. Both images come to mind in remembering the revolutions of 1989, which humbled a ruling system that believed itself to be based on the historical wisdom of Lenin and, indeed, of Engels.

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Vladimir Lenin - Revolution - History - Soviet Union - Russia

Two books about the revolutions of 1989.

Anne Applebaum — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 06:57:45 PST

Everything comes around again, in the end; every debate needs to be held twice. For the past few years, the Russians have been conducting an extraordinary national argument about whether Stalin was bad, a question one would have thought was settled long ago. And now, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 1989, we have two books, both by eminent historians, both seeking to start an argument about whether there was an anti-Communist opposition in Central Europe. In Uncivil Society Stephen Kotkin, a Soviet historian at Princeton, makes an unusually strident version of the case that there was not. Konstantin Pleshakov, a Soviet historian at Mount Holyoke, presents a milder and more complicated version in There Is No Freedom Without Bread.

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Soviet Union - Joseph Stalin - Russia - History - Society and Culture

How the Senate will whittle away at the House health care reform bill.

Timothy Noah — Sun, 8 Nov 2009 17:41:55 PST

Think the House health care reform bill's too long? Not after the Senate whittles away at it.

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Health care - United States Senate - Health - House - Senate

Slate's online guide to the health care reform bill.

Timothy Noah — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:03:17 PST

The Nov. 7 passage of health care reform in the House of Representatives, 220-215 (roll call), increases the likelihood that some version of the bill will become law. Parsing claims and counterclaims about what the bill would do isn't easy without quick access to various govermment documents, blog updates, academic studies, news sites, and public statements from interested parties. Below, Slate has gathered a comprehensive set of links to the most important of these, with summary descriptions of their significance.

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Health care - United States House of Representatives - Health - Health Policy - Government

What's the deal with "cat ladies"?

Daniel Engber — Sun, 8 Nov 2009 07:07:55 PST

Voters in Dudley, Mass., passed a ballot measure on Tuesday making it illegal to own more than three cats without a special license. The new law came about after residents complained that one woman's 15 cats were running amok in neighbors' yards. In an Explainer column first published in 2005 and reprinted below, Daniel Engber gets to the bottom of the "cat lady" phenomenon.

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Mass - Recreation - Humor - New Jersey - Catholic Church

Why Arby's is so low on the restaurant food chain.

Daniel Gross — Sat, 7 Nov 2009 07:58:58 PST

Some companies came through the recently ended recession with flying colors. In the fast-food realm, we've argued, McDonald's was a victor. But in a time of pinched consumer spending, business has frequently been a zero-sum game. In every sector, it seems, if there's a winner, there's got to be a loser. And in the fast-food industry, it sure looks like Arby's has been one of the losers of this recession.

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McDonald - Business - Fast food - Restaurant - Hospitality

How does the government keep track of job-loss numbers?

Brian Palmer — Sat, 7 Nov 2009 07:57:58 PST

The Labor Department announced Friday that the unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent in October, the first time since 1983 that it has been in the double-digits. Two government surveys suggested that the month's job losses reached 190,000 and 558,000, respectively. That's not far off from the results back in August, when the economy lost about 300,000 jobs. In an "Explainer" column first published two months ago, and reprinted below, Brian Palmer goes over where these numbers come from.

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Government - Unemployment - Economy - Employment - United States

Profit not Satanic, says wealthy banker.

Paul Smalera — Sat, 7 Nov 2009 07:54:53 PST

A summary of what's in the major publications.

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Research - Education - Colleges and Universities - Canada - Simon Fraser University

On Denialism and the role of science in America.

Chris Mooney and Michael Specter — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:54:54 PST

Let Truth and Falsehood grapple.

[more ...]

Educational Resources - Denialism - Philosophy - Philosophy of Logic - Truth Definitions

Can you carry a concealed weapon on military bases? And other Fort Hood questions answered.

Christopher Beam — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 18:37:41 PST

Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the only suspect in Thursday's lethal spree at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base, reportedly killed 13 people and wounded 30 before a civilian police officer shot him four times. The incident raises many questions, a number of which we try to answer here.

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Fort Hood - Military base - Army - Police officer - United States

Slate's Farhad Manjoo answers your questions about Facebook, Gmail, and more.

Farhad Manjoo — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:03:45 PST

If you've got a tech problem you want solved, please send a note to farhad.manjoo@slate.com, with "I've got a tech question!" as the subject line. (Your question may be edited.)

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Farhad Manjoo - Facebook - Slate - Gmail - Business

A Christmas Carol reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:56:24 PST

Robert Zemeckis may have found the way to spend his late career: making 3-D motion-capture versions of literary classics that, while they threaten to vulgarize their sources, wind up remaining curiously true to them in spirit. His adaptation of Beowulf wasn't perfect, but it barreled along with admirable energy, fueled by Zemeckis' notion that the oldest poem in the English language was a predecessor of the superhero comic. With A Christmas Carol (Disney), though, Zemeckis (who also wrote the screenplay) treads on more perilous ground. Rollicking though it is, Beowulf is known to most of us as a high-fiber offering in high school or early college English classes. Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of the most-read and best-loved short stories in the English language, adapted for the screen some 20 times (depending on whether you're counting Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), and its iconic phrases—"I wear the chain I forged in life." "Bah, humbug!" "God bless us, every one!"—are as familiar to speakers of English as the 23rd Psalm.

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Christmas Carol - RobertZemeckis - Motion capture - Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - The Walt Disney Company

What do "stable," "critical," and other medical conditions mean?

Chris Suellentrop — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:29:13 PST

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 30 yesterday at Fort Hood before a civilian policeman shot him four times. An Army spokesperson has announced that Hasan is in "stable" condition while of some of the victims are listed as "critical." But what does that mean? In July 2001, the Explainer probed vague medical conditions after an 8-year-old boy was listed as "critical but stable" following a shark attack.

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Fort Hood - United States Army - United States - Military - Psychiatrist

Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War?

Fred Kaplan — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:14:06 PST

The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, but few of the news stories marking the anniversary have explained the event's full significance. The Cold War had been raging for a quarter-century before the wall went up on Aug. 13, 1961. How could its collapse, on Nov. 9, 1989, have heralded the Cold War's demise?

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Cold War - Berlin Wall - Berlin - Germany - History

If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America.

William Saletan — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:11:54 PST

Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who shot him. For her trouble, Munley took a bullet in her leg. Maybe the president will also pin a medal on her.

[more ...]

Fort Hood - United States - Police officer - Military - Texas

Reviews of: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:30:30 PST

A daily video from Slate V.

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Christmas - holiday - People and Society - Kids and Teens - Holidays and Special Days

The week's most interesting Slate stories.

Andrew Dubbins — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:24:35 PST

1) "Bachmania: Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig," by Christopher Beam. Thousands of fringe Republican protesters attended a health care reform protest at the Capitol and were embraced by many congressional Republicans.

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Michele Bachmann - Republican - Washington - United States - Politics

A journey through the Travel Channel.

Troy Patterson — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:03:06 PST

The big TV-business story of the week reached its resolution yesterday with news of a deal valuing the Travel Channel at $975 million. The only justification for such a price tag is that network's modest audience—about 370,000 households in prime time—represents the kind of niche market advertisers can't resist pandering to. In a week of flying the network frequently, I caught commercials for online travel agencies and chain restaurants—and also tourism-themed ads for LensCrafters, Subaru, Wal-Mart, and Dulcolax stool softener.

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Wal-Mart - Travel Channel - Advertising - Business - Chain store

Bidenisms: A collection of the vice president's gaffes and head-slappers.

Jeremy Stahl — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:22:15 PST

The vice president did not produce any new Bidenisms this week, but a 2006 interview with GQ has provided us with an emergency supply. Please continue to send your nominations (with a link, please) to slatebidenisms@gmail.com. For more, and our stab at a definition, see "The Complete Bidenisms."

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Gmail - United States - History - GQ - Vice Presidents

Socialized medicine intrudes on the march against Obamacare.

Timothy Noah — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:11:04 PST

Observing the Nov. 5 protest march against Obamacare on Capitol Hill, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post momentarily turned his attention from signs that said "Stop Obamunism" and "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945" to "a man standing just beyond the TV cameras" who "apparently suffered a heart attack 20 minutes after [the] event began." Here's what happened next:

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Washington Post - Dana Milbank - Myocardial infarction - Television - Socialized medicine

Richard Kelly tries to direct a mainstream movie in The Box.

John Swansburg — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:49:15 PST

The director Richard Kelly recently told the New York Times that he hopes his new thriller, The Box (Warner Brothers), will prove to Hollywood that he can make a successful mainstream movie. He has a lot of proving to do. Despite the cult status enjoyed by his 2001 debut, Donnie Darko, his sophomore effort, the thoroughly wacko Southland Tales, starring Justin Timberlake and Dwayne Johnson, took in just $275,000 in domestic receipts. Give me Timberlake and The Rock for a day and I could make twice that by opening a kissing booth in Times Square.

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Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko - Southland Tales - Box - Justin Timberlake

The financial and personal ramifications of a doctor apologizing to a patient.

Rahul Parikh — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 07:15:22 PST

When you're a doctor, you sometimes have to come to terms with making a mistake: giving a patient the wrong diagnosis or the wrong treatment, causing an injury, or perhaps something worse.

[more ...]

Services - United States - Law - Lawyers and Law Firms - Personal Injury

Corrections from the last week.

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 07:14:17 PST

In the Nov. 5 "Architecture," the text of a slide originally referred to "Charleston, N.C.," instead of Charleston, S.C., due to a copy-editing error.

[more ...]

Copy editing - Business - Writing and Editing - Communications - Editing and Proofreading

Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig.

Christopher Beam — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 21:33:13 PST

Whether it was billing the event as a "Super Bowl of Freedom" or challenging conservatives to "scare" members of Congress, it worked. Rep. Michele Bachmann got thousands of protesters to flood the lawn in front of the Capitol building Thursday afternoon, joining her for what was originally described as a "press conference" but turned out to be a full-blown rally against health care reform—a mini-sequel to the 9/12 protest of two months ago.

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Michele Bachmann - Health care - United States Congress - Washington - United States Capitol

Are shootings at military bases common, or was Fort Hood unusual?

Daniel Engber — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 20:28:53 PST

An Army psychiatrist who was about to deploy to Iraq went on a two-gun shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday afternoon. Twelve people died in the attack, and 31 were wounded. How often do soldiers commit crimes on their bases?

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Fort Hood - Texas - Iraq - Military base - United States

Sorry, I didn't like Precious.

Dana Stevens — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 19:42:46 PST

Harshing on Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (Lionsgate Films), the awkwardly titled Lee Daniels adaptation of an "urban fiction" bestseller, makes a critic feel almost as mean-spirited as Mary, the monstrously abusive mother of the film's eponymous heroine. Parked in front of the TV in the grim Harlem walkup they share, Mary (played with a fearsome lack of vanity by the standup comedian Mo'Nique) pelts her 16-year-old daughter, Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) with cruel insults, imperious commands, and, whenever possible, heavy airborne objects. "I ain't done nothin'!" Precious protests, and the movie is at pains to prove her right: for the first hour at least, Precious is less a person who does things than an object to which things are done. Her absentee father, seen only once in a nauseating flashback sequence, rapes her on a regular basis; at 16, she's pregnant with his second child. Her daughter, who has Down's syndrome, lives with a coldly disapproving grandmother; their visits last just long enough to fool the welfare inspector into issuing Mary's next check. In addition to being obese, unloved and dirt-poor, Precious is also illiterate, though the public school she attends is so bad that she's managed to camouflage that fact through the eighth grade. In short, this girl's life is so abysmal that you feel the least you can do is like the movie she's in.

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Lee Daniels - Gabourey Sidibe - Precious - Mo'Nique - Harlem

Do wolves kill for sport?

Brian Palmer — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 18:55:47 PST

During this fall's inaugural wolf-hunting season in Montana, hunters killed the matriarch of a Yellowstone wolf pack that researchers had been studying for more than a decade. Park officials suspect that her mate and three other pack members were also killed. A Los Angeles Times story about the hunt claims that wolves are known to kill for "pure pleasure." Do wolves really attack their prey just for the fun of it?

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Montana - Gray Wolf - hunt - Yellowstone National Park - Los Angeles Times

President Obama on the Fort Hood shootings.

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 17:46:40 PST

AP Video: President Barack Obama comments on the tragic shooting at Fort Hood

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Barack Obama - Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008 - United States - Associated Press - Politics

An Explainer roundup on food contamination.

Juliet Lapidos — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 17:10:41 PST

Two people have died, and 28 have fallen sick, due to an E. coli outbreak in ground beef, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week. This latest scare follows an October New York Times article on pervasive flaws in the beef-inspection process, featuring a woman who became paralyzed after eating hamburgers tainted with E. coli in 2007. Panicked? Here's an Explainer roundup on food contamination.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Food - New York Times - Beef mince - Hamburger

Death is different, but is it all that different from life without parole?

Dahlia Lithwick — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 17:02:23 PST

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear a case testing whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits sentencing a teen to life in prison without parole. Punishment is generally deemed "cruel" if it's more than "graduated and proportional." It is constitutionally "unusual" if imposed so infrequently "that a national consensus has developed against it." If those concepts sound squishy and vague to you, well, you can just imagine what Antonin Scalia is feeling right now.

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Antonin Scalia - Supreme Court of the United States - Cruel and unusual punishment - Supreme Court - Life imprisonment

Microsoft's Marketing Misfires

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:27:28 PST

A daily video from Slate V.

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Microsoft - Business - Microsoft Corporation - Companies - Monopolies and Oligopolies

Much of the current deficit debate is for the birds.

Daniel Gross — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:21:01 PST

A once-endangered species is staging a robust comeback: the deficit hawk. Hunted nearly to death during the Bush years, many varieties not seen in Washington in a decade are now perching on branches and dropping their wisdom. Look, there's the puff-chested congressional peacock hawk, frequently seen strutting about Sunday-morning-TV-show sets complaining about pork while emitting loud honks on the receipt of stimulus funds. The furrowed-brow warbler hawk (natural habitat: the op-ed pages) loathes deficit spending for the purpose of eliminating social injustice but loves it when the spending is used to finance military actions abroad. The blue-bellied partisan hawk nests in think tanks; it goes mute when members of its own party run the show but squawks loudly when opponents run up debt. On Nov. 3, birders sighted the rare skinny parrot hawk, which repeats back calls about fiscal probity. Said President Barack Obama on that date: "The government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels."

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Barack Obama - Washington D.C. - Endangered species - Bird - Washington

The Political Gabfest for Nov. 6, 2009.

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:04:33 PST

Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there.

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Facebook - Social Networking - Online Communities - United States - Government

How the old-as-dirt New York Yankees won the 2009 World Series.

Tim Marchman — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:07:52 PST

What's the lesson of the 2009 New York Yankees? With the Bronx Bombers taking an early 7-1 lead in Game 6, we had more time than usual to bat around the clichés of sports championships to see which ones might fit. Had the Yankees redeemed the long suffering of their supporters? Did they stand for youthful vigor or quiet professionalism? Did they represent the idea that pride and excellence can't be bought and sold—or the exact opposite?

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New York Yankees - Sport - 2009 World Series - Baseball - PhiladelphiaPhillies

The unanswered phone calls and misunderstood memos that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

Michael Meyer — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 07:01:43 PST

Too often, we see history as inevitable. What was had to be, the culmination of seemingly tectonic forces. We tend to forget that history is also defined by the logic of human messiness. Happenstance, chance, even accident always loom large in grand events.

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Berlin Wall - Germany - Cold War - Berlin - History

I'm 16, and I want a vibrator.

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 07:01:09 PST

Get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.) And become a fan of Prudie on the official Dear Prudence Facebook page.

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Facebook - Slate - Social Networking - Online Communities - Dear Prudence

Slate Magazine

Slate V: Things My Mother Taught Me: Knitting

Why the last decade has been an economic disappointment for most Americans.

Is protecting consumers from uncooked oysters a rotten plan?

The Slatest: Afternoon Edition

Are holiday "adopt-a-family" programs a waste of my charitable giving?

Mad Men: The TV Club has been sold to McCann-Erickson.

Slate's Culture Gabfest on Precious, the novel Black Dogs (and the fall of communism), and a Vanity Fair article on the rise of cute.

A photojournalist recalls the tumultuous days of the Iranian revolution.

How John Cassavetes' Shadows changed American movies forever.

New AIG CEO ready to walk.

A taxonomy of left-liberal opposition to the health care reform bill.

President Obama's small masterpiece of a speech at Fort Hood.

Can a prisoner request anything for his last meal?

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Photographs of the places where the D.C. shooters struck.

What's behind Rupert Murdoch's trash-talking of Google?

The winner of the Google Suggest contest.

How nagging text messages can make you healthier and richer.

Which fruits, vegetables, and other crops have the smallest environmental footprints?

The best automated breadmaker.

Nabokov's The Original of Laura (Dying Is Fun).

"Daily Threads"

The Supreme Court looks at life sentences for teen offenders.

A guide to the shifting political factions in the health care debate.

Why insurers aren't complaining about the House bill's anti-abortion amendment.

Health care reformers' million-dollar thank-you card to moderate Democrats.

Was it difficult for the Fort Hood shooter to fire 100 shots in seven minutes?

Obama needs to show Americans how health care reform, Wall Street reform, and the stimulus are connected.

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Slate's sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen, for the week of Nov. 9, 2009.

An off-puttingly sexual ad for Halls Refresh.

Dear Prudence: Live-In In-Laws

Dear Prudence answers readers' questions live at Washingtonpost.com.

The music of the castrati.

How to reform the broken medical malpractice system.

After the Fall of the Wall, Central Europe's fate was supposed to be uncertain and bleak. Today the region prospers more than ever.

Selling out abortion rights for health care reform.

The lessons of 1989.

Two books about the revolutions of 1989.

How the Senate will whittle away at the House health care reform bill.

Slate's online guide to the health care reform bill.

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What's the deal with "cat ladies"?

Why Arby's is so low on the restaurant food chain.

How does the government keep track of job-loss numbers?

Profit not Satanic, says wealthy banker.

On Denialism and the role of science in America.

Can you carry a concealed weapon on military bases? And other Fort Hood questions answered.

Slate's Farhad Manjoo answers your questions about Facebook, Gmail, and more.

A Christmas Carol reviewed.

What do "stable," "critical," and other medical conditions mean?

Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War?

If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America.

Reviews of: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol

The week's most interesting Slate stories.

A journey through the Travel Channel.

Bidenisms: A collection of the vice president's gaffes and head-slappers.

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Socialized medicine intrudes on the march against Obamacare.

Richard Kelly tries to direct a mainstream movie in The Box.

The financial and personal ramifications of a doctor apologizing to a patient.

Corrections from the last week.

Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig.

Are shootings at military bases common, or was Fort Hood unusual?

Sorry, I didn't like Precious.

Do wolves kill for sport?

President Obama on the Fort Hood shootings.

An Explainer roundup on food contamination.

Death is different, but is it all that different from life without parole?

Microsoft's Marketing Misfires

Much of the current deficit debate is for the birds.

Advertisement:

The Political Gabfest for Nov. 6, 2009.

How the old-as-dirt New York Yankees won the 2009 World Series.

The unanswered phone calls and misunderstood memos that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

I'm 16, and I want a vibrator.