Slate Magazine

Slate V: The Runaways, The Bounty Hunter, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:38:40 -0700

In this week's Summary Judgment, Mark Jordan Legan sums up what critics are saying about the big weekend movies: The Runaways, The Bounty Hunter, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Jesse James' alleged mistress is a "tattoo model." What does that mean?

Christopher Beam — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:03:17 PST

Michelle McGee, the woman who allegedly had an affair with Sandra Bullock's husband, Jesse James, is identified in news stories as a "tattoo model." Is that a real profession?

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Jesse James - Sandra Bullock - Model - Michelle McGee - United States

Beware of corporate consulting firms offering awards for corporate ethics.

Will Evans — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:50:48 PST

Sometime in the next week or so, something called the Ethisphere Institute is scheduled to announce this year's list of the "World's Most Ethical Companies." If past years are any indication, the winners will have their press releases ready to go, and news outlets across the country will eat it up. There's just one hitch: These ethics awards—let's call them the Ethies—may have ethics issues of their own.

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Business ethics - Ethics - Corporation - Business - Press release

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

Jeremy Stahl — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:12:14 PST

The vice president celebrated his Irish heritage by producing a handful of Bidenisms on St. Patrick's Day. 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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Irish people - Saint Patrick - st. patricks day - Holidays - Gmail

What Warren Buffett's Geico ad says about him—and about American CEOs.

Daniel Gross — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:40:06 PST

In a climate in which CEOs—especially really wealthy CEOs of financial firms—are generally unpopular, it might seem dicey to use one in an advertisement. Of course, there is a long tradition of bosses and founders appearing in pitches for their firms' products and services. And there are good reasons for doing so. It saves ad agencies the cost and effort of hiring actors. CEOs are more likely to approve high-concept ads if they themselves are in them. Most significant, the ads can work.

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Warren Buffett - Geico - Berkshire Hathaway - United States - Advertising

The Runaways reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:25:57 PST

The Runaways (Apparition), directed by Floria Sigismondi, draws its primary appeal from precisely the teen exploitation it decries. There's a certain tawdry B-movie satisfaction in watching the not-yet-legal child star Dakota Fanning—Satsuki's voice in My Neighbor Totoro! Fern in Charlotte's Web!—go down the tubes as Cherie Currie, the drugged-out and corset-clad lead singer of the '70s girl-punk band the Runaways. But the beats the movie hits are predictable enough that, after a rousing, raunchy opening act, the story of the group's fast rise and spectacular flameout begins to feel like an exceptionally dirty-mouthed after-school special.

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Runaways - Cherie Currie - Dakota Fanning - Floria Sigismondi - Musical ensemble

Slate's Whipometer: The health reform vote count enters a blurry zone.

Timothy Noah and Chris Wilson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:43:01 PST

Check here regularly for the latest on what the House, Senate, White House, and various other players are doing to shorten or lengthen the odds that the health care reform bill will pass.

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Slate - White House - Health care - United States - Politics

The Slatest: Afternoon Edition

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:21:16 PST

Ohio Rep. Boccieri will vote 'yes' on health care; Middle East Quartet demands immediate settlement freeze; small businesses charge Yelp with extortion; former producer sues Lady Gaga.

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Can I plant some vegetables in the vacant lot nearby?

Sandy Stonesifer — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:38:13 PST

Spring is upon us, which means it's time for the green-thumbed to get out in their gardens and start digging. Fortunately, one person's talent for tending the earth can benefit a whole neighborhood. In an August 2009 My Goodness column, Sandy Stonesifer offered tips on how to start a community garden. The original article is reprinted below.

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Garden - Community Garden - Home - Vegetable - Community

Scandal strikes the tomato-paste industry.

Arthur Allen — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:21:45 PST

The feds had been investigating his tomato-processing company for more than four years, but Scott Salyer was apparently taken by surprise when the FBI nabbed him at JFK Airport last month. Salyer, who flies his own jet, had been traveling to Paraguay and Andorra, among other locales, looking for an extradition-safe home. He was visiting the United States to see his newborn grandson when the investigation closed in on him.

[more ...]

United States - Federal Bureau of Investigation - John F. Kennedy International Airport - Paraguay - Andorra

The Political Gabfest for March 19, 2010.

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:42:00 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.

[more ...]

Facebook - Online Communities - Social Networking - Political Gabfest - gabfest

Is the Afghan army in danger of growing too strong?

Vanessa M. Gezari — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:41:33 PST

Yesterday: The U.S. military is focused on strengthening Afghan security forces as the key to its exit strategy. But a year after the Obama administration outlined a new strategy for Afghanistan that emphasizes the need for much greater civilian involvement, the U.S. civilian effort remains anemic, particularly in the critical areas of governance and justice.

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Afghanistan - Afghan National Army - United States armed forces - Military - Asia

Crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2.

Melanie Rehak — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:11:39 PST

On the final day of our voyage, it happened. I was standing on the balcony scanning the horizon for birds when I thought I saw something in the water below. No, I told myself, you didn't just see that. You're just imagining it because you think you should see a shark out here. Still, just to be safe, I asked my husband to step outside and tell me I had an overactive imagination. "Is that a fin?" I said, jokingly. "Yes!" said my husband, who grew up on the ocean. "It's a shark!"

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Britannia - RMS Queen Mary 2 - Atlantic Ocean - History - England

Corrections from the last week.

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 07:09:06 PST

In the March 16 "Explainer," Juliet Lapidos implied that all Palestinians (meaning, the ethnic group) who live in East Jerusalem are noncitizen residents. Some are citizens.

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East Jerusalem - Israel - Palestinian people - Middle East - Jerusalem

What's in the health care reform bill's final draft.

Timothy Noah — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:29:26 PST

A friend of mine wrote the original script for a Hollywood movie I prefer not to name. The script was full of wonderful stuff, but the director gave it to another writer who crapped it up. So far, a familiar story. What happened next, though, was a little unusual. The director recognized the error of his ways—not completely enough to return to the original version, but enough to get my friend to put some of his wonderful stuff back in. The movie, although no masterpiece, ended up being a huge hit.

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Hollywood Los Angeles California - Film director - Writer - Arts - Screenwriting

Pavement's Quarantine the Past reviewed.

Troy Patterson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:55:41 PST

I come in peace to chat about Quarantine the Past (Matador Records), a new Pavement compilation with an ultra-fine title. Dropped on the occasion of a reunion tour, the name rings with the personality of what was "the finest rock band of the 90s," according to the certified accounting of Robert Christgau. Recontextualized as an imperative, the phrase sparks from a lyric on this record's first track, "Gold Soundz," a song like a chunk of quartz—jagged angles, splashy jangles, jazzy spangles in the yellow sun. It is a self-doubt song making the best of it as tunefully as its own title arrogantly promises.

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Gold Soundz - Robert Christgau - Musical ensemble - Matador Records - Music

Joslyn James' secret text messages to Tiger Woods.

Josh Levin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:31:15 PST

Porn actress Joslyn James, who claims to have been Woods' "full-time mistress," posted on the Web Thursday a batch of sexually explicit text messages that the disgraced golfer hoped nobody would ever see.

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Tiger Woods - Pornography - Joslyn James - Pornographic actor - Golf

The tricks Congress uses to get better CBO scores for their legislation.

Christopher Beam — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:16:33 PST

The Congressional Budget Office released its assessment of the House fixes to the Senate health care reform bill Thursday. Over the next 10 years, the package would cost $940 billion and reduce the federal deficit by $130 billion. Over the second decade, it would reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion.

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Congressional Budget Office - Health care - United States Congress - United States Senate - United States

A federal court rebukes a district attorney who cracked down on three girls over seminude photos.

Emily Bazelon — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:57:16 PST

George Skumanick should give lessons in how not to respond to teenage sexting if you work in law enforcement. The former district attorney for Wyoming County in rural Pennsylvania did just about everything wrong when, in 2008, local school officials turned over to him photos of teenage girls that boys were trading on their cell phones. Skumanick didn't try to determine whether the girls had been harmed by the sexts. Instead, he called the girls in and threatened to prosecute them for child pornography unless they attended a six- to ninth-month "education and counseling" program of his own devising.

[more ...]

Child pornography - Law - Pennsylvania - Mobile phone - District attorney

Greenberg reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:19:54 PST

In Greenberg (Focus Features), the writer/director Noah Baumbach attempts the heady, possibly foolish experiment of trying to write a romantic comedy without charm. This is entirely different from the phenomenon of the romantic comedy with fake charm, the kind that's convinced, against all evidence, that it has chemistry and amusing banter and meet-cute likeability by the bushel. (Painful examples from the past year include All About Steve, The Ugly Truth, and by all accounts, the just-released Bounty Hunter). Rather than miscalculating its own level of charm, Greenberg eschews charm altogether, just as its main character, Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) eschews the normal lubricants of human interaction: tact, gratitude, listening to what the other person is saying. Greenberg is sour, self-absorbed, closed off from new experiences—one of the least likely candidates for viable leading-man-hood to come along in some time.

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BenStiller - Noah Baumbach - Greenberg - Focus Feature - Ugly Truth

How to become the Senate parliamentarian.

Brian Palmer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:58:02 PST

If House leaders manage to garner the votes for health care reform, the Senate has agreed to amend its bill through the reconciliation process. At that point, the usually obscure Senate parliamentarian may become the most important obstacle to President Obama's signature initiative. Alan Frumin will decide which elements of the bill can be dealt with under the restrictive reconciliation rules and how many amendments Senate Republicans can offer. How do you get to be a parliamentarian?

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Alan Frumin - United States Senate - Parliamentarian of the United States Senate - Health care - Politics

The one simple rule you need to know to have perfect texting etiquette.

Farhad Manjoo — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:42:08 PST

Last week I asked readers to help me solve an etiquette problem. Most of us now carry cell phones that can do a lot more than make phone calls—we can send text messages, check our e-mail, surf the Web, and generally lose ourselves in the depths of a 3.5-inch screen. But look around you. Many people are pulling out their phones at inappropriate times. Spouses are texting during dinner, students are texting during class, and a lot of idiots are texting at the movies.

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Text messaging - Mobile phone - Film - Cell Phones - Science and Technology

TigerText, CheaterRegistry, and other digital means to aid or shame cheaters.

Veronica Belmont — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:16:53 PST

The Web can't quite turn a normal human being into some kind of sexual deviant. But it certainly seems to open new doors to two-timing: iPhone applications promise to keep safe from prying eyes your love notes—or sweet promises to "treat you rough. Throw you around, spank and slap you," as Tiger Woods promised a mistress in recently released texts. Some Web sites facilitate, even encourage affairs; others vow to expose cheaters to the world. The problem (other than the obvious scumminess of fooling around on your significant other)? These methods of concealing and/or exposing illicit romance almost never work as intended.

[more ...]

iPhone 3G - iPhone - Smartphone - Handhelds - Arts

The Pavement reunion and the end of baby boomer cultural hegemony.

Zach Baron — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:20:42 PST

Five years ago, Jack Shafer wrote an essay in these pages asking a mischievous question: How will we know when baby boomers have lost control of American popular culture? "Sooner or later," Shafer predicted, "the post-boomers will give them the necessary nudge, push, and shove to sweep their rotting culture from the scene, and references to Beatles tracks will become as irrelevant as references to Mills Brothers songs." The question was, when? "What post-boomer reference in a mass-media headline or TV commercial will signal the cultural coup?"

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Baby boomer - Jack Shafer - People - Generations and Age Groups - Culture of the United States

How the Congressional Budget Office figures out the cost of the health care reform bill.

Brian Palmer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:55:53 PST

According to preliminary cost estimates, the Congressional Budget Office puts the Democrats' final health care package at $940 billion over 10 years. The CBO report also estimates that the final plan will cut the federal deficit by $130 billion in its first 10 years and by $1.2 trillion in its second 10 years. Last July, Brian Palmer examined how the CBO calculates the cost of legislation. The original article is reprinted below.

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Congressional Budget Office - United States - Politics - Democratic - Health Care Reform

The dilemma of suicidal college students.

Amanda Schaffer — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:54:36 PST

A rash of suicides at Cornell University—six in two semesters, the most recent last week—has shaken administrators and students at the Ithaca, N.Y., campus. In 2006, Amanda Schaffer examined the legal and ethical lines administrators have to toe in dealing with suicidal students. The original article is reprinted below.

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Cornell University - Ithaca New York - Student - New York - Suicide

Why do we put up with the narcissists and misanthropes who populate Noah Baumbach films like Greenberg?

Jessica Winter — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:47:21 PST

A clever fillip of therapy-speak pops up a couple of times in Greenberg, the new movie by Noah Baumbach: "Hurt people hurt people." (The first hurt is an adjective, the second a verb.) The phrase could also double as an epigraph for the writer-director's entire filmography. No American auteur is more attuned to the art of emotional warfare, and none has more intestinal fortitude for placing neurotic, infuriating, occasionally insufferable characters on-screen and daring us to relate to them. While other directors draw from a more palatable menu of character attributes (charm, charisma, chemistry …), Baumbach makes his cinematic home among the narcissists, misanthropes, and passive-aggressives. Which may leave some viewers wondering: If these are the hard cases whom we give a wide berth in real life, why would we want to spend two hours with them in the close quarters of a movie theater?

[more ...]

Noah Baumbach - Movies - United States - Film - Greenberg

Idol vs. the Rolling Stones.

Katherine Meizel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:09:58 PST

Here's the thing, and it shouldn't come as a surprise: Idol cannot handle cock rock. It just doesn't have the Stones. With all of Simon's predictions for a female winner, the choice of an archetypal male rock band was puzzling for the first theme. I worried that it might stump the girls and give the boys an unfair edge, but as it turned out, everyone was equally disadvantaged.

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Rolling Stones - Rock music - Musical ensemble - Television - American Idol

Climate scientists are getting a little too angry for their own good.

Matthew C. Nisbet — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:07:03 PST

As Congress continues to struggle its way toward new energy legislation, climate scientists are getting a little hot. A series of major attacks from the global-warming skeptics—including last year's Climategate affair and unfair accusations stemming from the subsequent discovery of errors in the latest IPCC report—have left those in the research community understandably angry. Having spent eight years calling attention to the politicization of climate science by the Bush administration, they now find themselves on the other end of the same allegations. Whatever raw emotions this reversal might produce were on display a couple of weeks ago in yet another series of leaked e-mails: This time, members of the prestigious National Academies complained to one another about the "neo-McCarthyism" of the climate skeptics and lamented that "science is getting creamed with no effective response." One researcher called for "a relentless rain of science and scientific dialog on the incredible, destructive demagoguery." Another participant urged an "aggressively partisan approach."

[more ...]

Global warming - Climate change - Environment - Climatic Research Unit hacking incident - Scientific community

Can you get in trouble for not filling out your Census form?

Ted Rose — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:30:55 PST

During the last U.S. Census, 10 years ago, Ted Rose looked at what might happen if you neglect to fill out your form. That "Explainer" column has been updated, and reprinted below.

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United States - Census - Genealogy - Government - U.S. Census

Why omega males are cropping up in TV and movies like Greenberg.

Jessica Grose — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:59:01 PST

In the Noah Baumbach movie Greenberg, out in limited release this Friday, the eponymous main character is having trouble being a man. The 41-year-old Greenberg, played by Ben Stiller, tells his 25-year-old love interest that when he was a kid he dreamed of being an astronaut. Now he can't even drive, much less pilot a shuttle. He sabotaged his career as a musician, so he's trying the old-fashioned, manly pursuit of carpentry. He pretends not to care about his new line of work—he tells his friends he's doing "nothing for a while"—yet Greenberg is seriously wounded when an ex-girlfriend tells him she doesn't remember the bed he built for her. All she recalls are his anxiety attacks.

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BenStiller - Noah Baumbach - Greenberg - Film - Movies

How can doctors practice medicine safely without compromising on care?

Rahul Parikh — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:44:59 PST

Staying alive was the last thing on Dr. Richard Mansfield's mind when he went to see a patient in his clinic at the V.A. hospital in Vermont two years ago. A primary-care physician, he was scrambling to keep up with a schedule crammed with patients. As he glanced over his next patient's computerized record, he hastily clicked past the "behavior warning" that popped up on the screen. Then Mansfield walked into the room, closed the door, and saw a tall, burly, 50-year-old man. Just as the doctor sat down, his patient suddenly lunged at him, wrapped his hands around his neck, and began twisting.

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Medicine - Physician - Primary care - Hospital - Health

Should I tell my classmate his grandfather molested me?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:44:36 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.)

[more ...]

Slate - Dear Prudence - Web Design and Development - Social Sciences - Natural

Has Obama turned against Israel? The charge is ludicrous.

Fred Kaplan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:09:51 PST

How many senior U.S. officials will be branded turncoats or anti-Semites before the Israeli government, AIPAC, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman realize that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a serious mistake in approving an expansion of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem and that he must correct it—not just for political or diplomatic reasons but in the interests of American and Israeli security?

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East Jerusalem - Israel - United States - Benjamin Netanyahu - American Israel Public Affairs Committee

The San Francisco Chronicle takes the honor for the worst "pharm party" story ever.

Jack Shafer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:29:08 PST

One would think that the collective wisdom of the thousands of drug fiends inhabiting the San Francisco Bay Area would somehow inform the reporters and editors who produce the region's dominant daily, the San Francisco Chronicle, about the true nature of drug use.

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San Francisco Bay Area - San Francisco Chronicle - United States - California - Metro Areas

Lost: Sweet mother of God.

Chadwick Matlin, Jack Shafer, and Seth Stevenson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:50:45 PST

Seth, if you want to talk about Lost as a reflection of its times, I'm more than eager. I can deliver a dissertation on how Lost's time-travel season was written during a U.S. election that revisited the past as it looked into the future. I can wax philosophic on how this season's dual-timeline approach corresponds to an administration that has changed everything and nothing in Washington, and a viewing public that doesn't know which narrative to believe. And then there's Ben Linus, the best allegory for the Wall Street debacle television has provided. Ben built his power on a foundation of lies and deceit. It was followed by an inevitable crash and then (a potential) resurrection.

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Lost - Ben Linus - Television - Time travel - Wall Street

Can the pope be fired?

Christopher Beam — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:41:30 PST

The Vatican is fending off accusations that Pope Benedict XVI helped cover up sexual child abuse in the Catholic Church when he was archbishop of Munich and Freising in the 1970s and '80s. If more evidence turns up against Pope Benedict, can the church fire him?

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Catholic Church - Sexual abuse - Child abuse - Pope Benedict XVI - Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising

By shaming the Israelis, Obama has hurt American interests in the Middle East.

Lee Smith — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:47:46 PST

Last week, one of Syria's government news organs riffed on the title of my book The Strong Horse; Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations. "The American president," Al Tharwa wrote, "was betting on the sick horse." Instead of siding with Syria's Hamas allies, Obama was backing the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas. From Damascus' perspective, the description also applies to the United States' other Arab allies, like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf sheikhdoms, as well as to Egypt and Jordan. These states are ready to be put out to pasture, while it is Iran's "axis of resistance," including Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Syria itself, that represents the rising power.

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Hamas - Middle East - Mahmoud Abbas - Fatah - United States

Slate Editor David Plotz and Daily Caller Editor Tucker Carlson chatted about health care, Israel, and Tiger Woods. Read the transcript.

David Plotz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:23:27 PST

Slate Editor David Plotz and Daily Caller Editor Tucker Carlson discussed health care developments, the tensions between the United States and Israel, and Tiger Woods' comeback in their weekly chat. Read the transcript below.

[more ...]

Tucker Carlson - David Plotz - United States - im - Slate

The world's oddest financial instrument: an insurance policy that pays off only if the U.S. goes bankrupt.

Daniel Gross — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:58:40 PST

Does it make sense to buy insurance against, say, a nuclear attack on Washington—if all the insurance providers' headquarters are inside the Beltway? Of course not. So why do investors buy insurance on U.S. government debt?

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Insurance - Insurance policy - Financial services - Federal government of the United States - Business

An interactive map of how every story in the news is related, updated daily.

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:53:47 PST

Who is James Sikes?

[more ...]

Junk economics and the NCAA tournament effect.

Jack Shafer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:06:08 PST

March Madness is upon us, and news outlets are once more peddling the theory that the NCAA men's basketball tournament costs businesses billions in lost productivity. In 2006, Jack Shafer debunked the theory and admonished his fellow journalists to stay away from junk economics. The original article is reprinted below.

[more ...]

Basketball - National Collegiate Athletic Association - Sport - NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship - College and University

St. Patrick: No snakes. No shamrocks. Just the facts.

David Plotz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:27:09 PST

In 2000, David Plotz explained why St. Patrick has become a kind of dress-up doll. Catholics, Protestants, and even Americans think the Irishman was one of them. The original article is printed below.

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Irish people - st patricks day - David Plotz - Holidays - United States

Slate's Culture Gabfest on HBO's new miniseries The Pacific, Variety's fired critics, and mommy blogging.

Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:12:02 PST

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 78 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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Slate - HBO - Variety - Culture Gabfest - Miniseries

Insurance companies deny fertility treatment coverage to unmarried women.

Sarah Wildman — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:32:26 PST

Married, divorced, and now happily cohabitating, Marsha Greene is trying to get pregnant with her partner, a nice, divorced guy who also wants a baby but not another ring. All would be perfect, except that Marsha, at 33, has discovered that she has diminished ovarian reserves. That means Marsha's eggs are few and far between; the ones she's got aren't in terribly good shape. Marsha's doctors have recommended she start with IUI (intrauterine insemination) and, if that does not work, move to IVF (in vitro fertilization), which can run $10,000 a round.

[more ...]

Pregnancy - In vitro fertilisation - Artificial insemination - Assisted reproductive technology - Health

Slate wants your best ideas for how to live a cheaper, more energy-efficient life.

Daniel Gross — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:31:37 PST

Slate wants your best ideas for how to live a cheaper, more energy-efficient life.

[more ...]

Energy - Technology - Conservation - Business - Organizations

Is "voluntourism" all it's cracked up to be?

Sandy Stonesifer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:04:37 PST

Dear Sandy,I'm a young professional who has saved a week of vacation in 2010 to do something charitable and see a different part of the world. Unfortunately, I can't decipher from all the volunteerism Web sites out there which are legitimate charities and where I can find a good match for my limited time and money. Do you have any recommendations?

[more ...]

Volunteer - Charitable organization - Charities - Non-profit organization - Fundraising

What's wrong with the FCC's plan to bring high-speed Internet access to rural America.

Chris Wilson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:04:20 PST

Most of the buildings in Dupree, S.D., population 434, do not have street addresses. The volunteer fire department is listed at P.O. Box 461, and you have to dial seven digits to reach it since there's no 911 emergency line. Unsurprisingly, the Greater Dupree Metropolitan Area also lacks broadband Internet service. "We're about 30 years behind the rest of the United States," says Mayor Don Howe. "In some ways, that's good. It's a slower pace of life."

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United States - Federal Communications Commission - Broadband Internet access - Internet access - Access Providers

House Democrats are worried the Senate won't survive "vote-a-rama."

John Dickerson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:25:47 PST

The process for passing health care reform can at times sound like one of those e-mails from a generous foreign banker. I am pleased to be consulting you on behalf of the Nigerian Trust and Mercantile Exchange to request your assistance deeming the Senate health care bill as passed.

[more ...]

Health care - Democratic - United States Senate - Politics - United States

What's wrong with the Washington Post op-ed page?

Jack Shafer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:07:21 PST

Washington Post domestic-policy blogger Ezra Klein encroached on my beat yesterday with an item griping about the surplus of op-eds by politicians on the Post's op-ed page. Such pieces "waste so much real estate publishing talking points," he declares as he pins his prey to the ground and bloodies his teeth shredding it. He writes:

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Washington Post - Ezra Klein - Editorial - United States - Government

The unfathomable Supreme Court penchant for talking politics.

Dahlia Lithwick — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:37:19 PST

You know things have gone ugly between the president and the Supreme Court when we're all talking about 1937 again. That was when tensions between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes led FDR to call out the court in his State of the Union speech and then, a month later, threaten to pack the court with liberal justices. Nobody really thinks President Obama wants to pack the Roberts court. Maybe just punch it in the nose. And the Roberts court hasn't struck down Obama's progressive legislation. Yet. The real reason everyone is talking about 1937 is that, when the executive and judicial branches clash openly like this, the court stops looking all lofty and deliberative and begins to look political and vulnerable. Fair or not, it's usually the court that is hurt by these skirmishes, not the president.

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Supreme Court - Supreme Court of the United States - Barack Obama - Politics - United States

How do you get an apartment in East Jerusalem?

Juliet Lapidos — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:30:40 PST

Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli forces on Tuesday—part of a continuing row over the Israeli Interior Ministry's plans to build new housing units in East Jerusalem. Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser defended the move against criticism from the United States and others, explaining that "Jerusalem is a big city. It is a city that has to grow." How do settlements actually get built, and who moves into them?

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East Jerusalem - United States - Middle East - Israel - Israel Defense Forces

Ginni Thomas brings the Tea Party to the Supreme Court.

Emily Bazelon — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:37:19 PST

Virginia Thomas has many ardent defenders. In fact, it's hard to find anyone who doesn't think that Ginni, as everyone calls the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, has a perfect right to launch herself headlong into the Tea Party movement with the founding of her own group, Liberty Central Inc. As Thomas herself said, pointing out that the Supreme Court's ethics office had approved her new endeavor, "I did not give up my First Amendment rights when my husband became a justice of the Supreme Court."

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Clarence Thomas - United States Supreme Court - Supreme Court - United States - Virginia Thomas

Why it's not idiotic to buy an iPad when it goes on sale April 3.

Farhad Manjoo — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:11:54 PST

One summer day nearly three years ago, I waited in line for 12 hours outside a San Francisco shopping mall so I could get my hands on the first iPhone. Some people romanticize waiting in line for gadgets, concert tickets, and other scarce goods—they see lines as an egalitarian way to separate poseurs from true fans, and they revel in the camaraderie built among their fellow line-waiters. Not me. I hated everything about it—the deprivation, the extended exposure to overly friendly strangers, and the soul-crushing boredom (I didn't have an iPhone to bide my time). Mostly, though, I hated the obvious idiocy of waiting for an expensive, potentially buggy first-generation device that none of us had even had a chance to touch. And we were doing it willingly!

[more ...]

IPhone - IPad - San Francisco - Apple - Smartphones

Kentucky's John Calipari is the sleaziest coach in a sleazy game.

Charles P. Pierce — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:24:41 PST

I do not believe that Kentucky is going to win this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament. This is one reason why: I watched them beat the tar out of Tennessee in the SEC tournament, a ridiculous 74-45 blowout during which freshman center DeMarcus Cousins took the opportunity to give head coach John Calipari one of the greatest "Honky, please" looks since the demise of Richard Pryor, and a backup named Daniel Orton was told to absent himself briefly from the proceedings and walked up the tunnel, leaving Kentucky undermanned and the broadcast crew completely baffled. Meanwhile, Calipari was all over starry freshman guard John Wall, who was visibly counting down the seconds until the end of the season, whenever it is. And all this in a game that Kentucky won by 29.

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John Calipari - Basketball - Kentucky - John Wall - DeMarcus Cousins

More regulation won't fix Wall Street, but a shareholder revolution will.

Eliot Spitzer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:53:13 PST

The economic cataclysm has shaken the most fervent believers in the invisible hand, from Judge Richard Posner to Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, leading many of them—and most of the American public—to support a fundamental shift in the regulatory framework controlling our financial markets. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., has introduced his financial reform bill, and there's vigorous discussion about regulating everything from CEO compensation to use of corporate funds for political advertising to appropriate capital and leverage ratios.

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Alan Greenspan - United States - Christopher Dodd - Richard Posner - Chair of the Federal Reserve

Why is it called "March Madness"?

Brendan I. Koerner — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:51:47 PST

The 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament opens today in Dayton, Ohio. As "March Madness" once again descends on our nation, it begs the question: How did the tournament get its nickname? In 2004, Brendan Koerner reviewed its contentious legal history. The original article is reprinted below.

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NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - Sports - Basketball - College and University - Dayton Ohio

How to win your NCAA pool: Pick Duke, and act like a hedge-fund manager.

Chris Wilson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:50:32 PST

This piece originally ran in 2009. It has been updated for the 2010 NCAA Tournament.

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National Collegiate Athletic Association - Hedge fund - Sports - NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - Free Sports Picks

The complete Walker, Texas Ranger, starring Chuck Norris, reviewed.

Mason Currey — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:37:30 PST

Before my parents' separation and eventual divorce, in the early 1990s, Chuck Norris played a relatively small role in my life. I knew who he was, of course—for an adolescent male with above-average TV-watching habits, Norris was an established, if minor, star in the action-hero firmament. Then came the post-divorce introduction of Weekends With Dad, the semimonthly carting off of my younger brother and me for marathon sessions of quality time. The three of us did what fathers and sons the world over do in these circumstances: We went to the movies, ate multiple fast-food meals a day, invented reasons to take long, time-killing drives around town, and zealously avoided talking about our feelings or looking each other square in the eye.

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Chuck Norris - Walker Texas Ranger - Television - Divorce - Texas Ranger

What's the environmental impact of my period?

Nina Shen Rastogi — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:36:26 PST

Every month, I seem to go through an endless number of disposal pads and tampons. What impact are my moon cycles having on the planet?

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Tampon - Menstruation - Lunar phase - Health - Shopping

Searching for the best online tax-prep service on the market.

Tom Bartlett — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:12:08 PST

Taxes, as we all know, were invented by Barack Obama to ruin America. But until the tricorn-hatted hordes rise up and unite from sea to shining sea, we must fork over to the feds, thereby supporting a host of socialist boondoggles such as schools and roads.

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Barack Obama - United States - Socialism - President - Tax

Before the tabloids, there were ballads like "The Cruel Mother."

Robert Pinsky — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:05:51 PST

The supermarket tabloids seem to have fallen on hard times. Much of their distinctive subject matter—unnatural violence, forbidden sexual activity, awful secrets, misbehavior by the eminent, supernatural horrors—has been taken over, increasingly, by digital media.

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Tabloid - Human sexual behavior - Media - Religion and Spirituality - Journalism

Britain and America both have center-left leaders, but the two nations are further apart than ever.

Anne Applebaum — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:04:46 PST

LONDON—"Two nations, divided by a common language" is how someone once described Great Britain and the United States. "Two nations, divided by a common politics" is another way to put it. Ever since the days of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, the political fortunes of the United States and Britain have tracked and reflected one another in odd ways. For many years, they moved in tandem: The harmonious center-right union of Thatcher and Reagan was followed by the equally harmonious, if less affectionate, center-left union of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.

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Margaret Thatcher - United States - Ronald Reagan - Tony Blair - Bill Clinton

An infant saw her parents murdered in Ciudad Juárez. Will it affect her?

Brian Palmer — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:19:34 PST

An employee of the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and her husband were shot to death in their car Sunday. The victims' 7-month-old daughter was found crying, but unharmed, in the back seat. Will witnessing her parents' murder at the hands of narco-mobsters have any long-term effects on the baby?

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Mexico - Ciudad Juárez - United States - Murder - Chihuahua

Health reform's virgin birth.

Timothy Noah — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:08:47 PST

House Republicans are up in arms over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's apparent intention to bypass the Senate health care reform bill with what they call the "Slaughter strategy" (named for Louise Slaughter, D.-N.Y., chairman of the House Rules committee). As Slate's John Dickerson explained March 10, this would be achieved by a "self-executing rule" that would allow the House to "deem" the Senate bill already passed as it considers the clean-up reconciliation bill containing various corrections demanded by the House and the Obama White House. A sort of virgin birth, if you will, with the Senate cast as Mary, the House cast as Joseph, and health care reform cast as the baby Jesus. "We're seeing a perversion of the rules to go ahead and ram through this trillion-dollar health care," House Republic Whip Eric Cantor, R.-Va., complained on Fox News. "It pains me to see," said former Rules chairman David Dreier.

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Louise Slaughter - Nancy Pelosi - United States House Committee on Rules - United States - Politics

The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook Feed.

Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:48:06 PST

Health care's final stretch, Eric Massa, and the fall of Scott Brown.

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Barack Obama - Eric Massa - Health care - United States - President

Slate's sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen, for the week of March 15, 2010.

Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, Mike Pesca — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:46:00 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 - Josh Levin - Stefan Fatsis

Big Breitbart: Andrew Breitbart is messing with you.

Christopher Beam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:06:08 PST

The first time I saw Andrew Breitbart, he was publicly insulting a reporter. "Kate Zernike of the New York Times, are you in the room?" he asked the crowd. "Are you in the room?" Heads turned. Apparently not. "You're despicable," Breitbart said. "You're a despicable human being."

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New York Times - Andrew Breitbart - United States - New York - Kate Zernike

How Stupak's stubbornness may lead to more abortions.

Timothy Noah — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:11:26 PST

If you want to reduce the number of abortions, rather than simply grandstand about them, you should want health care reform to pass. That's the important message of an op-ed by former Washington Post reporter T.R. Reid ("Universal Health Care Tends To Cut The Abortion Rate") that appeared in the Post March 14. Every pro-life member of Congress should stop whatever he or she is doing right now to read it.

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Abortion - United States Congress - Pro-life movement - Washington Post - United States

Our critics discuss Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

Troy Patterson, John Swansburg, and Jacob Weisberg — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:22:55 PST

To listen to the Slate Audio Book Club discussion of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, click the arrow on the player below.

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Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall: A Novel - Wolf Hall - Literature - Arts

The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it.

Christopher Hitchens — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:20:12 PST

On March 10, the chief exorcist of the Vatican, the Rev. Gabriele Amorth (who has held this demanding post for 25 years), was quoted as saying that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican," and that "when one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' in the holy rooms, it is all true—including these latest stories of violence and pedophilia." This can perhaps be taken as confirmation that something horrible has indeed been going on in the holy precincts, though most inquiries show it to have a perfectly good material explanation.

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Gabriele Amorth - Vatican City - Satan - Exorcist - Vatican

Why the experimental label should be removed from egg freezing.

Sarah Elizabeth Richards — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:19:48 PST

Early last decade, a procedure became available to aging women that allowed doctors to extract and freeze their eggs in the hopes of preserving their fertility. At that point, there were plenty of reasons to be cautious. Egg survival rates were low and inconsistent. The long-term health of babies born from frozen eggs was unknown. Many doctors offering the procedure had never thawed eggs, let alone injected them with sperm, grown them into embryos, and transferred them back to their patients. So it wasn't surprising when, in 2004, the fertility field's professional organization, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), declared egg freezing "experimental." That means physicians have to obtain permission from an institutional review board before offering the procedure and must inform patients that it is not an established medical practice.

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American Society for Reproductive Medicine - Health - Medicine - Oocyte cryopreservation - Infertility

Your vote on health care is more important than your reelection.

William Saletan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 07:50:40 PST

The Democrats are toast! That's the Republican prediction if Congress passes President Obama's health-care legislation in the face of hostile polls. Sunday on Face the Nation, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., warned that by "thumbing your nose at the American people," Democrats would trigger "a political wipeout" in November. Two veteran Democratic pollsters, Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen, agree. "The issue, in voters' minds, has become less about health care than about the government and a political majority that will neither hear nor heed the will of the people," they wrote in Friday's Washington Post. "Democrats are pursuing policies that are out of step with the way ordinary Americans think and feel about politics and government. Barring some change of approach, they will be punished severely at the polls."

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United States - Washington Post - Democratic - Politics - Health care

Ira Berlin's The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations.

Jacqueline Jones — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:38:56 PST

Ira Berlin begins this book by recounting a conversation he had several years ago with a small group of black radio technicians, most of them recent immigrants born in Africa or the Caribbean. He had just been interviewed on a local public radio station on the topic "Who freed the slaves?" Berlin had argued that enslaved Southerners played a significant role in their own liberation. He found that the technicians were "deeply interested" in the events leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; yet he was troubled by the fact that they felt these events "had nothing to do with them. Simply put, it was not their history."

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Berlin - Radio broadcasting - Public broadcasting - Radio - Africa

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

Jeremy Stahl — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:03:09 PST

The vice president produced one new Bidenism this week during a state visit to Israel. 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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United States - Gmail - State visit - Vice president - Complete Bidenisms

Slate Magazine

Slate V: The Runaways, The Bounty Hunter, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jesse James' alleged mistress is a "tattoo model." What does that mean?

Beware of corporate consulting firms offering awards for corporate ethics.

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

What Warren Buffett's Geico ad says about him—and about American CEOs.

The Runaways reviewed.

Slate's Whipometer: The health reform vote count enters a blurry zone.

The Slatest: Afternoon Edition

Can I plant some vegetables in the vacant lot nearby?

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Scandal strikes the tomato-paste industry.

The Political Gabfest for March 19, 2010.

Is the Afghan army in danger of growing too strong?

Crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2.

Corrections from the last week.

What's in the health care reform bill's final draft.

Pavement's Quarantine the Past reviewed.

Joslyn James' secret text messages to Tiger Woods.

The tricks Congress uses to get better CBO scores for their legislation.

A federal court rebukes a district attorney who cracked down on three girls over seminude photos.

Greenberg reviewed.

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How to become the Senate parliamentarian.

The one simple rule you need to know to have perfect texting etiquette.

TigerText, CheaterRegistry, and other digital means to aid or shame cheaters.

The Pavement reunion and the end of baby boomer cultural hegemony.

How the Congressional Budget Office figures out the cost of the health care reform bill.

The dilemma of suicidal college students.

Why do we put up with the narcissists and misanthropes who populate Noah Baumbach films like Greenberg?

Idol vs. the Rolling Stones.

Climate scientists are getting a little too angry for their own good.

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Can you get in trouble for not filling out your Census form?

Why omega males are cropping up in TV and movies like Greenberg.

How can doctors practice medicine safely without compromising on care?

Should I tell my classmate his grandfather molested me?

Has Obama turned against Israel? The charge is ludicrous.

The San Francisco Chronicle takes the honor for the worst "pharm party" story ever.

Lost: Sweet mother of God.

Can the pope be fired?

By shaming the Israelis, Obama has hurt American interests in the Middle East.

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Slate Editor David Plotz and Daily Caller Editor Tucker Carlson chatted about health care, Israel, and Tiger Woods. Read the transcript.

The world's oddest financial instrument: an insurance policy that pays off only if the U.S. goes bankrupt.

An interactive map of how every story in the news is related, updated daily.

Junk economics and the NCAA tournament effect.

St. Patrick: No snakes. No shamrocks. Just the facts.

Slate's Culture Gabfest on HBO's new miniseries The Pacific, Variety's fired critics, and mommy blogging.

Insurance companies deny fertility treatment coverage to unmarried women.

Slate wants your best ideas for how to live a cheaper, more energy-efficient life.

Is "voluntourism" all it's cracked up to be?

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What's wrong with the FCC's plan to bring high-speed Internet access to rural America.

House Democrats are worried the Senate won't survive "vote-a-rama."

What's wrong with the Washington Post op-ed page?

The unfathomable Supreme Court penchant for talking politics.

How do you get an apartment in East Jerusalem?

Ginni Thomas brings the Tea Party to the Supreme Court.

Why it's not idiotic to buy an iPad when it goes on sale April 3.

Kentucky's John Calipari is the sleaziest coach in a sleazy game.

More regulation won't fix Wall Street, but a shareholder revolution will.

Advertisement:

Why is it called "March Madness"?

How to win your NCAA pool: Pick Duke, and act like a hedge-fund manager.

The complete Walker, Texas Ranger, starring Chuck Norris, reviewed.

What's the environmental impact of my period?

Searching for the best online tax-prep service on the market.

Before the tabloids, there were ballads like "The Cruel Mother."

Britain and America both have center-left leaders, but the two nations are further apart than ever.

An infant saw her parents murdered in Ciudad Juárez. Will it affect her?

Health reform's virgin birth.

Advertisement:

The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook Feed.

Slate's sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen, for the week of March 15, 2010.

Big Breitbart: Andrew Breitbart is messing with you.

How Stupak's stubbornness may lead to more abortions.

Our critics discuss Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall.

The pope's entire career has the stench of evil about it.

Why the experimental label should be removed from egg freezing.