Slate Magazine

Slate V: Dana's Home Theater: Bright Star

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:59:00 -0800

Slate film critic Dana Stevens gives us the scoop on her favorite recent DVD releases. This week's pick: Bright Star.

What game theory can teach us about the fate of health care reform.

Christopher Beam — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 18:25:40 PST

The Senate likes to think of itself as the world's greatest deliberative body. But there's a less charitable way to think about it: It's the world's greatest collective-action problem.

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Health care - United States Senate - Game theory - Deliberative assembly - Senate

Does shoveling snow really put you at risk of a heart attack?

Juliet Lapidos — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 18:23:00 PST

The National Weather Service is forecasting as much as 20 inches of new snow in Washington, D.C. and 18 inches near Philadelphia by Wednesday—the second major snowfall to affect the Middle Atlantic region in the last several days. The House canceled debates scheduled for Tuesday night, airlines are canceling flights, and—as always happens when there's snow on the ground—journalists are writing stories about shoveling-induced heart attacks. "Shoveling Snow Can Cause Heart Problems" (WHIZ News); "shoveling snow can be incredibly dangerous for someone with a cardiac condition" (Staunton News Leader); "heart attacks among shovelers are a major concern" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Is there a real connection between shoveling and cardiac trouble?

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National Weather Service - Philadelphia - Snow - Washington DC - House

What's wrong with Google's Nexus One phone and Android operating system.

Farhad Manjoo — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 17:48:21 PST

When Google launched the Nexus One in January, the company hit on an odd bit of marketing to distinguish the new phone from its rivals. This was a "superphone," Google said—every other cellular device on the market was merely "smart." The designation didn't make much sense—despite what Google would have you believe, the Nexus One doesn't have any major features that set it apart from other top-of-the-line phones. It makes calls, does e-mail, and browses the Web; so do the iPhone, the Palm Pre, various BlackBerrys, and every other Android phone. All top-end smartphones have Wi-Fi, 3G, and GPS. They've all got app stores that can give you access to a wide variety of third-party programs. And though smartphones come in two distinct hardware flavors—either with or without a physical keyboard—they are all very pretty to look at.

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Google - Nexus One - Android - iPhone - Palm Pre

The Slatest: Evening Edition

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 17:29:35 PST

The president doesn't like the way Republicans are acting; Republicans don't like the first lady's anti-obesity program; Robert Gibbs needs to pick up a few things from the grocery store.

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Bruce Springsteen backs out of a copyright lawsuit.

Ben Sheffner — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:41:27 PST

It was a classic piece of music industry journalism: Rapacious Big Music beats up on hapless Little Guy, with The Artist, who just wants to make ars gratia artis, caught in the middle.

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Bruce Springsteen - Music industry - Music - Copyright - Business

When did we start describing comatose patients as "vegetative"?

Graham Vyse — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:35:37 PST

A study published last Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that British and Belgian scientists were able to communicate with a patient in a "persistent vegetative state" using high-tech brain scans. When did we start describing comatose patients as "vegetative"?

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Persistent vegetative state - New England Journal of Medicine - Belgium - Brain - United States

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, an intellectual history.

Bryan Curtis — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 13:55:36 PST

Model Brooklyn Decker is on the cover of the latest edition of Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue. The magazine also features "Olympic Stars" in various stages of undress. In a 2005 column, Bryan Curtis argued that "Sports Illustrated helped create the sex-sports nexus, by bringing the supermodels directly to the fans." The entire column is reprinted below.

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Brooklyn Decker - Sport - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue - Sport Illustrated - Andy Roddick

Washington Post transportation reporter Howard Kurtz muffs the media "bypass" story.

Jack Shafer — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 13:38:34 PST

The Obama White House has built a "bypass" to reroute the president's message around the pesky White House press corps, Washington Post transportation beat reporter Howard Kurtz reported yesterday.

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Howard Kurtz - Washington Post - White House - United States - White House press corps

Dana's Home Theater: Bright Star

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 13:10:55 PST

A daily video from Slate V.

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Home cinema - Home Theater - Business - Electronics - Consumer Goods and Services

Reports of the Iranian regime's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.

Jason Rezaian — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 12:29:26 PST

TEHRAN, Iran—I've begun to wonder about all the so-called "Iran experts" in the West. As Feb. 11, the 31st anniversary of the Islamic republic's founding, approaches, many of the reports about the imminent demise of the Iranian regime read like wishful thinking. On the flip side, those who claim the theocracy will survive as is also seem off the mark. Here in Tehran, things are much murkier.

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Iran - Tehran - Middle East - Government - Embassies and Consulates

Help Slate predict the Oscar winners.

Cecile Dehesdin and Chris Wilson — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 11:58:25 PST

Update, Feb. 8: If you've already voted, click here to see which actors and movies are in the lead.

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Academy Award - Meryl Streep - Movies - Arts - Awards

Reading the informal language of road signals.

Tom Vanderbilt — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 10:49:57 PST

A funny thing happened on the way to the mall the other day. Coming down a two-lane rural highway, an approaching driver flashed his headlights at me. My first instinct was that my high beams were on—but it was a sunny day. A few seconds later, it dawned on me that the burst of illumination was meant as a warning: Just around the upcoming bend sat a local trooper on the grassy shoulder.

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Road - Headlamp - Highway - Recreation - Autos

Israel's boycott of Hamas makes life difficult for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Linda Gradstein — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 09:57:07 PST

SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip—Ayman Hamad ekes out a living as a porter, wheeling suitcases along the passageway from the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel along the mile-long open-air passageway to the Palestinian side.

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Gaza Strip - Hamas - Israel - Middle East - Erez Crossing

Revisiting Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy.

Nathaniel Rich — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 09:50:08 PST

A building will tell you a lot about its builder—the conventions of his time, his wealth, his hubris. As architect Julia Morgan said, "Buildings speak for themselves." Ruins, however, speak for all of us. And they're monotonous. They're always saying the same thing: Nothing endures. Nature can be tamed for only a brief period of time. Permanence is an illusion. We look at ruins and sigh. Then we start building again.

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Julia Morgan - Architect - Recreation - Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy - Autos

The mobile communication device in your head.

William Saletan — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 09:09:13 PST

Here's a real-life horror story: Five people have been found buried alive inside their bodies. Paralyzed by brain injuries, they lay inert for years, seemingly oblivious to the doctors and loved ones around them. Four were diagnosed as vegetative. Then a European research team scanned their brains. It turns out they're aware; they just can't speak or move. God knows how many more are trapped like this.

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Brain - Horror fiction - Mobile phone - Health - Premature burial

Jack Murtha was a dying breed: an unapologetic partisan for his district.

Dennis B. Roddy — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 08:45:08 PST

The one promise Jack Murtha broke to me was to explain Abscam. The night the news broke that a group of congressmen had been caught boozing up, taking bribes—one tucked the money into his suit and asked, "Does it show?"—Murtha seemed the most implausible of the bribed.

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John Murtha - Abscam - Jack Murtha - United States - United States House of Representatives

Should we bother cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

Nina Shen Rastogi — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 07:57:33 PST

I keep reading about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that floating island of trash between California and Hawaii. Can we ever clean it up? And should we even bother?

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Hawaii - California - Island - United States

An assessment of Meg Whitman, candidate for California governor.

Sara Libby — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 07:50:52 PST

Arnold Schwarzenegger used to call his rivals for the California governorship "girly men." Meg Whitman, who is running to replace him, could be called the "manly girl." Whitman made her name in the testosterone-heavy halls of Silicon Valley. She is a passionate fly-fisher, and a self-described "frumpy" dresser who shies away from the worlds of "fashion and decorating." When she reveals personal details, she does it with the spontaneity and warmth of Al Gore.

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California - Meg Whitman - Al Gore - Silicon Valley - United States

What Viktor Yanukovych's election victory means for Ukraine.

Anne Applebaum — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 20:07:46 PST

Every revolution sparks a counterrevolution. The French Revolution in 1789 was followed by Napoleon and the restoration of the monarchy. Following the Russian Revolution, the czar's forces regrouped and fought a bloody civil war.

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Ukraine - Viktor Yanukovych - French Revolution - Civil war - Orange Revolution

Eight ways to fix the Senate—and why they won't happen.

Christopher Beam — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 19:37:42 PST

Calls for Senate reform peaked over the weekend after Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., put a "blanket hold" on more than 70 Obama nominees, not out of principled opposition, but because two projects in his home state of Alabama weren't getting enough attention.

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Alabama - Richard Shelby - United States Senate - United States - Senate

How many ways can you bow in Japan?

Brian Palmer — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 18:45:48 PST

Toyota president Akio Toyoda held a press conference Friday to apologize for the quality problems that led to a massive automotive recall and at least 19 deaths. The Los Angeles Times noted that Toyoda performed a short bow to express regret rather than a long, sustained bow to indicate contrition. How many kinds of bows are there in Japan?

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Akio Toyoda - Japan - Toyota - Los Angeles Times - United States

Case reopened: reviewing new examples of plagiarism by the Daily Beast's Gerald Posner.

Jack Shafer — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 17:30:13 PST

Last week, a reader tipped me to an instance of potential plagiarism by Gerald Posner in the Daily Beast, for which Posner is chief investigative reporter. After I called the plagiarism to the attention of Daily Beast Executive Editor Edward Felsenthal, the site deleted five pilfered sentences and added an editor's note to explain the deletions and to apologize.

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Gerald Posner - Daily Beast - Plagiarism - Investigative journalism - Editing

Why televised negotiations won't get us health reform.

Timothy Noah — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 17:27:43 PST

During the early 1990s, Slate's founder, Michael Kinsley, was co-host of CNN's Crossfire. The title described the show accurately, and (though a model of civilized debate by today's cable-chat standards) it was criticized for rewarding noisy disagreement for its own sake. A few years later, Kinsley proposed a show called Ceasefire that would be Crossfire's opposite. Instead of locating areas of disagreement between opposing parties, its hosts would cajole warring parties into finding areas of agreement, however fragile. This approach had been shown to work, Kinsley observed, in labor mediation and marital counseling. Why not politics? "For a while," Kinsley e-mailed me, "every time there was a new head of CNN or MSNBC … I would email them with the idea. They would usually write back 'this could be interesting' and then nothing would happen."

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Michael Kinsley - Slate - Politics - CNN - Crossfire

Why the filibuster is OK for Democrats but not for Republicans.

Ben Eidelson — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 16:31:15 PST

The unraveling of the congressional debate over health care reform is already renewing calls to abolish the Senate filibuster. As many have argued, the filibuster undermines the democratic principle of majority rule and compounds the unrepresentative character of the Senate's design. The health care debacle suggests that the filibuster may also be rendering our country ungovernable. So why not just do away with it?

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Filibuster - Republican - Democratic - United States Senate - Senate

The death of Phoebe Prince and the connection between bullying and cyberbullying.

Emily Bazelon — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:53:18 PST

Last September, South Hadley High School in Western Massachusetts hosted a workshop on bullying for parents and anyone else interested. Attendance was low. As the school year progressed, a 9th grader who'd recently arrived from Ireland, Phoebe Prince, got caught in a torrent of mean-girl taunting. In school, girls who didn't like the way she was talking to their boyfriends called her a slut. Someone scribbled Prince out of a student-body photo hanging in a classroom, one student said. Outside school, her tormenters ganged up on her on Facebook, making the bullying incessant.

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Facebook - Ireland - Bullying - South Hadley High School - Western Massachusetts

Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen for the week of Feb. 8, 2010.

Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:47:01 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 - Stefan Fatsis

Why haven't responsible Republicans spoken out against Sarah Palin?

Fred Kaplan — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:59:28 PST

Are there any Republican grown-ups out there, and, if there are, will they ever start coming to the aid of their party?

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Republican - Sarah Palin - United States - Politics - Alaska

Dear Prudence chats live with readers at Washingtonpost.com

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:38:31 PST

Emily Yoffe: Good afternoon. I hope everyone in the D.C. area has their shoveling arms in shape for Tuesday!

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Washington Post - Dear Prudence - Emily Yoffe - Recreation - Warfare and Conflict

I would love to see Don Graham do my job.

Troy Patterson — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:25:05 PST

The reality show that debuted after the Super Bowl goes by the title Undercover Boss (CBS). I mention this for the benefit of readers who were too befuddled by saturated fats and thin lager to have caught the name—though I'm confident that the show itself made quite an impression. With each episode finding a top corporate executive covertly working among bottom-rung employees, Undercover Boss is a fanfare for the common man, a fantasy of revenge against the haute bourgeoisie, a genial riff on both types of Marxian self-alienation, and a tribute to the Protestant work ethic.

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Super Bowl - Undercover Boss - CBS - Reality television - Television

Republicans are winning the war of political rhetoric. Here's how the president needs to fight back.

Eliot Spitzer — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 11:48:09 PST

The sense of hope that swept in with President Obama has been supplanted by existential doubt: Can the nation ever address its critical structural crises in health care, financial services, energy, and education?

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Barack Obama - President of the United States - Health care - Financial services - Rhetoric

Islamists want to prohibit non-Muslims from referring to God as Allah.

Christopher Hitchens — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 10:56:44 PST

In Malaysia last month, there was vicious rioting after high court judge Lau Bee Lan issued a ruling on the proper naming of God. A complaint had been lodged by Muslim groups that local Christians were using the word Allah in their services and publications. (In the Malay language, that happens to be the word for God, a term Christians find it hard to do without.) The high court finding was very narrowly drawn; it said that the Catholic Herald could say Allah in its Malay-language edition, provided that the paper was sold "only on church grounds and bearing the label FOR NON-MUSLIMS ONLY." Even this restriction was too lenient for the Islamists. Several churches and convents have been firebombed and defaced, and the Malaysian government has publicly regretted the court's decision. According to an Associated Press report, the authorities believe that "making Allah synonymous with god may confuse Muslims and ultimately mislead them into converting to Christianity." The danger of this seems small—most of Malaysia's 2.5 million Christians are ethnically Chinese or Indian, and indeed there is a slight but unmistakable racist tinge to the Malayan Muslim demand for an ethno-linguistic monopoly on the word for the deity.

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Malaysia - Christianity - Catholic Herald - Islam - Chinese language

What Henry Paulson's new memoir misses about his own responsibility for the global meltdown.

Daniel Gross — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 10:05:11 PST

Investment bankers are among the least reflective of financial birds. They deal with the problem at hand without asking too many questions about how it got there. One of their favorite trills is, "It is what it is." So it's no surprise that On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System, the memoir of Henry Paulson, the avid bird-watcher and former Goldman Sachs chief executive who served as Treasury secretary for 30 turbulent months, doesn't contain much second-guessing or navel-gazing. "I'm a straightforward person. I like to be direct with people," he tells us. His first-person account of the epic financial collapse is just that—straightforward and direct. Shorn of anonymous, unsourced dish, it nonetheless offers plenty of excellent color and detail.

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Henry Paulson - Goldman Sachs - United States Secretary of the Treasury - On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System - Business

Advice for a woman who thinks her friends have been stolen.

Lucinda Rosenfeld — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 09:38:11 PST

Welcome to "Friend or Foe," the DoubleX advice column for your queries about the trickiest of all love affairs: friendships. Lucinda Rosenfeld, author of I'm So Happy For You, a novel about best friends, is now taking questions at lucinda@imsohappyforyou.com. (E-mail may be quoted in a future article or elsewhere unless the letter writer stipulates otherwise.)

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Advice column - Author - Lucinda Rosenfeld - Advice - Friend or Foe

The best and worst Super Bowl ads.

Seth Stevenson — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 07:31:12 PST

Welcome to the annual Ad Report Card Super Bowl Special. Among the recurring advertising themes I noticed during the big game: Animals hot-tubbing with sexy ladies; paunchy dudes wearing tighty-whities; defiant misogyny. Not being a huge fan of bestiality, hairy male thighs, or woman-hating, I must admit I was underwhelmed by this year's commercial crop.

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Super Bowl - Advertising - Super Bowl advertising - Games - sport

The largest American charitable contributions of 2009.

Patty Stonesifer — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 07:03:09 PST

Slate 60 Introduction | Donor Bios | Interactive Feature | Searchable Database

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Charitable contribution - United States - Business and Economy - Philanthropy - Donation

How Sean Payton's daring play-calling won the New Orleans Saints their first Super Bowl.

Josh Levin — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 04:02:24 PST

For the last four years, fans on the message board SaintsReport.com have been adding to a thread called "Write the Times-Picayune's Headline for the Day After the Saints Win the Super Bowl." The 13 pages of suggestions that piled up between 2006 and the opening kickoff of Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV—"Convoy of Snow Plows arrives in Hell!"; "Holy *Bleep*!!!"; "We Won! We Actually Won!!!"; and "New Orleans Runs Out of Liquor," to name a few—reveal that, even for the most-optimistic Saints fans, this day was unimaginable. When it actually happened—holy bleep, the Saints really, seriously won the Super Bowl 31-17 over the Indianapolis Colts—the Times-Picayune's real-life headline writers shrugged and admitted defeat. On the field, Saints coach Sean Payton held up a paper that said, simply, "World Champs." Yeah, there really are no words.

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New Orleans Saints - Indianapolis Colts - Super Bowl XLIV - Super Bowl - Sean Payton

Don Delillo's Point Omega.

Judith Shulevitz — Sun, 7 Feb 2010 09:04:32 PST

Don DeLillo's characters feel slightly more generic with every novel. This is held against them. As detached yet filled with pungent apercus as graduate students warding off depression, these creatures of the novelist's late phase carom numbly around their synthetic environments. Rather than root his inventions in the soil of human particularity, DeLillo thins them into holograms. They become personifications of impersonal processes, and long to return to the same. They develop an irresistible urge to subsume what little they have by way of distinct identity into something purer and less subjective: financial data streams (Cosmopolis), theories of probability (Falling Man), the supernatural (The Body Artist).

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Don Delillo - Cosmopolis - Point Omega: A Novel - Body Artist - Falling Man

Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis.

Jacob Weisberg — Sat, 6 Feb 2010 07:07:48 PST

In trying to explain why our political paralysis seems to have gotten so much worse over the past year, analysts have rounded up a plausible collection of reasons including: President Obama's tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, the blustering idiocracy of the cable-news stations, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for any important legislation. These are all large factors, to be sure, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit in our current predicament: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.

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United States - Filibuster - Politics - Barack Obama - United States Senate

A plea to grant health care reform a papal dispensation.

Timothy Noah — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 19:09:22 PST

A plea to grant health care reform a papal dispensation.

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Health care - Health - Health Policy - United States - Anti-Regulation

Shelby's blanket hold: Can he really do that?

Daniel Engber — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 18:06:20 PST

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has placed a "blanket hold" on more than 70 presidential nominees, angering both the White House and Democratic lawmakers. In 2006, Daniel Engber reviewed the history of this legislative maneuver in all its forms, including the "secret hold," the "revolving hold," and the "rolling hold." That column is reprinted below.

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Richard Shelby - White House - Democratic - United States - United States Senate

The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook news feed.

Christopher Beam and Chris Wilson — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 16:37:17 PST

The State of the Union, the new budget, and Rahm Emanuel's very special apology.

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Rahm Emanuel - Barack Obama - Facebook - United States - Politics

The Red Riding trilogy reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 16:00:37 PST

The Red Riding trilogy, a three-part crime thriller that aired as a television series in Britain and is now being released in the United States both theatrically and with IFC On Demand, is so sprawling that it takes a full paragraph just to describe its provenance. All three parts were adapted by Tony Grisoni from a series of novels by David Peace about the Yorkshire Ripper case—a string of murders that took place in Northern England over a 10-year period. The first segment, set in 1974, is directed by Julian Jarrold (Becoming Jane); the second, set in 1980, by James Marsh (Man on Wire); and the third, set in 1983, by Anand Tucker (Shopgirl).

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RedRiding - James Marsh - DavidPeace - AnandTucker - United States

Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald.

Jack Shafer — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 15:18:49 PST

Veteran journalist Gerald Posner acknowledged today that he copied five sentences from a Miami Herald article this week for a piece he wrote for the Daily Beast. The Daily Beast appended an editor's note to the beginning of Posner's piece today, explaining that the copying was "inadvertent" and that the Daily Beast has deleted the copied passages.

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Daily Beast - Gerald Posner - Miami Herald - Journalist - United States

Reviews of: From Paris with Love, Dear John, and Frozen

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 14:36:23 PST

A daily video from Slate V.

[more ...]

DearJohn - Channing Tatum - Nicholas Sparks - John - AmandaSeyfried

The Political Gabfest for Feb. 5, 2010.

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 12:25:13 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 - Social Networking - Online Communities - Politics - United States

Obama should move on judicial nominations.

Doug Kendall — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 12:23:47 PST

By February 2002, President George W. Bush had nominated 89 judges to the lower federal courts. This week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy prodded President Obama, who has nominated just 42 federal judges to date, to "get up names as quickly as possible." President Obama promised to make this "a priority." He'd better.

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George W. Bush - Barack Obama - Patrick Leahy - United States Senate - United States

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

Jeremy Stahl — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 11:59:31 PST

The vice president produced a classic Bidenism this week. 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 - Vice Presidents - Complete Bidenisms

A military wife makes it halfway through her husband's deployment to Iraq.

Alison Buckholtz — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 10:30:09 PST

Most military spouses experience the mid-deployment blues, and as I near the halfway point of my husband's 14-month absence, I recognize the signs; in my case, though, the mid-deployment black-and-blues have rendered me useless. Last fall, I fractured my foot and wore a cast for six weeks; just as that was healing, I slipped on a patch of black ice and hit my head. One concussion and 15 stitches later, I emerged bloody, bandaged, and as bruised as a Civil War casualty. I looked terrible, but there was something deeply satisfying about it. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, my broken outside finally matched my (heartbroken) inside. That mid-deployment feeling of floating in time indefinitely—the separation has lasted eons, but homecoming is still many moons away—leaves some spouses angry, some depressed, and some simply exhausted. I fight hopelessness.

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Military - Iraq War - Iraq - American Civil War - United States

Haiti after the earthquake.

Michael Deibert — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 10:18:14 PST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Haiti's radio journalists, many of whom have long experience of operating under dictatorships and elected governments with little tolerance for critical press coverage, know a thing or two about adversity. But nearly a month ago, when Haiti's capital was devastated by an earthquake that leveled large sections of the city and killed at least 150,000 people, local reporters were suddenly faced with a whole new set of challenges."We try and orient people to where aid is being distributed, and every day we announce messages about people who are still missing," says Wendell Theodore, the silken-voiced news director of Radio Metropole in the capital's Delmas region. His own home destroyed, Theodore now broadcasts the names of the missing from under a tree in the radio station's yard, next to the tent he has slept in since his house collapsed."I saw our building shake," says Rotchild Francois, director of the capital's RFM radio in the Pétionville district, who was at his desk in the studio when the earthquake struck and dashed into the street with a dozen other employees. The station lost a reporter in the quake and was knocked off the air for five days. Reporters from Radio Galaxie, Radio Magic 9, and Radio Télé Ginen were also killed.Francois now spends his days combing the capital, trying to paint an audio picture of what is happening and to get information on the air about where aid is being distributed, the location of feeding and medical centers, and other important information. Many of the station's employees, fearful of aftershocks, refuse to enter the building.

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Haiti - Port-au-Prince - Earthquake - Caribbean - Pétionville

Why our irrational fear of baby-snatching is wasting money and risking lives.

Daniel Engber — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 09:36:20 PST

Last summer, a woman wearing hospital scrubs and a backpack stepped into a room of the maternity ward at the Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, Texas. She picked up a 2-day-old baby that didn't belong to her and made for the stairs.

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Fort Hood - Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center - Hospital - United States - Military

Reflections on the Ozzy Osbourne's memoir, I Am Ozzy.

James Parker — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 09:33:03 PST

I Am Ozzy is the title of his book. Perfect. Not They Call Me Ozzy or The Ozz I Waz or even Why Ozz? Because. Just this bald declarative, this absolute. And here it all is, in vivid as-told-to prose, an identity and its roots: the childhood playing in a dark city (Birmingham) still half-flattened by Hitler's bombs; the industrialized young manhood in a factory testing car horns and then in a slaughterhouse; the tattooed grandmother, the early imprisonment, the graffiti-ing of the words "IRON VOID" on a roadside wall; the lost fights, the "mouthful of pub carpet"; the bestial recoil from "the hippy-dippy shit that was all over the radio"; and the epochal day when his bandmate Tony Iommi ("an incredible fighter") says, "Maybe we should stop doing blues and write scary music instead."

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Ozzy Osbourne - Tony Iommi - Birmingham - Black Sabbath - Geezer Butler

The best way to guide your teenager through the high-risk years.

Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella — Fri, 5 Feb 2010 07:10:52 PST

Our last article summarized the current state of research on teens and risk. That research demonstrates that teenagers do not suffer from some special inability to reason. Larry Steinberg and other researchers explain the steep rise in risk-taking behavior that comes with puberty by elaborating the interplay between two brain systems. The social-emotional system, which develops robustly in early adolescence, seeks out rewarding experiences, especially the sensation afforded by novel and risky behavior, and is also activated by the presence of peers. The cognitive-control system, which undergoes its great burst of development in later adolescence, evaluates and governs the impulses of the social-emotional system.

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Puberty - Adolescence - Research - Health - Risk

Corrections from the last week.

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 07:09:17 PST

In a Feb. 3 "Prescriptions," Timothy Noah identified Avastin as an anti-cholesterol drug. Avastin is an anti-cancer drug.

[more ...]

Bevacizumab - Cancer - Health - Avastin - Genentech

The weird genius behind Carly Fiorina's "demon sheep" ad.

Christopher Beam — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 19:10:57 PST

The Spot: Open on a pasture full of grazing sheep. A woman's voice speaks as words flash on-screen: "Purity. Piety. … Wholesome. Honorable. True Believers. Men like Tom Campbell, who would never lead us astray, his pedestal so high." An animation shows one sheep elevated atop a tall column, high above the others. Suddenly clouds gather, lightning strikes, and the sheep falls. Ominous music as a new, evil-sounding male voice tells us about how Tom Campbell raised taxes as California's chief budget officer. "Is that fiscally conservative, Tom?" Intercut with quick images of pigs and sheep. Finally, cut back to sheep grazing. "Tom Campbell: Is he what he tells us? Or is he what he's become over the years? A F-C-I-N-O? Fiscal Conservative in Name Only? A wolf in sheep's clothing?" Cut to man in red-eyed sheep costume crawling through the meadow, scaring the other sheep away. "Might there be a better choice?" the voice asks. Cut to Carly Fiorina in a conference room. "Someone who has not made a career of politics. A political outsider. Perhaps a proven fiscal conservative. … Now that sounds like the right choice for California."

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Carly Fiorina - Tom Campbell - California - Politics - Conservatism

The Obama administration says missile defense isn't as important as it used to be. Its budget says otherwise.

Fred Kaplan — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:36:43 PST

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates laid out his $708.2 billion budget proposal this week, he also submitted a 48-page document called the "Ballistic Missile Defense Review." Reading this review, you might think that Gates was slashing the missile-defense program. You'd be wrong.

[more ...]

Robert Gates - United States Secretary of Defense - Presidency of Barack Obama - Ballistic missile - Technology

Hey, Tim Shriver! Get off Rahm Emanuel's case for using the word "retarded"!

Jack Shafer — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:13:47 PST

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel earned a trip to the pillory this week after a Wall Street Journal story reported that he had used forbidden language last summer in a strategy session with liberal groups and White House aides. Emanuel, who knows his way around obscene, venomous, and cruel language called one idea presented at the session "Fucking retarded."

[more ...]

Rahm Emanuel - White House - Wall Street Journal - White House Chief of Staff - United States

Why "don't ask, don't tell" is only half-true.

Brian Palmer — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 18:12:10 PST

The secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs both endorsed the eventual repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. Since its implementation in 1994, more than 13,000 members of the armed services have been discharged for homosexual conduct. We know what happens to a soldier who tells about his sexual orientation, but what happens to one who asks?

[more ...]

Military - Don't ask don't tell - United States Secretary of Defense - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - Sexual orientation

Dear John reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 17:48:53 PST

This is the hardest letter I've ever had to write …

[more ...]

Dear John - Channing Tatum - John - Amanda Seyfried - Nicholas Sparks

Lost: Theories from around the Web.

Chadwick Matlin, Jack Shafer, and Seth Stevenson — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 17:44:43 PST

If Lost is going to fracture its narrative in two, I feel entitled to do the same with my crackpot TV Club entries. I have one more dispatch to share, with a few points I didn't have time to cover yesterday.

[more ...]

Lost - Television - Arts - Programs - Dramas

The crazy perversities of civil asset forfeiture.

Radley Balko — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 17:09:39 PST

Last month, the Supreme Court tossed out the case Alvarez v. Smith, a challenge to a portion of the asset forfeiture in Illinois that allows the government to keep seized property for up to six months before giving its owner a day in court. The Court declined to rule on the case after determining it to be moot—all of the parties had settled with the government by the time the case made it to Washington.

[more ...]

Illinois - Supreme Court - Asset forfeiture - Supreme Court of the United States - United States

Why Google Chrome is better than Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Farhad Manjoo — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 16:50:53 PST

I like to think of myself as the Dick Cheney of the Browser Wars—an unyielding proponent of greater and greater hostilities between the developers working on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera. As all these programmers compete with one another to make faster, more stable, and more intuitive browsers, we Web surfers keep winning. Just two years ago, nearly half of the folks online used Internet Explorer 6.0—the slowest, buggiest, most security-flawed browser on the market. Since then, Microsoft, spurred by its rivals' advances, has released the very good I.E. 8, which is now the Web's most popular browser. I.E. 6 is still around, but now that many sites (including Google) are dropping support for it, its share is sure to plummet. All hail the great Browser War!

[more ...]

Internet Explorer - Google Chrome - Safari - Microsoft - Opera

Peyton Manning is a genius. He's also a pain in the ass.

Stefan Fatsis — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 16:20:26 PST

A common theme in virtually every profile of Peyton Manning is the Super Bowl quarterback's legendary devotion to football. At age 12, he exhorted his pee-wee linemen to block harder. He started deconstructing NFL game video in high school. He arrived at college six weeks early to work out with upperclassmen. A few days after the Indianapolis Colts made him the first pick of the 1998 draft, he had the team playbook memorized. He orders rookies to meet him on the field at 8 a.m. the Monday after they are drafted. He falls asleep watching tape in the basement of his Indianapolis home; his wife slips the remote from his hand. Isn't that sweet?

[more ...]

Indianapolis Colts - Peyton Manning - Super Bowl - NFL - sport

If Filmmakers Directed the Super Bowl

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 13:17:12 PST

A daily video from Slate V.

[more ...]

Arts - Filmmaking - Movies - Sports - Games

What's with all the prayer breakfasts?

Juliet Lapidos — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:47:05 PST

On Thursday morning, President Barack Obama and the first lady joined various members of Congress for the annual National Prayer Breakfast. In 2009, Juliet Lapidos examined how breakfast became the choice meal for politically charged prayer sessions. The original article is reprinted below.

[more ...]

Barack Obama - National Prayer Breakfast - President of the United States - United States Congress - United States

Bikini boy and the black Taylor Swift.

Katherine Meizel — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:32:12 PST

Every Idol season, the Road To Hollywood is paved with good intentions, crocodile tears seeking attention, and some things I'd rather not mention. Oh, Lord. You know things have been dull when I resort to rhyming.

[more ...]

Taylor Swift - Hollywood Los Angeles California - Arts - Television - Programs

Vancouver's experiment with helping addicts get high.

Matthew Power — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:06:07 PST

One study of Vancouver's injection-drug users has taken harm reduction to a level even beyond Insite. In 2003, the same year that the supervised-injection site opened its doors, an epidemiologist named Martin Schecter began planning a trial that had never been conducted in North America: heroin maintenance. Would a daily course of heroin, administered in a clinical setting, release users from the destructive aspects of maintaining their addiction? Would it benefit society and allow users to stabilize their lives? Similar studies had been conducted in Europe with positive results. Switzerland alone has 38 heroin maintenance centers, and they are a fully integrated part of its national health system; Germany followed suit last year. Schecter, who has worked in Vancouver since the first signs of the AIDS epidemic in 1983, wanted to see whether such a program would make a difference in Canada.

[more ...]

Canada - Insite - Addiction - Harm reduction - Germany

Risk and the adolescent brain.

Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo Rotella — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:02:58 PST

It's often said that adolescents are fearless and see themselves as invulnerable, that they're irrational in how they reason and process information, that they act with no logical basis for their decisions and don't really understand risk. This is all a little true, but only to the extent that it's true of everybody. People of all ages are bad at assessing risk and making rational decisions. People of all ages underestimate likely dangers and overestimate unlikely ones.

[more ...]

Risk - Brain - Health - Mental health - Reason

The "groundbreaking sex robot" Roxxxy is neither groundbreaking nor a true robot.

Veronica Belmont — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:32:45 PST

Usually when I write about a new tech product, I like to have a little "hands-on" time with the device. Perhaps fortunately, that's not the case with the Roxxxy TrueCompanion, the latest in high-tech sex toys, unleashed at this year's Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. While I was next-door at the Consumer Electronics Show, checking out the latest in 3-D televisions and e-book readers, Roxxxy was making waves with sex industry professionals and robot bloggers alike.

[more ...]

AVN Adult Entertainment Expo - Consumer Electronics Show - Las Vegas Nevada - Sex industry - Adult

Sex in the Salinger archives?

Ron Rosenbaum — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:30:36 PST

The great mystery J.D. Salinger left behind, of course, is just what he'd been writing all these years. There have been repeated sketchy reports that he was still writing in those last 45 years or so since he stopped publishing. There were, supposedly, completed manuscripts in his lonesome house of refuge on a hill in Cornish, N.H., a house I once paid a conflicted visit to.

[more ...]

J. D. Salinger - Cornish New Hampshire - Arts - JD Salinger - Catcher in the Rye

The problem with Davos is that it reduces complex issues to catchphrases.

Anne Applebaum — Thu, 4 Feb 2010 07:06:06 PST

ZURICH—We inch forward, and then we stop. Then we inch forward again. Then, for half a mile or so we speed up, and it seems we are actually going to start making real time. Then we stop. A few more inches forward , and then we stop again.

[more ...]

Real-time computing - Catch phrase - Realtime - Operating Systems - Switzerland

My brother had sex with my wife before we dated.

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 07:05:49 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 - Arts - Advice - Web Design and Development

Terrorism Derangement Syndrome: The GOP's scare tactics work so well because the public is already so afraid.

Dahlia Lithwick — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 18:41:58 PST

America has slid back again into its own special brand of terrorism-derangement syndrome. Each time this condition recurs, it presents with more acute and puzzling symptoms. It's almost impossible to identify the cause, and it's doubtful there's a cure. The entire forensic team from House would need a full season to unravel the mystery of what it is about the American brain that renders us more terrified of terrorists today than we were five years ago and less trusting of government policies to protect us.

[more ...]

Terrorism - United States - House - Republican - Policy

Health reform and moral hazard.

Timothy Noah — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 18:40:35 PST

Last week I debated the merits of health care reform in Grand Rapids, Mich. The crowd was mostly conservative, and a worry I heard voiced more than once was that expanding access to health care would increase the number of frivolous visits to the doctor.

[more ...]

Michigan - Grand Rapids Michigan - Health - Healthcare reform - Conservatism

Bogus trend stories of the month—the New York Times corners the market.

Jack Shafer — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:28:46 PST

Once upon a time, rounding up the most egregious examples of bogus trend stories in the U.S. press was a lonely grind. But now, thanks to the editors and reporters of the New York Times—and my industrious readers—locating the silliest examples of journalistic overreach is a simple matter of reading the newspaper of record closely.

[more ...]

United States - New York Times - Newspaper - New York - Metro Areas

What happens when a space program gets canceled?

Christopher Beam — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 17:01:16 PST

Barack Obama's budget for fiscal year 2011, released Monday, would kill NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon—a program that has already cost $9.1 billion. What will NASA do with all the technology that it has already developed but can no longer continue financing?

[more ...]

NASA - Barack Obama - Technology - Space - Astronaut

Read the transcript of a live chat between Slate's David Plotz and the Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson.

David Plotz and Tucker Carlson — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 16:27:16 PST

Slate Editor David Plotz and Daily Caller Editor Tucker Carlson chatted live about President Obama's proposed 2011 budget as well as the administration's plans to repeal the military's anti-gay "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Read a transcript of their conversation below.

[more ...]

Tucker Carlson - David Plotz - Slate - Barack Obama - Don't ask don't tell

The locker room affair, the biggest taboo in sports.

Josh Levin — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 12:43:16 PST

The British press is reporting that John Terry, the captain of England's national soccer team, had an affair with teammate Wayne Bridge's girlfriend and paid for his mistress' abortion. Back in the United States, it emerged this week that former American soccer captain John Harkes was dismissed from the 1998 World Cup squad due to allegations that he was carousing with teammate Eric Wynalda's wife. Back in 2004, Josh Levin explained that "[s]leeping with your teammate's wife isn't typically the best way to build team unity." The original article is reprinted below.

[more ...]

John Terry - England - John Harkes - United States - Wayne Bridge

Is my Super Bowl party illegal?

Daniel Engber — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:49:07 PST

Super Bowl XLIV planning list: Beer? Check. Deep-fried snacks? Check. Large-screen television? Check. Cease-and-desist letter from the National Football League? Uh-oh. In an "Explainer" column originally published in 2007 and reprinted below, Daniel Engber reviewed the rules for showing the big game.

[more ...]

Super Bowl - National Football League - Super Bowl XLIV - Cease and desist - Television

People who make $250,000 or more a year can afford a tax hike.

Daniel Gross — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:28:58 PST

Here we go again. Whenever the subject of taxes comes up—and it's come up in the debate over the Obama administration's decision to let many of the Bush-era tax cuts expire this year—we're treated to a chorus of complaints that people who make $250,000 a year aren't really rich. Raising taxes on these people, we're told, would be raising taxes on the middle class. Media Matters has assembled a few choice quotes on the topic.

[more ...]

Presidency of Barack Obama - Tax cut - Middle class - George W Bush - Tax

Slate's Culture Gabfest on the Oscar nominations, the state of grief in the U.S., and the loss of author J.D. Salinger.

Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Dana Stevens — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:14:19 PST

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 72 with Stephen Metcalf, Meghan O'Rourke, Troy Patterson, and Dana Stevens by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

[more ...]

Meghan O'Rourke - Author - Grief Loss and Bereavement - Slate - Mental Health

My adventures answering J.D. Salinger's mail.

Joanna Smith Rakoff — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 10:39:11 PST

On my first day of work at Harold Ober Associates—one of New York's oldest and most storied literary agencies—I was shown the enormous, outmoded IBM Selectric on which I would type letters for my boss, the clunky Dictaphone that would provide me with the content of those letters, and the vast metal cabinets in which I would file all correspondence with authors. I was then escorted into the dimly lit corner office occupied by Phyllis Westberg, the company's president, whom I would be assisting.

[more ...]

New York City - J. D. Salinger - New York - IBM Selectric typewriter - Literature

A new paper suggests U.S. military aid does nothing to reduce drug production in Colombia.

Ray Fisman — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 09:45:24 PST

Last month, the U.S. military got some positive international P.R., as Marines landed in Haiti to provide food, supplies, and security for earthquake victims. That our other military aid efforts typically fail to garner such praise is hardly surprising given their focus on American interests around the globe. Drone attacks in Pakistan and bulldozing coca and poppy farms in Bolivia and Afghanistan may be critical to U.S. national security but are more controversial, particularly overseas. Proponents of military assistance argue that it can be good for people in recipient countries as well, pointing to the critical role of military aid in stabilizing nascent democracies (and market economies) by keeping the government—rather than vigilantes or rebels—firmly in control.

[more ...]

United States - National security - United States armed forces - Haiti - Colombia

The East Building, the John Hancock Tower, Fallingwater, and other ambitious architectural failures.

Witold Rybczynski — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 09:36:33 PST

The East Building, Avery Fisher Hall, Fallingwater, and other ambitious architectural failures.

[more ...]

Fallingwater - John Hancock Tower - FrankLloydWright - United States - Business

Sex addiction is a feminist victory.

Hanna Rosin — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 07:08:03 PST

When Tiger Woods checked himself into the Gentle Path sex addiction clinic, many women writers and activists reacted with suspicion and rancor. Lemondrop asked if the treatment is "merely a way for philandering men to pay lip service to their outraged wives?" Tracy Clark-Flory of Salon found the diagnosis "nothing short of maddening." A group of female protesters in Australia showed up at a golf tournament carrying photos of Tiger with a purple pimp hat and a scepter, implying a certain winking noblesse oblige. Our own Amanda Marcotte wondered whether Woods had a disease or a "fairly typical set of attitudes about women coupled with a lot of opportunities." Or, as she succinctly put it, are celebrities such as Woods who rack up the mistresses " 'addicts'? Or just pigs?"

[more ...]

Tiger Wood - Sexual addiction - Golf - Addiction - Australia

Slate adds in-page comments to our articles and blogs. (Finally.)

David Plotz — Wed, 3 Feb 2010 07:05:48 PST

Today we're making one of the most important—and overdue—changes to Slate in many years: We're adding in-page comments to Slate articles and blog posts. We've always known that Slate's intelligent, engaged readers—yes, I'm talking to you—are an extraordinary group, but we haven't done a very good job involving you in the site. Whenever we ask for your ideas, you dazzle us (see: the Write Like Sarah Palin contest, the Fix Airline Security contest, the Pass Health Care Reform contest). And the quality of discussion in the Fray, our longtime reader forum, is exceptional.

[more ...]

Sarah Palin - Slate - United States - Alaska - Healthcare reform

Slate Magazine

Slate V: Dana's Home Theater: Bright Star

What game theory can teach us about the fate of health care reform.

Does shoveling snow really put you at risk of a heart attack?

What's wrong with Google's Nexus One phone and Android operating system.

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The Slatest: Evening Edition

Bruce Springsteen backs out of a copyright lawsuit.

When did we start describing comatose patients as "vegetative"?

The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, an intellectual history.

Washington Post transportation reporter Howard Kurtz muffs the media "bypass" story.

Dana's Home Theater: Bright Star

Reports of the Iranian regime's imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.

Help Slate predict the Oscar winners.

Reading the informal language of road signals.

Israel's boycott of Hamas makes life difficult for the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Revisiting Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy.

The mobile communication device in your head.

Jack Murtha was a dying breed: an unapologetic partisan for his district.

Should we bother cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

An assessment of Meg Whitman, candidate for California governor.

What Viktor Yanukovych's election victory means for Ukraine.

Eight ways to fix the Senate—and why they won't happen.

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How many ways can you bow in Japan?

Case reopened: reviewing new examples of plagiarism by the Daily Beast's Gerald Posner.

Why televised negotiations won't get us health reform.

Why the filibuster is OK for Democrats but not for Republicans.

The death of Phoebe Prince and the connection between bullying and cyberbullying.

Slate's sports podcast Hang Up and Listen for the week of Feb. 8, 2010.

Why haven't responsible Republicans spoken out against Sarah Palin?

Dear Prudence chats live with readers at Washingtonpost.com

I would love to see Don Graham do my job.

Republicans are winning the war of political rhetoric. Here's how the president needs to fight back.

Islamists want to prohibit non-Muslims from referring to God as Allah.

What Henry Paulson's new memoir misses about his own responsibility for the global meltdown.

Advice for a woman who thinks her friends have been stolen.

The best and worst Super Bowl ads.

The largest American charitable contributions of 2009.

How Sean Payton's daring play-calling won the New Orleans Saints their first Super Bowl.

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Don Delillo's Point Omega.

Blame the childish, ignorant American public—not politicians—for our political and economic crisis.

A plea to grant health care reform a papal dispensation.

Shelby's blanket hold: Can he really do that?

The latest updates from Barack Obama's Facebook news feed.

The Red Riding trilogy reviewed.

Plagiarism at the Daily Beast: Gerald Posner concedes lifting from the Miami Herald.

Reviews of: From Paris with Love, Dear John, and Frozen

The Political Gabfest for Feb. 5, 2010.

Obama should move on judicial nominations.

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

A military wife makes it halfway through her husband's deployment to Iraq.

Haiti after the earthquake.

Why our irrational fear of baby-snatching is wasting money and risking lives.

Reflections on the Ozzy Osbourne's memoir, I Am Ozzy.

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The best way to guide your teenager through the high-risk years.

Corrections from the last week.

The weird genius behind Carly Fiorina's "demon sheep" ad.

The Obama administration says missile defense isn't as important as it used to be. Its budget says otherwise.

Hey, Tim Shriver! Get off Rahm Emanuel's case for using the word "retarded"!

Why "don't ask, don't tell" is only half-true.

Dear John reviewed.

Lost: Theories from around the Web.

The crazy perversities of civil asset forfeiture.

Why Google Chrome is better than Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Peyton Manning is a genius. He's also a pain in the ass.

If Filmmakers Directed the Super Bowl

What's with all the prayer breakfasts?

Bikini boy and the black Taylor Swift.

Vancouver's experiment with helping addicts get high.

Advertisement:

Risk and the adolescent brain.

The "groundbreaking sex robot" Roxxxy is neither groundbreaking nor a true robot.

Sex in the Salinger archives?

The problem with Davos is that it reduces complex issues to catchphrases.

My brother had sex with my wife before we dated.

Terrorism Derangement Syndrome: The GOP's scare tactics work so well because the public is already so afraid.

Health reform and moral hazard.