From Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi in the superdelegates: By trying to overturn Obama's victory, Hillary has helped make America a place where elections are decided by lawyers instead of voters. Jonathan Alter on how Hillary's latest math hurts the party. Hillary's defeat isn’t a reflection of bias: Sometimes, a loss is just a loss. Why McCain's age is a legitimate issue. John Mueller on why the terror threat is overblown. From TLS, a review of Stefan Collini's Common Reading: Critics, historians, publics. From TLS, a review of Mark Edmundson's The Death of Sigmund Freud: Fascism, psychoanalysis and the rise of fundamentalism; and a review of Is Milton Better Than Shakespeare? by Nigel Smith. Here's the story of William McGonagall, the worst poet in the history of the English language. In the age of blogging, great critics appear to be on life support: Salon's book reviewers discuss snobbery, how to make criticism fun and the need for cultural gatekeepers. Blogging, it's good for you: The therapeutic value of blogging becomes a focus of study. "Great Thinkers I Have Skimmed, or Dragging My Lazy Ass to the Computer One Mo' Time": A review of The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer by Michael W. Taylor. From Ovi, an article on Alfred North Whitehead's critique of modern materialism and an article on Richard Rorty's unflinching critique of modern Western philosophy.
