From Strategic Studies Quarterly, Leonard Cutler (Siena): Bush vs. Obama Detainee Policy Post-9/11: An Assessment; and Justin Logan and Christopher Preble (Cato): Washington’s Newest Bogeyman: Debunking the Fear of Failed States. Everyone does everything: James O’Nions meets two members of the Italian novel-writing collective Wu Ming as they publish Manituana, their "story from the wrong side of history". Justin Fox on how banks took big risks because shareholders wanted them to. An interview with Dan Ariely, author of The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home (and more). From HiLobrow, Joshua Glenn on Camp, Kitsch & Cheese: "Camp and cheese are reactions to kitsch — i.e., to cultural products intended to be high quality, but highly flawed in conception or taste. People who enjoy kitsch in a naive way may lack good taste, but at least they haven’t lost the capacity to feel. Spare your pity for those hipsters who merely pretend to enjoy kitsch as part of some anti-hip put-on"; and on Fake Authenticity: "The authenticity-seeking ironist-artist knows that authenticity is not out there somewhere. It needs to be created. Authenticity is always a point of departure, never a destination". Why can't we categorize comedy the way we do books, or music, or film? A pessimist's guide to life: Roger Scruton was hounded out of liberal academia, then shamed by his links to big tobacco — but is the "old geezer" of conservative philosophy ready to embrace David Cameron's Big Society? From CRB, Charles Muray reviews books on Ayn Rand (and more at Bookforum). Learning from soap operas: Soap operas appeal across a broad spectrum, from the most intellectually sophisticated to people with little or no formal education.
