From Google’s Think Quarterly, a special issue on the idea of openness. It’s simply presumed to be a positive when a president shows “strength” by “not changing his mind”, and it’s simply presumed to be a negative when he shows “weakness” by changing course in midstream — that’s “indecisive”, and that’s bad, you see. Women are covering the hell out of the Syria War, so why haven’t you noticed? Sheera Frenkel wants to know. Jargon — it’s not the business world’s fault: Joshua J. Friedman on why we blame the wrong people for our most annoying phrases. Laura Beck: “Writing about Fashion Week has made me feel like shit about myself”. Tyler Cowen on a simple theory of recent American intellectual history. David A. Graham on how a small team of Democrats defeated Larry Summers — and Obama. Ezra Klein on five reasons Obama should name Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve. With the October 1 implementation of the Affordable Care Act looming, conservatives are doubling down on their efforts to stop it yet again — a diagnosis of their peculiar (but not completely illogical) obsession. Jonathan Cohn on five things we know about Obamacare — and one we don't (and more). From Buzzfeed, a lot of people are very upset that an Indian-American woman won the Miss America Pageant (and more); and confessions of a former toddler in a tiara: Ashley McCollum on a defense of the beauty pageant. Alex Balk on the utter tragedy of modern Western existence unwittingly summed up in 15 words.
