Turf Warrior: Can Dennis Blair save U.S. intelligence? The all-singing, all-dancing Elizabethan stage: Sexually explicit jigs were a major part of the attraction of the Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration stage. An excerpt from Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good? by Richard P. Bentall. From TAC, Andrew Bacevich on how America has an impressive record of starting wars but a dismal one of ending them well. Mark Sarvas on Literary Losers: Long before Amazon.com reviewers tyrannically demanded sympathetic and likable protagonists, literature was reliably populated by leading men of a less bland stripe. Is proposition "no left turn" a right wing conspiracy or the perfect answer to traffic and lung congestion? From Wired, a look at obscure hobbies for obsessive geeks. How the Enquirer exposed the John Edwards affair: The former senator might be your attorney general today if our reporters hadn't stuck with the story. A Pilgrimage to SkyMall: Can a trip to its headquarters make for documentary art, or just a closer look at solar-powered mole repellers? What the pending International Court of Justice decision on Kosovo’s independence will mean for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How do you say "quickie" in French? Tony Perrottet on Napoleon's frequent (and fast!) lovemaking. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi and James Fowler discuss contagion and the Obama campaign, debate the natural selection of robustness, and ask: Is society turning inward? Damn Orwell: He has the gall to call into question the very notion of writing about pop culture during times of strife, which is to say, at all times.
