Jeremy Waldron (NYU): Torture, Suicide, and Determinatio. Vassili Zaitsev was the Soviet Union’s greatest sniper; these 10 sniper tactics are based on Zaitsev’s own memoir. The contest between rival “Soviet” and “European” discourses fuels a dead-end debate about Belarus’s elusive national identity — it is time instead to change the question. Belarus Betrayal: Why is the West cozying up to Alexander Lukashenko, Europe's last dictator? (and more and more from Foreign Policy) Federal Deficit Disorder: Why the tax-cut deal won't solve America's fiscal or economic crises. What's the purpose of taxes? Many are wondering if it is time to construct a better system. Enough humbug: Deck the halls with Christmas cliches. The Legacy of High-School Cliques: How the labels we get as teenagers shape the rest of our lives, and why social networking and the economy are changing the way a generation deals with those early stereotypes. Privacy is over: Computers start to read minds. HiLobrow’s Joshua Glenn published a book titled The Idler’s Glossary, in which he claimed that idlers can be very busy and productive, indeed — in 2010, he set out to prove it. Michael Kinsley reviews Decision Points by George W. Bush. Ezra Klein on how health-care overhaul's individual mandate makes all the difference. The 10 Worst Predictions for 2010: Ten pundits and politicians whose prognostications for this year completely missed the mark.
