From M/C Journal, a special issue on Suspicion. From The Common Review, a look at four reasons to read Mario Vargas Llosa. The German ideology: Angela Merkel is not so dumb as to champion a policy which makes no economic sense — but her supporters are. Jan Blommaert and Piia Varis on culture as an accent: Most of what we do in organizing our lives is oriented towards conformity to others. When George Romney ran for the Republican nomination, in 1968, he tried to stand up against the more radical wing of his party — his defeat was swift, tragic, and, for his son, instructive. From UN Dispatch, Penelope Chester on understanding the Montreal protests. The joke’s on you: Joseph Pearce apologizes for being so po-faced but supercilious and arrogant jokes, like racist jokes, should not go unchallenged (and more and more and more). Conservatives used to care about community — what happened? EJ Dionne (and a response by Erik Loomis). Nancy Scola goes inside the Mustached-American Movement. Lessons from the final frontier: The original "Star Trek" has been a teaching tool for a generation.
