Favorite Reads

Sweeping Health Care Plan Passes House

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:13:33 -0800

After a daylong clash with Republicans over a proposal that has been a Democratic goal for years, lawmakers voted to approve the $1.1 trillion, 10-year-plan that Democrats said would provide relief to Americans struggling to buy or hold on to health insurance.

Abortion Was at Heart of Wrangling

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:08:12 -0800

The results of that fight were evident as one liberal Democrat after another denounced the health care plan because of abortion restrictions, even though most held their noses in the end and voted for the bill itself.

G.O.P. Tries Tactic to Derail Bill

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:50:27 -0800

The vote before the final vote.

Lawmakers Detail Obama's Pitch

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:53:18 -0800

The president, according to one Congressman, told Democrats that a failed health care bill would "encourage extremists."

Heavier Americans Push Back on Health Debate

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:10:03 -0800

Heavier Americans are lobbying legislators and trying to move public opinion to recognize their point of view: that thin does not necessarily equal fit, and that people can be healthy at any size.

Justices Weigh Life in Prison for Youths Who Never Killed

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:57:19 -0800

There are just over 100 people in the world serving sentences of life without parole for crimes they committed as juveniles in which no one was killed; 77 of them are in Florida.

Windfall Is Seen as Bank Bonuses Are Paid in Stock

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:04:33 -0800

Bankers are likely to make unusually large gains on the stock grants and options they received after shares in their companies fell sharply during the financial meltdown.

New York’s Cabbies Like Credit Cards? Go Figure

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:04:33 -0800

Unlike in most other cities, riders in New York swipe the cards themselves, and the Taxi and Limousine Commission says revenue and tips have increased.

Zenyatta Wins Breeders’ Cup Classic

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:02:38 -0800

Zenyatta ran her record to 14-0 and put an exclamation point on a great year for fillies by coming from way back to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Inside the Global Gold Frenzy

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:04:56 -0800

Amid a global frenzy fed by hedge funds, speculators and governments all rushing to stock up, the price of gold briefly surpassed $1,100 an ounce on Friday, a record high.

Preliminary Inquiry Finds No Link to Terror Plot

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:09:13 -0800

Investigators believe that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the mass shooting at Ford Hood, acted under a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures.

When Soldiers’ Minds Snap

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:24:43 -0800

Mental trauma and war have a long history. How to treat it remains a mystery.

Chasing the Story on a Night That Changed All

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:22:53 -0800

Recalling the joy of unexpected liberation at the Berlin Wall, let loose on a city that knew how to party, makes an editor tremble with emotion even now.

With Wall Just a Memory, German Divisions Fade

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:05:37 -0800

Germany is now more peaceful, more united and less turbulent than people had expected.

Slate V: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:16:16 -0800

In this week's Summary Judgment, Mark Jordan Legan sums up what critics are saying about the big weekend movies: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol.

An online guide to following today's floor action on health care reform.

Timothy Noah — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:54:06 -0800

Health care reform has arrived on the floor of the House of Representatives, with a final vote that could come as early as 6 p.m. today. The proceedings (live C-span stream) aren't easy to follow without quick access to government documents, blog updates, academic studies, news sites, and public statements from interested parties. Slate has gathered links to the most important of these, with summary descriptions of their significance.

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Health care - United States House of Representatives - Health - Health Policy - Government

The Slatest: Weekend Edition

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:20:27 -0800

Medics with Iraq experience treated wounded at Fort Hood; Abortion foes get major concession on health care; Even Afghans aren't sure Afghanistan would benefit from more troops.

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Why Arby's is so low on the restaurant food chain.

Daniel Gross — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:58:58 -0800

Some companies came through the recently ended recession with flying colors. In the fast-food realm, we've argued, McDonald's was a victor. But in a time of pinched consumer spending, business has frequently been a zero-sum game. In every sector, it seems, if there's a winner, there's got to be a loser. And in the fast-food industry, it sure looks like Arby's has been one of the losers of this recession.

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McDonald - Business - Fast food - Restaurant - Hospitality

How does the government keep track of job-loss numbers?

Brian Palmer — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:57:58 -0800

The Labor Department announced Friday that the unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent in October, the first time since 1983 that it has been in the double-digits. Two government surveys suggested that the month's job losses reached 190,000 and 558,000, respectively. That's not far off from the results back in August, when the economy lost about 300,000 jobs. In an "Explainer" column first published two months ago, and reprinted below, Brian Palmer goes over where these numbers come from.

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Government - Unemployment - Economy - Employment - United States

Profit not Satanic, says wealthy banker.

Paul Smalera — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:54:53 -0800

A summary of what's in the major publications.

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Research - Education - Colleges and Universities - Canada - Simon Fraser University

On Denialism and the role of science in America.

Chris Mooney and Michael Specter — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:54:54 -0800

Let Truth and Falsehood grapple.

[more ...]

Educational Resources - Denialism - Philosophy - Philosophy of Logic - Truth Definitions

Can you carry a concealed weapon on military bases? And other Fort Hood questions answered.

Christopher Beam — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:37:41 -0800

Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the only suspect in Thursday's lethal spree at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base, reportedly killed 13 people and wounded 30 before a civilian police officer shot him four times. The incident raises many questions, a number of which we try to answer here.

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Fort Hood - Military base - Army - Police officer - United States

Slate's Farhad Manjoo answers your questions about Facebook, Gmail, and more.

Farhad Manjoo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:03:45 -0800

If you've got a tech problem you want solved, please send a note to farhad.manjoo@slate.com, with "I've got a tech question!" as the subject line. (Your question may be edited.)

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Farhad Manjoo - Facebook - Slate - Gmail - Business

A Christmas Carol reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:56:24 -0800

Robert Zemeckis may have found the way to spend his late career: making 3-D motion-capture versions of literary classics that, while they threaten to vulgarize their sources, wind up remaining curiously true to them in spirit. His adaptation of Beowulf wasn't perfect, but it barreled along with admirable energy, fueled by Zemeckis' notion that the oldest poem in the English language was a predecessor of the superhero comic. With A Christmas Carol (Disney), though, Zemeckis (who also wrote the screenplay) treads on more perilous ground. Rollicking though it is, Beowulf is known to most of us as a high-fiber offering in high school or early college English classes. Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of the most-read and best-loved short stories in the English language, adapted for the screen some 20 times (depending on whether you're counting Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), and its iconic phrases—"I wear the chain I forged in life." "Bah, humbug!" "God bless us, every one!"—are as familiar to speakers of English as the 23rd Psalm.

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Christmas Carol - RobertZemeckis - Motion capture - Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - The Walt Disney Company

What do "stable," "critical," and other medical conditions mean?

Chris Suellentrop — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:29:13 -0800

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 30 yesterday at Fort Hood before a civilian policeman shot him four times. An Army spokesperson has announced that Hasan is in "stable" condition while of some of the victims are listed as "critical." But what does that mean? In July 2001, the Explainer probed vague medical conditions after an 8-year-old boy was listed as "critical but stable" following a shark attack.

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Fort Hood - United States Army - United States - Military - Psychiatrist

Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War?

Fred Kaplan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:14:06 -0800

The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, but few of the news stories marking the anniversary have explained the event's full significance. The Cold War had been raging for a quarter-century before the wall went up on Aug. 13, 1961. How could its collapse, on Nov. 9, 1989, have heralded the Cold War's demise?

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Cold War - Berlin Wall - Berlin - Germany - History

If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America.

William Saletan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:11:54 -0800

Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who shot him. For her trouble, Munley took a bullet in her leg. Maybe the president will also pin a medal on her.

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Fort Hood - United States - Police officer - Military - Texas

Reviews of: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:30 -0800

A daily video from Slate V.

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Christmas - holiday - People and Society - Kids and Teens - Holidays and Special Days

The week's most interesting Slate stories.

Andrew Dubbins — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:24:35 -0800

1) "Bachmania: Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig," by Christopher Beam. Thousands of fringe Republican protesters attended a health care reform protest at the Capitol and were embraced by many congressional Republicans.

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Michele Bachmann - Republican - Washington - United States - Politics

A journey through the Travel Channel.

Troy Patterson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:03:06 -0800

The big TV-business story of the week reached its resolution yesterday with news of a deal valuing the Travel Channel at $975 million. The only justification for such a price tag is that network's modest audience—about 370,000 households in prime time—represents the kind of niche market advertisers can't resist pandering to. In a week of flying the network frequently, I caught commercials for online travel agencies and chain restaurants—and also tourism-themed ads for LensCrafters, Subaru, Wal-Mart, and Dulcolax stool softener.

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Wal-Mart - Travel Channel - Advertising - Business - Chain store

Bidenisms: A collection of the vice president's gaffes and head-slappers.

Jeremy Stahl — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:22:15 -0800

The vice president did not produce any new Bidenisms this week, but a 2006 interview with GQ has provided us with an emergency supply. Please continue to send your nominations (with a link, please) to slatebidenisms@gmail.com. For more, and our stab at a definition, see "The Complete Bidenisms."

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Gmail - United States - History - GQ - Vice Presidents

Socialized medicine intrudes on the march against Obamacare.

Timothy Noah — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:11:04 -0800

Observing the Nov. 5 protest march against Obamacare on Capitol Hill, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post momentarily turned his attention from signs that said "Stop Obamunism" and "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945" to "a man standing just beyond the TV cameras" who "apparently suffered a heart attack 20 minutes after [the] event began." Here's what happened next:

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Washington Post - Dana Milbank - Myocardial infarction - Television - Socialized medicine

Richard Kelly tries to direct a mainstream movie in The Box.

John Swansburg — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:49:15 -0800

The director Richard Kelly recently told the New York Times that he hopes his new thriller, The Box (Warner Brothers), will prove to Hollywood that he can make a successful mainstream movie. He has a lot of proving to do. Despite the cult status enjoyed by his 2001 debut, Donnie Darko, his sophomore effort, the thoroughly wacko Southland Tales, starring Justin Timberlake and Dwayne Johnson, took in just $275,000 in domestic receipts. Give me Timberlake and The Rock for a day and I could make twice that by opening a kissing booth in Times Square.

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Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko - Southland Tales - Box - Justin Timberlake

The financial and personal ramifications of a doctor apologizing to a patient.

Rahul Parikh — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:15:22 -0800

When you're a doctor, you sometimes have to come to terms with making a mistake: giving a patient the wrong diagnosis or the wrong treatment, causing an injury, or perhaps something worse.

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Services - United States - Law - Lawyers and Law Firms - Personal Injury

Corrections from the last week.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:14:17 -0800

In the Nov. 5 "Architecture," the text of a slide originally referred to "Charleston, N.C.," instead of Charleston, S.C., due to a copy-editing error.

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Copy editing - Business - Writing and Editing - Communications - Editing and Proofreading

Wall Street Meets the Wire

Bernhard Warner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:07:51 -0800

A summary of what's in the major publications.

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Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig.

Christopher Beam — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:33:13 -0800

Whether it was billing the event as a "Super Bowl of Freedom" or challenging conservatives to "scare" members of Congress, it worked. Rep. Michele Bachmann got thousands of protesters to flood the lawn in front of the Capitol building Thursday afternoon, joining her for what was originally described as a "press conference" but turned out to be a full-blown rally against health care reform—a mini-sequel to the 9/12 protest of two months ago.

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Michele Bachmann - Health care - United States Congress - Washington - United States Capitol

Are shootings at military bases common, or was Fort Hood unusual?

Daniel Engber — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:28:53 -0800

An Army psychiatrist who was about to deploy to Iraq went on a two-gun shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday afternoon. Twelve people died in the attack, and 31 were wounded. How often do soldiers commit crimes on their bases?

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Fort Hood - Texas - Iraq - Military base - United States

Sorry, I didn't like Precious.

Dana Stevens — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:42:46 -0800

Harshing on Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (Lionsgate Films), the awkwardly titled Lee Daniels adaptation of an "urban fiction" bestseller, makes a critic feel almost as mean-spirited as Mary, the monstrously abusive mother of the film's eponymous heroine. Parked in front of the TV in the grim Harlem walkup they share, Mary (played with a fearsome lack of vanity by the standup comedian Mo'Nique) pelts her 16-year-old daughter, Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) with cruel insults, imperious commands, and, whenever possible, heavy airborne objects. "I ain't done nothin'!" Precious protests, and the movie is at pains to prove her right: for the first hour at least, Precious is less a person who does things than an object to which things are done. Her absentee father, seen only once in a nauseating flashback sequence, rapes her on a regular basis; at 16, she's pregnant with his second child. Her daughter, who has Down's syndrome, lives with a coldly disapproving grandmother; their visits last just long enough to fool the welfare inspector into issuing Mary's next check. In addition to being obese, unloved and dirt-poor, Precious is also illiterate, though the public school she attends is so bad that she's managed to camouflage that fact through the eighth grade. In short, this girl's life is so abysmal that you feel the least you can do is like the movie she's in.

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Lee Daniels - Gabourey Sidibe - Precious - Mo'Nique - Harlem

Do wolves kill for sport?

Brian Palmer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:55:47 -0800

During this fall's inaugural wolf-hunting season in Montana, hunters killed the matriarch of a Yellowstone wolf pack that researchers had been studying for more than a decade. Park officials suspect that her mate and three other pack members were also killed. A Los Angeles Times story about the hunt claims that wolves are known to kill for "pure pleasure." Do wolves really attack their prey just for the fun of it?

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Montana - Gray Wolf - hunt - Yellowstone National Park - Los Angeles Times

President Obama on the Fort Hood shootings.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:46:40 -0800

AP Video: President Barack Obama comments on the tragic shooting at Fort Hood

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Barack Obama - Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008 - United States - Associated Press - Politics

An Explainer roundup on food contamination.

Juliet Lapidos — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:10:41 -0800

Two people have died, and 28 have fallen sick, due to an E. coli outbreak in ground beef, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week. This latest scare follows an October New York Times article on pervasive flaws in the beef-inspection process, featuring a woman who became paralyzed after eating hamburgers tainted with E. coli in 2007. Panicked? Here's an Explainer roundup on food contamination.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Food - New York Times - Beef mince - Hamburger

Death is different, but is it all that different from life without parole?

Dahlia Lithwick — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:02:23 -0800

Next week, the Supreme Court will hear a case testing whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits sentencing a teen to life in prison without parole. Punishment is generally deemed "cruel" if it's more than "graduated and proportional." It is constitutionally "unusual" if imposed so infrequently "that a national consensus has developed against it." If those concepts sound squishy and vague to you, well, you can just imagine what Antonin Scalia is feeling right now.

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Antonin Scalia - Supreme Court of the United States - Cruel and unusual punishment - Supreme Court - Life imprisonment

Microsoft's Marketing Misfires

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:27:28 -0800

A daily video from Slate V.

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Microsoft - Business - Microsoft Corporation - Companies - Monopolies and Oligopolies

Much of the current deficit debate is for the birds.

Daniel Gross — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:21:01 -0800

A once-endangered species is staging a robust comeback: the deficit hawk. Hunted nearly to death during the Bush years, many varieties not seen in Washington in a decade are now perching on branches and dropping their wisdom. Look, there's the puff-chested congressional peacock hawk, frequently seen strutting about Sunday-morning-TV-show sets complaining about pork while emitting loud honks on the receipt of stimulus funds. The furrowed-brow warbler hawk (natural habitat: the op-ed pages) loathes deficit spending for the purpose of eliminating social injustice but loves it when the spending is used to finance military actions abroad. The blue-bellied partisan hawk nests in think tanks; it goes mute when members of its own party run the show but squawks loudly when opponents run up debt. On Nov. 3, birders sighted the rare skinny parrot hawk, which repeats back calls about fiscal probity. Said President Barack Obama on that date: "The government is going to have to get serious about reducing our debt levels."

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Barack Obama - Washington D.C. - Endangered species - Bird - Washington

The Political Gabfest for Nov. 6, 2009.

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:04:33 -0800

Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there.

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Facebook - Social Networking - Online Communities - United States - Government

How the old-as-dirt New York Yankees won the 2009 World Series.

Tim Marchman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:07:52 -0800

What's the lesson of the 2009 New York Yankees? With the Bronx Bombers taking an early 7-1 lead in Game 6, we had more time than usual to bat around the clichés of sports championships to see which ones might fit. Had the Yankees redeemed the long suffering of their supporters? Did they stand for youthful vigor or quiet professionalism? Did they represent the idea that pride and excellence can't be bought and sold—or the exact opposite?

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New York Yankees - Sport - 2009 World Series - Baseball - PhiladelphiaPhillies

The unanswered phone calls and misunderstood memos that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

Michael Meyer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:01:43 -0800

Too often, we see history as inevitable. What was had to be, the culmination of seemingly tectonic forces. We tend to forget that history is also defined by the logic of human messiness. Happenstance, chance, even accident always loom large in grand events.

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Berlin Wall - Germany - Cold War - Berlin - History

I'm 16, and I want a vibrator.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:01:09 -0800

Get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.) And become a fan of Prudie on the official Dear Prudence Facebook page.

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Facebook - Slate - Social Networking - Online Communities - Dear Prudence

Does the Constitution protect prosecutors who fabricate evidence?

Dahlia Lithwick — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:17:46 -0800

For you constitutional-law scholars out there with casebooks to update, you may soon have an addition to the growing chapter of cases called "It Sucks To Be You." The facts of Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the case the Supreme Court hears today, are spectacularly awful. But they may also prove spectacularly immaterial. In the Roberts Court era, "It Sucks To Be You" is a booming industry: Instances of shocking constitutional wrongs that cannot be corrected by constitutional courts.

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Supreme Court of the United States - Supreme Court - United States Constitution - United States - Law

Abortion foes and Rep. Bart Stupak meddle with private health insurance.

Timothy Noah — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:12:02 -0800

There is very little to like about private health insurance as it exists today in the United States, but it does have one advantage over health insurance funded by the federal government: You can use it to pay for an abortion. Now antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress want to whittle away at that distinction. The vehicle is the health care reform bill.

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United States - Health insurance - Insurance - United States Congress - Federal government of the United States

How does the U.S. make sure Afghan policemen aren't terrorists?

Christopher Beam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:03:37 -0800

A Taliban member who'd infiltrated the Afghan police force killed five British soldiers in Helmand Province Tuesday afternoon. A similar incident occurred last month when a policeman on patrol with U.S. troops opened fire on American soldiers, killing two. How does the United States make sure the Afghan policemen aren't really terrorists?

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United States - Taliban - Helmand Province - United States Army - United States armed forces

Slate's Culture Gabfest on ABC's Modern Family, Tad Friend's Cheerful Money, and 100 things restaurant staffers should never do.

Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, June Thomas, and Julia Turner — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:34:00 -0800

Listen to Gabfest No. 59 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, June Thomas and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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Modern Family - American Broadcasting Company - ABC - Economic - United States

The Greatest Trade Ever: A podcast with author Gregory Zuckerman.

Daniel Gross and Win Rosenfeld — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:42:52 -0800

The Big Money presents Every Day I Read the Book, featuring Daniel Gross. Dan's guest is Gregory Zuckerman, author of the book The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History.

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Daniel Gross - Author - Big Money - Wall Street - Arts

Despite the one-child policy, millions of Chinese citizens don't know how to have sex without getting pregnant.

Michelle Tsai — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:47:23 -0800

BEIJING—The first time Hu Jing tried to have sex with her college boyfriend, there was a technical difficulty. "We knew we had to use a condom," she said. "But we didn't know how."

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Condom - Birth control - Health - Reproductive health - Barrier Methods

Are invasive species really that bad for the environment?

Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:30:57 -0800

Tamarisk, a Eurasian shrub, is your classic invasive species—designated one of America's "least wanted" plants by the National Parks Service. In recent decades, it has spread along Southwestern riverbanks, replacing native trees such as willows and cottonwoods. For nature lovers in the region, tamarisks (also known as saltcedars) rank somewhere between Land Rovers and James Inhofe. Measures to thwart them include burning, herbicides, and "tammy whacking" (physical removal sometimes done by freelance volunteers). A few years ago, the USDA let loose thousands of leaf-eating Asian beetles in order to sic them on tamarisks, which die from the defoliation.

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Invasive species - National Park Service - United States - Land Rover - Environment

"This Bitch Owns Her Own Harley"

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:42:26 -0800

A daily video from Slate V.

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Harley-Davidson - Motorcycle - Business - Makes and Models - Automotive

Did Joe Harris Sullivan have a fair trial?

Amy Bach — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:35:36 -0800

Next week the Supreme Court will hear arguments, in Sullivan v. Florida, about whether sentencing a 13-year-old boy to prison without the possibility of parole violates the cruel-and–unusual-punishment clause of the Constitution. Joe Harris Sullivan is one of two teenagers that young currently doing life without parole for a nonhomicide offense in the United States. His lawyers are hoping that the court will extend its 2005 bar on executing criminals who committed crimes as juveniles to Sullivan's sentence.

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United States - Supreme Court of the United States - Supreme Court - United States Constitution - Life imprisonment

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, America's greatest public sculptor.

Witold Rybczynski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:04:16 -0800

You don't see great public sculptors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens anymore.

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Sculpture - Augustus Saint-Gaudens - art - Visual Arts - History

How last night's election results were bad for Obama.

John Dickerson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:20:38 -0800

President Obama's message of change was so powerful in 2008 that voters held on to it for an extra year. In Virginia and New Jersey they dropped the incumbent Democratic Party and went with the Republican candidates. In New Jersey, voters said change was the quality that mattered most in their vote for governor, and those voters picked Chris Christie by a margin of more than two to one. (The closely watched special election in New York's 23rd congressional district, where independent Douglas Hoffman ran as an agent of change, was too close to call.)

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New Jersey - Democratic Party - Virginia - Barack Obama - New York's 23rd congressional district

How does the president decide whether your cause deserves a proclamation?

Christopher Beam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:53:27 -0800

Did you realize that last month was National Information Literacy Awareness Month? No? Perhaps that's because it was also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, National Cybersecruity Awareness Month, National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, National Arts and Humanities Month, and National Energy Awareness Month. Navigating all of which is a challenge for even the most information-literate Americans.

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Breast cancer - United States - Cancer - Health - Breast

Swine flu: What you need to know.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:50:02 -0800

Swine flu is popping up in Mexico, the United States, and Canada, and the virulent strain is sparking debate about public health initiatives. Slate tackles your questions, ranging from why the flu is most deadly in Mexico to whether there are strains of the flu for every type of animal—not just pigs and birds.

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Mexico - United States - Canada - Swine influenza - Public health

How can DeJuan Blair play without an anterior cruciate ligament in either knee?

Juliet Lapidos — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:46:24 -0800

Rookie forward DeJuan Blair began his professional basketball career with the San Antonio Spurs last week and has so far averaged a very respectable 8.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. The former University of Pittsburgh star was initially projected as a high pick in the 2009 NBA draft, but he slid to the second round after a physical revealed something unsettling: The player has no anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in either knee—the result of two high school surgeries. How can Blair play at a professional level without an ACL to call his own?

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San Antonio Spurs - Basketball - NBA - DeJuan Blair - University of Pittsburgh

Sri Lanka shows what it looks like to win a war on terror.

Lionel Beehner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:11:14 -0800

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka—As I almost dozed off admiring the verdant landscape—a lush tableau of thick jungle and terraced paddy fields that calls to mind Raiders of the Lost Ark—a soldier rapped his knuckles against the car window and ordered us to pull over. After a quick search, we were back on our way. Three or four military checkpoints later, we arrived at the port city of Trincomalee. Buddha statues and bell-shaped stupas gave way to gas stations displaying the visages of Vishnu and Jesus.

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Sri Lanka - Trincomalee - Raiders of the Lost Ark - Asia - Vishnu

The new V reviewed.

Troy Patterson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:30:51 -0800

V (ABC, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET), a show about killer iguanas from outer space, reworks the '80s science-fiction smash of the same name. In its first incarnation, V was pulp with a seriousness of purpose. It quickly emerged that the space lizards, handsome in their human disguises, wanted to take our water and then use it to wash us tasty earthlings down. They were allegorical German fascists and quite effective as such. Despite being the sort of entertainment in which a fox swallows a guinea pig, the original V was a tale of resistance more potent than two out of three Oscar-season Nazi films.

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Science fiction - Guinea pig - American Broadcasting Company - Outer space - Film

"Robust," the unlikely new leader in health reform buzzwords.

Bruce Reed — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:19:59 -0800

When House Democrats rolled out a new health reform bill last week, much of the focus was on one word not found in its 1,990 pages – "robust." "No 'Robust' Public Option," declared the Christian Science Monitor. "Not enough votes for the 'robust' public option," reported Politico. Even the top-secret House whip count that leaked to the press used the same exact term: "Whip Survey – Health Reform with 'Robust' Public Option."

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Democratic - House - Healthcare reform - Whip - The Politico

Will Sen. Joe Lieberman filibuster health care reform, or won't he?

Timothy Noah — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:35:15 -0800

As a public service, I offer this chronology of Sen. Joe Lieberman's positions on health care reform. Please note that it begins a mere 72 days ago.

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Joe Lieberman - Health care - Health - United States - Health Policy

If the economy's stagnant, why are stocks up? The answer is disturbing.

Daniel Gross — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:09:48 -0800

Here's a puzzle: The stock markets are doing very well, yet the performance of the underlying economy doesn't seem to justify optimism. The buoyant S&P 500 has risen 53 percent since the March bottom. And while the economy expanded at a 3.5 percent rate in the third quarter, unemployment is high, incomes are stagnant, and consumers are shaky.

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Business - Stock market - S&P 500 - Investing - Stocks and Bonds

My Taliban Captors Googled Me

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:37:48 -0800

A daily video from Slate V.

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Slate - Business - Natural Stone - Materials and Supplies - Masonry and Stone

Mad Men: Workhorses and show horses.

Patrick Radden Keefe, John Swansburg, and Julia Turner — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:22:34 -0800

Thanks, Julia. That experience of wanting characters on a TV show to get together is the sort of thing I'd expect the Germans to have a single word for, but once again, the Internet has the Germans beat. It should be no surprise to readers of this dialogue that I big-time ship Roger and Joan. I suppose I occasionally share your shipping of Don and Betty, too. But when it comes to Betty and Henry Francis, really, who gives a ship?

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MadMen - Television program - Betty - Arts - Business

Does chitchat have a place in poetry?

Robert Pinsky — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:33:48 -0800

Poetry can resemble incantation, but sometimes it also resembles conversation. Certain poems combine the two—the cadences of speech intertwined with the forms of song in a varying way that heightens the feeling. As in a screenplay or in fiction, the things that people in a poem say can seem natural, even spontaneous, yet also work to propel the emotional action along its arc.

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Poetry - Arts - Online Writing - Literature - Screenplay

What ever happened to the Amazon rainforest? Did we save it?

Brendan Borrell — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:11:16 -0800

We used to hear so much about the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, but lately not a word. So what happened—did we save it or not?

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Amazon Rainforest - Amazon - Rainforest - Environment - Earth

Angela Merkel's quiet revolution.

Anne Applebaum — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:05:58 -0800

Did you know that there were German elections in late September? Were you aware that the German socialists were soundly defeated? Had you realized that there was now a new government in Germany? No? Then give the credit—for both the victory and the fact that you haven't heard about it—to Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor. And even if you did know all of that, you might as well cheer anyway, because Merkel's achievement is far greater than it seems. She is a soft-spoken, even-tempered, and frankly dull pragmatist who has compared her economic program to that of a "Swabian housewife." Her election campaigns are the most boring anyone can remember. Despite the decisiveness of her recent victory, she humbly declared that she "respected those who did not vote for me." To underline that point, she celebrated her new term as chancellor with a lunch of potato soup and sausages, an event that the Financial Times called "so low-key it resembled an atonement rite more than a celebration." She is, if you like, the anti-Obama: zero charisma, zero glamour, beige pantsuits, and a spouse who rarely appears in public.

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Germany - Angela Merkel - Financial Times - Government - Political campaign

Calling the president a liar has been good for Joe Wilson's career. But is it good for the GOP?

Christopher Beam — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:53:16 -0800

As soon as the words "You lie!" left Rep. Joe Wilson's lips during the president's September address to the joint session of Congress, the question was not so much, Will this hurt Joe Wilson? It was, How much will this hurt Joe Wilson? Two months later, the answer is decisive: not at all. If anything, it's helping him. Wilson has been enjoying the fruits of his outburst—namely cash, respect, and a glut of attention as a spokesman for the not-gonna-take-it-anymore wing of the Republican Party. The question has now become, Is this helping or hurting the party?

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Joe Wilson - Republican - Joint session of the United States Congress - United States - Politics

A history of baseball and chewing tobacco.

Brian Palmer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:58:43 -0800

A handful of players on both the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies have played this year's World Series with a wad of tobacco in their mouths. Have baseball players always used smokeless tobacco?

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Philadelphia Phillies - New York Yankees - World Series - Baseball - Sport

Slate's sports podcast, Hang Up and Listen, for the week of Nov. 2, 2009.

Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:52:46 -0800

Listen to "Hang Up and Listen" with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:

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Podcast - Slate - Mike Pesca - Recreation - Directories

A defense of jaywalking.

Tom Vanderbilt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:01:48 -0800

Looking at any number of big-city dailies over the last few weeks, one might reasonably surmise that we are in the middle of a new public-health epidemic with an old name: jaywalking.

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Public health - Health - Public Health and Safety - Education - Organizations

Dear Prudence answers readers' questions live at Washingtonpost.com.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:10:58 -0800

Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is on Washingtonpost.com weekly to chat with readers about their romantic, family, financial, and workplace problems. A transcript of this week's chat is below. (Read Prudie's Slate columns here.)

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Emily Yoffe - Dear Prudence - Slate - Washington Post - Chat Rooms

Dear Prudence: Engaged and Feeling Trapped

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:49:46 -0800

A daily video from Slate V.

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Dear Prudence - Slate - Business - Construction and Maintenance - Materials and Supplies

What we can learn from the shortage of H1N1 vaccine.

Marc Siegel — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:35:55 -0800

The current shortage of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine was both predictable and largely avoidable. But it's not too late to remedy the situation. The last three pandemics—in 1968, 1957, and 1918—each lasted for more than three years, and this one is not going away any time soon. Now we must refocus public health priorities going forward, so we can apply the lessons of the swine flu to future outbreaks.

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Swine influenza - Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 - Public health - Pandemic - Health

Why big farms can treat their workers better than small farms.

Tracie McMillan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:10:51 -0800

I love food, but I've never been much into farms. I've ignored friends' repeated encouragements to travel the world picking organic vegetables or do a cow-milking internship. But this summer I sucked it up and headed for the fields—the big ones in California's Salinas and Central valleys, where half the country's fruits and vegetables are grown. I went there to start research for a book, for which I aimed to work my way through America's food system, from farm to table. At the outset, that meant spending 50-plus hours a week under the hot sun hoeing weeds, sorting peaches, and cutting garlic. I knew going in that I'd learn unexpected lessons, but of all the new thoughts crowding my head, none have surprised me as much as this: God bless big farms.

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Vegetable - Fruit - Food - Business - California

The United Nations' shameful complicity in this year's corrupt Afghan elections.

Christopher Hitchens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:10:27 -0800

If the time ever does come when we look back on our intervention in Afghanistan as a humiliating debacle, this past weekend may well be identified as one of the moments when the calamity became irreversible.

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United Nations - Afghanistan - War in Afghanistan - Asia - Taliban

Books, music, and movies Slate writers recommend.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:35:03 -0800

Slate critics and columnists often recommend all sorts of useful and fascinating stuff: books, documentaries, albums, television shows, new gadgets, and the like. Sometimes these endorsements appear in obvious spots (like our movie reviews), but just as often they come in unexpected places, like a "Dear Prudence" or "Fighting Words" column. So at the end of every month, we'll be publishing a handy roundup of all the things we like, since we figure you'd like some of these things, too. Take a look at our latest favorites, and remember you can purchase Slate T-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise at the Slate store.

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Sponsored Topics: Dear Prudence - Slate - Arts - Compact Disc - Reviews

Lifehacking: How to be more productive.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:12:36 -0800

How to be more productive.

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Sponsored Topics: BeOS - Operating system - United States - Microkernel - Energy

Lifehacking tips from actress Elizabeth Banks, Judd Apatow, and other accomplished people.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:11:13 -0800

When brilliantly successful people get stressed out by their to-do lists, they often resort to bizarre and elaborate techniques to save time and get things done. Buckminster Fuller, architect and inventor of the Dymaxion House, claimed he averaged just two hours of sleep a night over a two-year period and that he was more energetic and alert as a result. Thomas Edison had an elaborate note-taking system—his diary ran to 5 million pages. Honore de Balzac ate dried coffee grounds to stimulate his imagination. Plato kept his togas pre-pinned. (OK, we made that last one up.)

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Sponsored Topics: Judd Apatow - Thomas Edison - Buckminster Fuller - Elizabeth Banks - Inventor

Let's have fun with the Google search box.

Michael Agger — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:36:45 -0800

The Google search box has become the new oracle at Delphi, the thing we consult before all major undertakings. How do I know this?

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Google - Web search engine - Search - Search engine - Delphi

Two biographies of Ayn Rand.

Johann Hari — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:01:33 -0800

Ayn Rand is one of America's great mysteries. She was an amphetamine-addicted author of sub-Dan Brown potboilers, who in her spare time wrote lavish torrents of praise for serial killers and the Bernie Madoff-style embezzlers of her day. She opposed democracy on the grounds that "the masses"—her readers—were "lice" and "parasites" who scarcely deserved to live. Yet she remains one of the most popular writers in the United States, still selling 800,000 books a year from beyond the grave. She regularly tops any list of books that Americans say have most influenced them. Since the great crash of 2008, her writing has had another Benzedrine rush, as Rush Limbaugh hails her as a prophetess. With her assertions that government is "evil" and selfishness is "the only virtue," she is the patron saint of the tea-partiers and the death panel doomsters. So how did this little Russian bomb of pure immorality in a black wig become an American icon?

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Ayn Rand - United State - Philosophy - Rush Limbaugh - Objectivism

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Windfall Is Seen as Bank Bonuses Are Paid in Stock

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Zenyatta Wins Breeders’ Cup Classic

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Slate V: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol

An online guide to following today's floor action on health care reform.

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The Slatest: Weekend Edition

Why Arby's is so low on the restaurant food chain.

How does the government keep track of job-loss numbers?

Profit not Satanic, says wealthy banker.

On Denialism and the role of science in America.

Can you carry a concealed weapon on military bases? And other Fort Hood questions answered.

Slate's Farhad Manjoo answers your questions about Facebook, Gmail, and more.

A Christmas Carol reviewed.

What do "stable," "critical," and other medical conditions mean?

Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War?

If women can defend Fort Hood, they can defend America.

Reviews of: The Men Who Stare at Goats, Precious, and A Christmas Carol

The week's most interesting Slate stories.

A journey through the Travel Channel.

Bidenisms: A collection of the vice president's gaffes and head-slappers.

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Socialized medicine intrudes on the march against Obamacare.

Richard Kelly tries to direct a mainstream movie in The Box.

The financial and personal ramifications of a doctor apologizing to a patient.

Corrections from the last week.

Wall Street Meets the Wire

Michele Bachmann invites tea partiers to Washington for another swig.

Are shootings at military bases common, or was Fort Hood unusual?

Sorry, I didn't like Precious.

Do wolves kill for sport?

President Obama on the Fort Hood shootings.

An Explainer roundup on food contamination.

Death is different, but is it all that different from life without parole?

Microsoft's Marketing Misfires

Much of the current deficit debate is for the birds.

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The Political Gabfest for Nov. 6, 2009.

How the old-as-dirt New York Yankees won the 2009 World Series.

The unanswered phone calls and misunderstood memos that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

I'm 16, and I want a vibrator.

Does the Constitution protect prosecutors who fabricate evidence?

Abortion foes and Rep. Bart Stupak meddle with private health insurance.

How does the U.S. make sure Afghan policemen aren't terrorists?

Slate's Culture Gabfest on ABC's Modern Family, Tad Friend's Cheerful Money, and 100 things restaurant staffers should never do.

The Greatest Trade Ever: A podcast with author Gregory Zuckerman.

Despite the one-child policy, millions of Chinese citizens don't know how to have sex without getting pregnant.

Are invasive species really that bad for the environment?

"This Bitch Owns Her Own Harley"

Did Joe Harris Sullivan have a fair trial?

Augustus Saint-Gaudens, America's greatest public sculptor.

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How last night's election results were bad for Obama.

How does the president decide whether your cause deserves a proclamation?

Swine flu: What you need to know.

How can DeJuan Blair play without an anterior cruciate ligament in either knee?

Sri Lanka shows what it looks like to win a war on terror.

The new V reviewed.

"Robust," the unlikely new leader in health reform buzzwords.

Will Sen. Joe Lieberman filibuster health care reform, or won't he?

If the economy's stagnant, why are stocks up? The answer is disturbing.

My Taliban Captors Googled Me

Mad Men: Workhorses and show horses.

Does chitchat have a place in poetry?

What ever happened to the Amazon rainforest? Did we save it?

Angela Merkel's quiet revolution.

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Calling the president a liar has been good for Joe Wilson's career. But is it good for the GOP?