Trading Places

Great TNR article about the changing city landscape although the contention that cultural centers are fostered by an influx of "elites" is suspicious if not specious.

Malwebolence

This New York Times Magazine article about The Trolls Among Us is interesting on about 12 different levels. First the story is unique and a glimpse into a world familiar to even occasional message board users – although TMR thinks the distinction between run of the mill trolls and the extreme type that the article documents should have been more thoroughly examined. Another angle is from the perspective of the journo, Mattathias Schwartz, who was bold to take on the story to begin with, courageous to be somewhat critical and suspect of those who he profiles and had to feel some consternation about publishing the piece after Weev, one of the guys he interviews, sends him his social security number. And lastly it’s interesting from the perspective of Weev, Jason Fortuny, and the other trolls in the article. Were they happy with their depiction? Angered by the way Schwartz sometimes suggests they were being duplicitous? Really interesting considerations and a really interesting story.

Math is Harder for Girls

Heather Mac Donald is a very interesting individual with a very interesting biography. Her most recent piece for the City Journal is both an indictment of New York Times reporting and the feminist - both genders are the same - ethos. Her analysis of the statistics seems a lot more accurate than the Times and while TMR is always reluctant to claim bias reporting (it seems like a crutch used by individuals who disagree with an articles thrust, and an irrational act by reporters) it's either that or stupidity and I'm not sure which Tamar Lewin would prefer.

On another note TMR watched Reality Bites Back on Comedy Central and is totally on board. The show essentially punishes reality t.v. contestants for wanting to be famous which is both funny and rewarding. Definitely worth the half-hour.

Paris Match

I read this Vanity Fair article on French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his ex-model wife on www.spreeder.com and while the article wasn't bad the real revelation was how awesome spreeder is. Copy and paste the text from anything you're looking to read and hit play, it's an excellent way to save time while still coming away with the bulk of the information available.

On another note, I neglected to mention this New Yorker cartoon in my last post. Definitely one of the funnier cartoons I've seen in some time, enjoy.

Dr. Kush

This New Yorker article by David Samuels on the economics of the semi-legal California marijuana business is fascinating - or at least I think it was, I was stoned for most of it. But seriously it’s a good read if a bit demeaning toward the trade at times, particularly in the second to last paragraph where the Samuels seems to draw conclusions that are very loosely based on his reporting throughout the story. Regardless, his reporting is excellent even if his conclusions lack support, he gets involved in all aspects of the trade and generally writes from a detached observers angle.

Another article worthy of note is Condoleezza Rice’s Rethinking the National Interest in Foreign Affairs July/August issue (btw, Condoleezza does not have squiggly lines indicating a misspelling as I type this on Microsoft Word, goddamn the Bush administration, they have their hands in everything!). Ms. Rice also wrote an essay for FA in 2000 and it is interesting to see her address (and in some ways backtrack from) what she wrote then in light of the events of the last eight years.

Spartan Warriors in the YouTube Age

This New York Magazine article by Stephen Rodrick is lacking any real story arc and ends rather abruptly but is otherwise a really enjoyable look into the Spartans of Union Square.

As for the McCain editorial, TMR is convinced it was sent to the Times understanding that there was no way the Times would publish an article that was a rebuttal rather than a actual opinion piece. McCain’s camp sent it anyway, knowing it would be rejected, so that they could leak it to Drudge, where it would get just as much, if not more coverage, and they could score points against the “liberal mainstream media” at the same time. This is the type of politicking that makes TMR wonder if Karl Rove isn’t doing more than just writing editorials for the Wall Street Journal.

The Great African-American Awakaning

The City-Journal is one of those publications TMR loves to hate and often loves to love. The magazine often makes eloquent arguments for conservative viewpoints and does so with a compassion that many liberals think is devoid in conservative ideology (just as conservatives think liberals are fantasy chasing idealist (and people who don't allow themselves to be pigeonholed into narrow ideological labels think those who do are dragging this country into the sewer faster than Ann Coulter can bang on Al Sharpton for playing the race card)). Anyway, this City-Journal article is an interesting examination of what Myron Magnet sees as a new era in African-American leadership.

The three weaknesses of the article are that it relies too heavily on two books, its repeated attempts to tie the thugs in US urban centers to terrorists in the Middle East and its (inevitably) superficial understanding of rap and hip hop. Although this passage provides an interesting angle for the argument against rap:

Of course, white kids listen to this music and see these videos, too, including kids who will grow up to be corporate America’s bosses, and it affects the way they see black people, Williams says. They will come away with an image of black women as indiscriminate sluts, and black men, as African-American journalist Stanley Crouch puts it, as “monkey-moving, gold-chain-wearing, illiteracy-spouting, penis-pulling, sullen, combative buffoons.” “Who would hire such a person?” Williams asks. “Who would want to live next to them?” This $4-billion-a-year industry, in which blacks are the performers, the designers, and many of the executives, presents African-Americans to the entire world in terms the Ku Klux Klan would use. Where are the civil rights leaders?

All in all well worth the read, particularly considering this seminal moment in American politics.

On another note, congrats to the McCain campaign on a genius political move sending that farce of an editorial to the New York Times knowing full it wasn't up to the editorial boards standards. More on this tomorrow.