Moving Day

Last week's issue of The Nightstand will be the last hosted at this URL and the Blogger platform.  This week's edition will be posted at wmotlthenightstand.wordpress.com.  (Don't try to remember it, just bookmark it or throw it into your RSS feedreader if you are so inclined).  I don't have any major complaints about the Blogger platform, but I was looking to shed myself of some baggage associated with the address (its misspelling for one, a mistake my wife has never let me forget).  I started this blog back in the summer of 2007 as a means of participating in the "Bloggernacle," or the online universe of LDS/Mormon-focused blogs that were popping up willy-nillly in those days.  It did not take long to realize that I was not going to be able to put the time and effort into the blogging enterprise to make much of a mark or attract a significant readership.  I have been heartened by the occasional appreciative comment or bit of praise I receive for something that I posted on the blog.  Gradually, I began to see myself in more of a curator's role, culling articles and longform pieces from around the Internet for the consumption of others.  This weekly collection, The Nightstand, started up as an adjunct to my own writing, but has gradually become my primary means of expression on the blog.  It turns out that as a busy associate in a BigLaw firm and a growing family, I have even less free time and less intellectual energy than I had as a law student.  So the new blog will be "The Nightstand @ Weightier Matters of the Law."  I cannot promise that I will not post something of my own as time and degree of interest allow, but I am going to let go of my own personal guilt for not getting it done.  I will also be adding a couple of new features to The Nightstand over the next couple of weeks and months, things that I hope will make it more reader-friendly, fun and useful.  I hope that as many of you as have followed me for some period over the past nearly six (really?) years will continue with me to a new venue.  I will keep this blog online and available for as long as I can, if for no other reason than nostalgia and to preserve the value of any links that have been made to it over the years.

The Nightstand (Feb 10th)

Politics

Chilling legal memo from Obama DOJ justifies assassination of US citizens (Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian)-- An extremely effective and thorough take-down of the "white paper."


Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office? (Jesse Lichtenstein, Esquire)

What Democracy Lost in 2013 (Bob Moser, The American Prospect)

The NRA vs. America (Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone)

The real debate over citizenship (Robert Reich, The American Prospect)

Freedom for the few (Anthony Kammer, The American Prospect)

The Economy

Going Back Too Soon (Sharon Lerner, The American Prospect)

How We Overregulate and Underregulate at the Same Time (Matthew Yglesias, Slate)


The Global Farmland Rush (Michael Kugelman, NYT)

Education/Culture

The Academic Counseling Racket (Joe Nocera, NYT)

Hip-hop Speaks to the Guns (Ta-Nehisi Coates, NYT)

The Boy Scouts vs. the Supreme Court (Cass Sunstein, Bloomberg View)


How the post office made America (Richard R. John, NYT)

Battling College Costs, a Paycheck at a Time (Ron Lieber, NYT)


Pass it on (L.D. Burnett, SUSIH)

Science

Speak, Memory (Oliver Sacks, NYRB)-- I have often said that if I could have done anything else in college and with my career, it would have been neuroscience.

Mormonism

Reawakening (Megan Geilman, Scarlett called Scout)

She Says/He Says: The Give and Take of Temple Marriage (elisothel and rah, Feminist Mormon Housewives)

My missionary moment (Rachel Whipple, Times & Seasons)

On Coke, caffeine, and the Word of Wisdom (Aaron R., By Common Consent)

Date Me, Not My Uterus (Tracy M, By Common Consent)

A darn shame (John C., By Common Consent)

Pants, Prayers, and Women, 'Oh My!' The Role of Women in Early Christianity (David Bokovoy, Worlds without End)

The cosmology of the 'priesthood' restriction (J. Stapley, Juvenile Instructor)

How not to think about fundamentalism (Matt Bowman, Peculiar People)

Why would someone choose to follow Brigham Young? (Ben Park, By Common Consent)

The Nightstand (January 27th)

Roe v. Wade Anniversary

Better Reporting for Abortions (Charles A. Donovan, NYT)

Leeches, Lye and Spanish Fly (Kate Manning, NYT)

Politics

Dumb America (Garry Wills, NYRB)

Please Take Away My Right to a Gun (Wendy Button, NYT)

Maximum lies about the minimum wage (Samantha Valente, Socialist Worker)

The Obama Majority (Harold Meyerson, WaPo)

How to Get America Online (Susan Crawford, NYT)


Everything you know about health care spending is wrong (Matthew Yglesias, Slate)


Is America a 'kludgeocracy'? (Ezra Klein, Wonkblog)

Freedom to choose, freedom to marry (EJ Graff, The American Prospect)

The Prosecution of Aaron: a response to Orin Kerr (James Boyle, The Public Domain)

Mormonism

Source Over Content: General, Generic, and Genereal Conferences (Daymon Smith, Uncorrelated Mormonism)-- This revelation feels so damning...


Antinomianism and the Church (J. Stapley, By Common Consent)

Of Prophets, Elephants, Truth and Charity (David Tayman, Worlds without End)


The Priesthood is not a Superpower (John C., By Common Consent)

Picketing Zion (Rachael, Peculiar People)

Ten Reasons Why I'd Like to See a Woman Pray in General Conference (Brad, By Common Consent)


The Implications of Encouraging Early Marriage in a Global Church (MMiles, By Common Consent)

Top 3 Scriptural Justifications for Cultural Lag (BHodges, By Common Consent)

On Complaining (Julie M. Smith, Times & Seasons)

Culture

Diderot, an American exemplar? Bien sur! (Andrew Curran, NYT)

Looking for Truth in Utah (Jean Cheney, Humanities Magazine)


Selling a new generation on guns (Mike McIntire, NYT)-- Earning their nickname the "merchants of death"-- just like drug peddlers.

A Farewell to Arms (Susan J. Douglas, In These Times)

MLK's vehement condemnation of US militarism are more relevant than ever (Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian)

Global

Nothing to celebrate in Mexico (Jose Vivanco, WaPo)

The Nightstand (February 3rd)

Politics

Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner (Justin Cronin, NYT)

Moral Perversity in David Mamet (Andrew Sullivan, The Dish)-- Responding to this nonsense.

Breaking the Military's Brass Ceiling (Jeremiah Goulka, The American Prospect)

Obama, FDR and the Second Bill of Rights (Cass Sunstein, Bloomberg View)