The Nightstand (May 13-19)

"Nadir and Me" (Joseph Heath, The Walrus)

The Lobbyist in the Gray Flannel Suit (Thomas Edsall, NYT)-- An interesting, and largely untold, story.

Unions that Divide: Churches Split Over Gay Marriage (Laurie Goodstein, NYT)-- As usual, the most important stuff is going on behind the scenes.

The Economic Case for Same-Sex Marriage (Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, Bloomberg View)

New series on college costs at the New York Times-- A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College (Andrew Martin and Andrew Lehren, NYT) and Slowly, As Student Debt Rises, Colleges Confront Costs (Andrew Martin, NYT)

Why are Teen Moms Poor? (Matthew Yglesias, Slate)

Money Unlimited: How John Roberts Orchestrated Citizens United (Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker)

Is the Filibuster Unconstitutional? (Ezra Klein, Wonkbook)

Even the Costa Ricans....and Chinese and Mexicans (Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic)

On Censorship (Salman Rushdie, New Yorker)

Mormons and Evangelicals (Jana Riess, Religion News Service)

Priest to profit: How the Mormon Church teaches priesthood holders to lead (Matt Bowman, WaPo)

Man on a mission: Mitt Romney in France (Steve Evans, WaPo)

Nuns on the Frontier (Anne Butler, NYT)

The Long Approach to the "Mormon Moment" (Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Religion & Politics)

Obama and Romney offer differing views of God (Lisa Miller, WaPo)

The Nightstand (May 6-12)

How to win a culture war and lose a generation (Rachel Held Evans)-- Excellent, excellent essay.  Well written and heartfelt.

America's outdated view of China (Perry Link, WaPo)

Game Over for the Climate (James Hansen, NYT)

Family Way (Judith Warner, NYT)

North Carolina begs the question too (Democracy in America blog, The Economist)

The Mother's Day message I wish I could hear in the Mormon Church (Jana Reiss, RNS)

Gay Marriage Bans May Come at a Price (James B. Stewart, NYT)

Then Comes Marriage (William Saletan, Slate)

Some Thoughts on the War for the Heart and Soul of Mormonism (Jacob, By Common Consent)-- As a Mormon still sporting an Obama sticker in the church parking lot the week after the President came out in favor of same-sex marriage, I am hoping I am not the only one who reads this.

Mormonism and the Dilemma of Tragedy (Rachael Givens, Peculiar People)

Do As I Do, Not As I Say (T.M. Luhrmann, NYT)

Mormonism and Public Discourse on Religion (Susanna Morrill, Peculiar People)

How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform (Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone)-- I love Taibbi's reporting in RS, even if it depresses the hell out of me.

Can the Colleges Be Saved? (Anthony Grafton, NYRB)

The Nightstand (April 29 - May 5)

Unexceptionalism: A Primer (EL Doctorow, NYT)

The Sun, the Moon and Walmart (Homero Aridjis, NYT)

When Romney was a Mormon President (Max Mueller, Religion & Politics)

A Mormon Scholar Meets Latter-day Libertarians (Matt Bowman, Religion & Politics)

The Many Folds of Mormonism (Richard Livingston, Peculiar People)

The story of the first May Day (Alan Maass, The Socialist Worker)

What to do about the rich (The Philosopher's Beard)-- A Swiftian proposal

Two hundred years of surgery (Atul Gawande, NEJM)-- In commemoration of its 200th anniversary, NEJM publishes a short but interesting summary of the history of surgical intervention since the founding of the journal.

China's Corporate Leninism (John Lee, The American Interest)

The Nightstand (April 29)

The Nightstand


Since Mitt Romney has now all but sewn up the GOP nomination, this will be a particularly Mormon-heavy edition of The Nightstand.  A couple of days ago, I wrote on a friend's Facebook wall that I thought, in the final analysis, we will be able to look back on this year or eighteen-month period as a real flowering of writing about Mormons, by both Mormons and non-Mormons alike.  This is notwithstanding all the nonsense that will get published alongside it.

Democrats Have Bigger Anti-Mormon Problem than GOP Has (Peter Beinart, The Daily Beast)-- Yes, the thesis of this article is about as good as that disaster of a headline.  Responded to by Joanna Brooks here and expanded on by Paul Waldman here.

Go West, Young Religion: Mormonism on Exhibit (Edward Rothstein, NYT)-- Note to Peter Beinart: This is how you write a headline.

On Mormon Secularization and Politics (Patrick Mason, Peculiar People)

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes (Charles Duhigg and David Kocieniewski, NYT)

Homophobic? Maybe You're Gay (Richard and William Ryan, NYT)

A Europe Tired of Cutbacks Has Few Alternatives (Jack Ewing and Liz Alderman, NYT)-- Glad to see France flirting with the possibility of a big bank-hating socialist for president.  Austerity has been a disastrous policy in Europe, so why not try something else?

The Economic Impact of Raising Taxes on High-Income Households (Jared Bernstein, On the Economy)-- I point to Bernstein's post, but really what you want to see is the study he is discussing (link in the article).

Bullying the Nuns (Garry Wills, NY Review of Books)

Vive la Mere (Ann Crittenden, The American Prospect)

The Politics of Sight (David Sirota, In These Times)

"It All Turns on Affection" (Wendell E. Berry, National Endowment for the Humanities Lecture)-- Even though it casts the primary benefactor of my alma mater in a pretty terrible light, I think this is an excellent analysis of contemporary alienation-- from our land, our peers, and ourselves.

The Romneys' Mexican History (Hector Tobar, Smithsonian)

Bad Douthat (Mark Silk, Religion News Service)-- Really good take-down of Douthat's latest.  One of the best openings to a review I have ever seen.

The Nightstand (April 22)

The Nightstand

Four Futures (Peter Frase, Jacobin)

My So-Called Ex-Gay Life (Gabriel Arana, The American Prospect)

The rise of the Mormon feminist housewife (Irin Carmon, Salon)

Conservative nonprofit acts as a stealth business lobbyist (Mike McIntire, NYT)

Antipoverty tax program offers relief, though often temporary (Sabrina Tavernise, NYT)