The Nightstand (Nov 4th)- The "Sweet Moses, It's Almost Over" Edition

Going Beyond Cultural Kid Stuff with a Wary Sense of Adventure (Dwight Garner, NYT)-- Our kids are currently 4,2 and -4 months so this has not come up for us yet, but it certainly will, probably sooner than we are prepared for it.

The Case for Obama: Why he is a Great President. Yes, Great. (Jonathan Chait, Daily Intel)-- Not sure about the title, but this is an effective summary of all the good reasons to vote for Obama, and a refutation of all of the bad reasons not to vote for Obama, if one is so inclined.

Nate Silver, Artist of Uncertainty (Samuel Popkin, The American Prospect)-- I followed Silver's 538 blog in 2008 and thought it was incredible.  I am probably one in the minority who thinks that he has been hurt (relatively) by his association with the NYT, even though it gives him a much broader audience and he continues to produce stellar analysis.  (See also Noam Scheiber's review of 'The Signal and the Noise' at NYT and Deadspin's coverage of the criticism of Nate Silver here)

Mormon Theological Ethics- Obedience to Authority (Seth Payne, Worlds without End)

Obama and the Politics of Race in the 21st Century: On Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'Fear of a Black President' (Carl Pedersen, U.S. Intellectual History Blog)

What Can Jeremiah Wright and Joseph Smith Teach Us About the American Presidency? (Max Perry Mueller, Religion and Politics)

What Happens When a Frankenstorm Hits the Madhouse (Charles Pierce, Esquire)

A New Right to Vote? (Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker)

The Case of the Mormon Historian (David Haglund, Slate)

Barack Obama, Pro-Life Hero (Eric C. Miller, Religion Dispatches)

What Do Mormons Pick and Choose from the Bible? (Jana Riess, Religion News Service)

Sandy's Closing Argument (Matt Miller, Washington Post)

Subsistence: The privilege of modern life (William Deresiewicz, The American Scholar)

Hiding in Plain Sight: The Origins of the Book of Mormon (William L. Davis, Los Angeles Review of Books)

Why We Can't Solve Big Problems (Jason Pontin, MIT Technology Review)

Why Do White People Think Mitt Romney Should be President? (Tom Scocca, Slate)

I Was Ayn Rand's Lover (George Saunders, The New Yorker)-- I was reading this while lying next to my sleeping wife, trying desperately not to guffaw loudly and shake the bed with my giggles.

Duck Beach to Absurdity (Rosalynde Welch, Patheos)

I'm Right (For Some Reason): Why Partisans Can't Explain their Views (Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach, NYT)

Best-ever thing you can read on climate change and the American press (Jay Rosen, Quote and Comment)

Texas Election Scoreboard

The Nightstand (Oct 28)

Politics 

The Lost World of George McGovern (Josh Garrett-Davis, NYT)

The Moral Clarity of George McGovern (Bruce Miroff, NYT)

The Politics of Jesus (Patrick Mason, Peculiar People)

The Voter Fraud Myth (Jane Mayer, New Yorker)

The War We Aren't Debating (Michael Massing, NYRB)

America Forgets the World (Jonathan Freeland, NYRB)


What's wrong with lesser evilism (Editorial, The Socialist Worker)

Journalism in the Obama age shows the real media bias (Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian)

Stiffed (David Runciman, London Review of Books)

Romney and Romero (Kate Savage, The Mormon Worker)

News Flash: This Was Always Going to Be a Close Election (Steve Erickson, The American Prospect)


Mormonism

Religion, Race and Double Standards (Andrew Sullivan, The Dish)-- Its damning because its (mostly sort of) true.  Joanna Brooks' take here.

Mormon Boundaries (Dave Banack, Worlds Without End)

Spencer W. Kimball and the Complexities of Mormon Political Theology (Matt Bowman, Political Theology)

Mitt Romney and Mormon Theology (Jon Pahl, Religion in American History blog)

Foreign Affairs

Billions in Hidden Riches for Family of Chinese Leader (David Barboza, NYT)-- Capitalism for me, socialism for thee...

The Nightstand (Oct 22nd)-- Election Fatigue Edition

Politics

'This Chamber Reeks of Blood' (Raymond J. Haberski, US Intellectual History blog)

The Grit and Grace of George McGovern (Tom Daschle, The American Prospect)

The lame rules for presidential debates: a perfect microcosm of American democracy (Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian)

Blue states are from Scandanavia, red states are from Guatemala (Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic)-- Seems insulting to Guatemala

Giving children the right to vote (Seymon Dukach, WaPo)

The opiate of exceptionalism (Scott Shane, NYT)

Bill & Hillary Forever (John Heilemann, New York)

Reaping the Whirlwind (Linda Greenhouse, NYT)

Growing Up Romney (Noam Scheiber, The New Republic)-- The Romney family myth of self-reliance.

More Speech is Better (David Cole, NYRB)

Are Capitalism and Democracy Failing Us? (Raghu Rajan, Fault Lines)

The Arizonification of America (Jeff Biggers, NYT)- Arizona, the "meth lab of democracy"

Mormonism

Mormon feminists? Yes, they exist and they're for Obama (Peter Henderson, Reuters)

As Partners, Mormons and Scouts Turn Boys into Men (Erik Eckholm, NYT)

Economy

Map shows the worst states for women to make money (Chris Kirk, Slate)

No More Industrial Revolutions (Thomas Edsall, NYT)

Buyology (Jerry DeNuccio, The Smart Set)

What will replace the globalization model? (David Smick, WaPo)

The self-destruction of the 1 percent (Chrystia Freeland, NYT Sunday Review)

Sympathy for the Plutocrat (Nick Hanauer, Reuters)

The brashness and bravado of big deals (John Kay)

Income Inequality May Take Toll on Growth (Annie Lowrey, NYT)

Foreign Affairs

China's other power struggle (Charlie Zhu, David Lague, Reuters)

The billionaires next door (Chrystia Freeland, Reuters)

Arts

George Lucas' Force (Camille Paglia, The Chronicle of Higher Education)

The Nightstand (Oct 14th)

The campaign's moral hole (E.J. Dionne, WaPo)

One Blogger's Response to Elder Holland's Conference Talk (Sophia, Feminist Mormon Housewives)

Martha Raddatz and the faux objectivity of journalists (Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian)

Shut up and play nice: How the Western World is limiting free speech (Jonathan Turley, WaPo)

'Your Women Are Oppressed but Ours Are Awesome': How Nicholas Kristof and Half the Sky Use Women Against Each Other (Sayantani DasGupta, Racialicious)

The Wrong Way to Help the Poor (Gary MacDougal, NYT)

Romney is Unwise to Believe in the Wisdom of Markets (Mark Buchanan, Bloomberg View)

The International Church and the 'Gospel Culture' (Ryan Tobler, Peculiar People)

Policy to Theology (Let's Get this Right) (Elisothel, Feminist Mormon Housewives)

Pragmatism and Progress: An Overview of LDS Sister Missionary Service in the Twentieth Century (andrearm, Juvenile Instructor)

GD Pedagogy (Kevin Barney, By Common Consent)

A real class war may be on its way (Harold Meyerson, WaPo)

What the recent missionary announcement should teach us about structural inequality (rah, Feminist Mormon Housewives)

The issues they won't talk about (Eric Ruder, Socialist Worker)

Long Live Paper (Justin Hollander, NYT)