Book of the Month.

the_blind_side

The Blind Side is the improbable true story of Michael Oher, a poor black boy from Memphis who ends up in the care of a wealthy white family across town and becomes a prized football recruit. It's also the story of how Oher's maturation coincides with a fundamental shift in pro football's economics. Join the discussion here.

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Hurting for Female Directors.

In graduate school, I had to attend a series of talks from magazine editors and one* of them, from Harper’s, faced a tough question from a friend of mine who asked a lot of tough questions of our guests. She read through the masthead’s list of all-male, mostly Anglo-sounding names and asked, “Where’s [...]

The Magical Person of Color, Now on Broadway.

I’ve seen a recurring theme in high-profile Broadway plays of late, and at first it made me wonder whether white playwrights had somehow been left out of conversations on portraying race. Then I remembered plenty of movie-makers and writers haven’t really done well lately, either.

Two years ago, I saw and enjoyed August: Osage [...]

Women and Religion.

Watch The Truth about Islam in News |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I caught a bit of Wafa Sultan on The Brian Lehrer Show yesterday morning. Sultan has capitalized on her 2006 YouTube rant against Islam and it’s treatment of women by writing a new book, called “A God Who Hates.”

I’m not saying Islam [...]

Breast Cancer and Health Care.

The problem with the new guidelines from the United States Preventative Services Task Force recommending only biannual mammograms for most women once they reach age 50, rather than annual ones for all women over 40, is that we all believe doctors should perform test after endless test and that, if they do, [...]

Nostalgic and Disappointed in My Office Kitchen.

Am I the only person who didn’t know that Carlton from Fresh Prince was hosting a lame-looking show  on a network I’ve never heard of?

I caught a brief glimpse of a commercial for it when I went to my water cooler and, frankly, wish I didn’t even know. Though for a minute I thought he [...]

Thoughtless and Racist.

I’m going to be vague on location here to avoid giving away too much, but I had a friend who just had to interview a group of homeowners in a portion of the northeast that’s very wealthy and smugly liberal. The group was concerned about a mixed-income housing unit going through the zoning approval [...]

Denialism.

Michael Specter, a New Yorker science writer, has written a new book accusing Americans of being stupid about science. It’s not that I don’t agree with him. I just have one quibble.

I have to caution: I haven’t actually read the book. But I have heard him on several radio shows promoting it. He is [...]

Sacrifing Abortion.

Was the amendment restricting insurers that get federal dollars from paying for abortions a necessary evil to get health reform passed? Probably. It’s a heartbreaking setback, and, as Emily Bazelon points out in Double X, this only hurts poor women.

Just to keep things in perspective, though, women without health insurance don’t have abortions paid for [...]

Executive Mandates, Executive Power and Health Care Reform.

Getty Images

I predicted this story a few months ago; a grudging acknowledgment that President Barack Obama’s hands-off approach on health care might have been the right one after all. It’s not that I necessarily think it’s better that Obama let Congress hash out the health care plan and then let the town hall hysteria [...]

Technology Gets RNC in Trouble, Again.

You’ve probably already seen the picture of President Barack Obama eating fried chicken with the caption, “Miscegenation Is a CRIME against American values… Repeal Loving v. Virginia,” that was hastily removed from the Republican National Committee’s Facebook page.

In this case — along with the e-mails of watermelons in front of the White House and Obama [...]

Small Town Expertise.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5cFKpjRnXE]

David Martin, the trial attorney for the executed Cameron Todd Willingham, said Willingham was guilty on Anderson Cooper’s 360 and dismissed as biased the science debunking the “science” that determined the fire was arson. While plenty of experts have called the arson investigators’ work mysticism and folklore, the fire investigator who found evidence of arson [...]

Why I Hate the New York Times Magazine.

In graduate school, one alarmingly bad, blindingly obvious article about gay marriage convinced me that the New York Times Magazine, the one you get for free on Sundays, is actually bad for journalism. That the world’s pre-eminent journalistic institution can churn out, at times, such a poorly written and edited magazine has always [...]

A Public Option and Employer Insurance.

A new poll shows that a majority of the public supports a public option, and it’s time for lawmakers to listen. When Senators like Charles Grassley and Orrin Hatch inveigh against a government-provided insurance option, we all know on whose behalf they’re speaking. But the problem is some of their constituents believe the nonsense [...]

Mad Men, Season 3, Episode 9: Wee Small Hours

Awwwww, Sal. We knew Sal was probably a goner as soon as we saw Don peak in on Sal and the bellhop, but it still seems more than cruel for Sal to get an unexpected hit on from a handsome direction and then have it turn on him. Still, that’s probably the way it [...]

Um, Really?

Now, I cried like everyone else on election night. Just last night, I finished Brick City, which ended with Barack Obama’s election, and felt the need to watch his fantastic victory speech again. But Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, really? The dude just got started. Maybe you want to wait. But then, it [...]