“The Party of Prison Reform”: The Weekly Standard

Last updated on: March 11, 2013 at 2:50 pm By Eve Tushnet

Michael Hough—a second-term Republican state legislator from Frederick County, Md.—is about as conservative as blue-state legislators come. He played a prominent role in opposing the state’s new gay marriage law, holds an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, and received a 100 percent score from the state’s business lobby. The major focus of his legislative agenda, however, crushes any stereotypes that might come to mind, given his résumé. Hough wants to reform America’s prisons and help the more than... Read more

“The Case Against Government Bans on Feeding the Homeless”: Reason

Last updated on: March 9, 2013 at 8:20 pm By Eve Tushnet

mag: …I mention Elijah’s selflessness and generosity toward me and these two men for this startling reason: While Elijah’s act of sharing food with me would be legal virtually anywhere in this country, his decision to feed the homeless men who ate with us could be illegal in many cities today. The reason for this dramatic discrepancy boils down to this fact alone: I slept with a roof over my head, but the others slept under the stars. Such illogic... Read more

“The Advertising Comrade”: I review “No”

Last updated on: March 9, 2013 at 12:07 am By Eve Tushnet

at AmCon. Read more

Underground alcoholics in Ulan Bator

Last updated on: March 8, 2013 at 2:08 am By Eve Tushnet

Photo #4 is strongly reminiscent of what is probably the worst nightmare I’ve ever had. The others are also intense. Via The Fix. Read more

“The Conservative Case Against More Prisons”

Last updated on: March 6, 2013 at 11:56 pm By Eve Tushnet

AmCon strikes again! Although for more on drug courts you could see here. Read more

“Sparrows and Fathers”

Last updated on: March 6, 2013 at 12:50 pm By Eve Tushnet

me at AmCon. Read more

“Congress Goes Bipartisan–Against Civil Liberties”: W James Antle III

Last updated on: March 5, 2013 at 7:32 pm By Eve Tushnet

at AmCon: At the very time it appears Washington is so dysfunctional that the two parties cannot get anything done, Democrats and Republicans cooperate regularly—when it it comes to jailing, spying on, and meting out extrajudicial punishments in ways that on their face contradict the Bill of Rights. more Read more

“Other”: Gay Subtlety

Last updated on: March 5, 2013 at 6:44 pm By Eve Tushnet

blogs: …The reason I’m even commenting on these brief flashes of “unawareness” or whatever-it-is, of not being consumed with feelings of “otherness,” is because this is the last place I expected to experience something like this. I flew down to Central America alone, re-entered “la bodega”, and have daily come up against rampant and incessant homophobia from the teenage boys I live with (and Central America’s machismo culture in general) – a recipe for angst and feeling super-gay and isolated.... Read more

“The Novel of Belief and Jewish-American Demography”

Last updated on: March 5, 2013 at 6:41 pm By Eve Tushnet

Two of my obsessions together at last! …The most compelling characters in Zoe Heller’s The Believers (2009) and Joshua Henkin’s The World Without You (2012) are daughters Rosa and Noelle, each a ba’ala teshuva who “converts” from the secular Judaism of her youth to Orthodoxy. The Believers, as its title indicates, is about belief of all kinds—of what, if not the religious, we will put our faith in. Henkin’s first novel, Swimming Across the Hudson, takes up a related theme as... Read more

IRS vs nonprofit media

Last updated on: March 5, 2013 at 6:03 pm By Eve Tushnet

in USA Today: From National Geographic to Consumer Reports to the Associated Press, nonprofit media outlets have provided an important supplement to commercial media for many years. More recently, as newspapers around the country have contracted, a new wave of nonprofit news outlets has emerged — created by concerned journalists, citizens and communities to help plug the growing gaps in reporting caused by the shrinking budgets of traditional for-profit news sources. In 2009, the Investigative News Network (INN), a consortium... Read more