AGAINST SAFEWORDS, PART II in a no-doubt-continuing series. Part one. Read more

REFUSIONISM: So at a wedding over the weekend, I ended up in the perennial right-wing debate: Is fusionism a tactic, a political philosophy, or a scam? What I say in this post is my interpretation of my experience; other people may have had other experiences, or interpreted them differently, and I’d really like to hear about that. But from my perspective, “trads” aka conservatives seem to interact with libertarians and their arguments in a very different way from the way... Read more

AFTER NEWSPAPERS: …The New York Times reports on the ACLU’s successful campaign to use the Freedom of Information Act to get the government to disclose documents about the government’s detention and interrogation policies. The ACLU has received hundreds of pages of documents, which it has then released to the public on the Internet, becoming the basis of dozens of stories by journalists. The torture story is one of the most important examples of American journalism in the last decade. But... Read more

DANTEBLOGGING! The Cranky Professor is blogging his way through the Divine Comedy. He’s on Canto X of the Inferno now (and his other posts have been making reference to his Danteblogging as well, so you might want to check out the whole site if you like snarkery). Read more

LAST WEEK’S NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE focused on “Saving the World’s Women.” You can get the introduction here–alternately heartbreaking and inspiring–and some cautions here. From the latter article, which is less personal but still necessary: …Yet these strategies — though invaluable — underestimate the complexity of the situation in certain countries. To be sure, China and India are poor. But in both nations, girls are actually more likely to be missing in richer areas than in poorer ones, and in... Read more

LOL DAYEST OF JOBS: My posting at MarriageDebate is somewhat less random than my posting here! And I really do try to find stuff which will interest anyone who wants to know where we are these days on attitudes toward sex, gender, parenting, and marriage–the most frequent tag I use is “culture.” Other posters include Elizabeth Marquardt, IMAPP as an entity (that’s me in terms of who hits “publish,” but I don’t choose those posts), and sometimes others. Here’s my... Read more

LILAC SEASONS IN THE LAND OF DREAMS: I have a column in the new American Conservative. This one is about Shepherd Park, the DC neighborhood where I grew up: the language of masks and the silence of skin. I don’t think it’s online yet, so check your newsstands! Read more

MADONNA BOOED IN BUCHAREST FOR DEFENDING GYPSIES. Good on her. Was it relevant to her music? Well, Until the 19th century, Romanian Gypsies were slaves, and they’ve gotten a mixed response ever since: While discrimination is widespread, many East Europeans are enthusiastic about Gypsy music and dance, which they embrace as part of the region’s cultural heritage. That explains why the Roma musicians and a dancer who had briefly joined Madonna onstage got enthusiastic applause. And it also may explain... Read more

EIGHT MILLION STORIES IN THE NAKED CITY: EveryBlock offers a newsfeed for your city block! Via Noli Irritare Leones. Read more

THE HEIRESS: William Wyler directs Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift in a tale based on Henry James’s Washington Square. Vaguely spoilerous but nothing specific, below. I’m not sure I’d ever seen de Havilland in anything before. [eta: Oh hilarious–apparently I’ve forgotten Gone With the Wind and–perhaps even less forgivable–Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte!] She was fantastic. A performing kitten with a cobra inside. The tragedy was easily discerned from the beginning, but I was still left guessing as to exactly... Read more