Harper's Magazine: October 2008

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October 2008

CONTENTS
THUMBNAILS
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	Illustration Traveler CVXX at night (detail) By Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz SEE ALSO: Abandoned houses; Dwellings PDF IMAGES
4-7	Letters/Department Letters On Mandaeans, from May 2007: Letter By “Some Followers of John the Baptist” On Our phony economy, from June 2008: Letter By Anders I. Ourom Letter By Jonathan Rowe On A mind dismembered, from June 2008: Letter By Philip Watt Letter By Nick Blake On Pompeii, from August 2008: Letter By Richard Schlesinger Letter By Charles Bernstein PDF TEXT IMAGES
9-11	Notebook/Article Obama's Jews By Bernard Avishai SEE ALSO: Attitudes toward Israel; Obama, Barack; Jews; 2008; Views on Israel PDF FREE TEXT IMAGES
13	Harper's index/Department Harper’s Index PDF TEXT IMAGES
15-18	Readings/Article The only place to go By Charles Bowden SEE ALSO: Boundaries; Drug traffic; Emigration and immigration; Environmental degradation; Human smuggling; Illegal aliens; Labor movement; Mexican-American Border Region; Radio broadcasting PDF TEXT IMAGES
16	Readings/Poem A sea-change By Derek Walcott PDF TEXT IMAGES
17	Readings/Illustration These days By Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille SEE ALSO: Dwellings; Fire; Fire and fire prevention PDF IMAGES
18	Readings/Article Philosopher kings By Fernando King SEE ALSO: Chicago (Ill.); Gangs PDF TEXT IMAGES
20	Readings/Illustration A perfect circle By Paul Chiappe SEE ALSO: Facial expression PDF IMAGES Readings/Article All that you can't be SEE ALSO: Career as U.S. Army recruiter; Career in U.S. Army; Marquette, Glenn; Houston; Gonzalez, Irving; Recruiting and enlistment; Recruiting, enlistment, etc.; Student aid PDF TEXT IMAGES
21	Readings/Article Unreal estate SEE ALSO: Disclosure of information; Haunted houses; Purchasing; Real estate business PDF TEXT IMAGES
22-23	Readings/Article The monk of Abu Ghraib By Joshua Eric Casteel SEE ALSO: Abu Ghraib Prison; Biography; Conscientious objectors; Iraq; Iraq War, 2003-; Casteel, Joshua Eric; Military interrogation; Prisoners and prisons, American PDF IMAGES
23	Readings/Illustration Untitled (Niemandsland) By Dirk Skreber SEE ALSO: Floods; Interchanges and intersections; Roads PDF IMAGES
24	Readings/Illustration Subway By Peter Waite SEE ALSO: Subway stations PDF IMAGES Readings/Article The joke is gone By Giles Coren, Mia Aimaro Ogden, and Joanna Duckworth SEE ALSO: Language & Linguistics; Newspaper editors; Newspapers; Restaurant critics; Writers PDF TEXT IMAGES
25	Readings/Article Quill bill SEE ALSO: Hedgehogs; New Zealand; Trials (Assault and battery); Trials, litigation, etc.; Singhlagah, William PDF TEXT IMAGES
26	Readings/Article Words into hype By Chris Offutt SEE ALSO: Literature; Terminology PDF TEXT IMAGES
28-29	Readings/Article Fires in the Gila By Philip Connors SEE ALSO: Biography; Fire lookouts; New Mexico; Connors, Philip; Prevention and control; Wildfires PDF TEXT IMAGES
31-45	Article Bleak houses: Digging through the ruins of the mortgage crisis By Paul Reyes SEE ALSO: Eviction; Foreclosure; Mortgage loans; Refuse and refuse disposal; Tampa PDF TEXT IMAGES
47-53	Article News from nowhere: Iceland's polite dystopia By Rebecca Solnit SEE ALSO: Career as president of Iceland; Democracy; Environmental degradation; Iceland; Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson PDF TEXT IMAGES
55-63	Article Bollywood shuffle: A white actor tries to break into Hindi film By George Michelsen Foy SEE ALSO: Bombay; Bombay (India); Discrimination in employment PDF FREE TEXT IMAGES
64-72	Article Standoff in Columbus: Guns, dogs and the language of totality By Frederick Busch SEE ALSO: Biography; Columbus; Busch, Frederick; Hate crimes; Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Labrador retriever; Sociolinguistics; Violent crimes PDF TEXT IMAGES
73-78	Collection Microstories By John Edgar Wideman PDF TEXT IMAGES Fiction Rain By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Divorce By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Thirteen By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES
74	Fiction AT&T By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Fat liver By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction War stories By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES
75	Fiction Home from college By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Giblets By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Automatic By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Message By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Northstar By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES
76	Fiction Party By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Paris morning By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES
77	Fiction Haiku By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Writing By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES
78	Fiction Trouble By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Breath By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES Fiction Passing on By John Edgar Wideman PDF IMAGES
79-80	New books/Review New Books By John Leonard SEE ALSO: Blue genes (Book); Lukas, Christopher; Filkins, Dexter; Indignation (Book); Updike, John; Barnes, Julian; Letters of Ted Hughes (Book); Nothing to be frightened of (Book); Hughes, Ted; The forever war (Book) PDF TEXT IMAGES
81-88	Review The long goodbye: Notes on a never-ending decade By Arthur Krystal SEE ALSO: De Groot, Gerard J.; Nineteen sixties; The sixties unplugged: a kaleidoscopic history of a disorderly decade (Book) PDF TEXT IMAGES
88-94	Review Godard the obscure: What happened to the icon of '68? By J. Hoberman SEE ALSO: Biography; Everything is cinema: the working life of Jean-Luc Godard (Book); Godard, Jean-Luc; Motion pictures; Brody, Richard PDF TEXT IMAGES
95	Puzzle/Department Playfair square (“just kidding”) By Richard Maltby PDF IMAGES
96	Findings/Article Findings By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi PDF TEXT IMAGES

WEEKLY REVIEW
WASHINGTON BABYLON
SENTENCES
NO COMMENT
MR. FISH
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
COMMENTARY

Weekly Review By Paul Ford	Oct 14
Weekly Review By Claire Gutierrez	Oct 7
Weekly Review By Sam Stark	Oct 21
Weekly Review By Claire Gutierrez	Oct 28

By Ken Silverstein

Urgent Business Opportunity: This one may be legit	4:04 PM Oct 6
Lobbyists and Fred Starr Team Up to Promote Kazakhstan	12:23 PM Oct 1
The Rumsfeld Fellows: Advanced degrees in bungled invasions	7:01 AM Oct 7
New Third Party Candidate Threatens McCain	1:21 AM Oct 10
Book Event on “Turkmeniscam” in Washington	11:41 AM Oct 3
Department of Irony: Congress, lobbyists, and reporters toast “financial reform”	8:37 AM Oct 6
Ifill on George Bush: “Part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan”	2:06 PM Oct 2
More Smoke From Senator Coleman on His Shopping Habits	12:39 PM Oct 9
Mark Foley’s Worthy Successor	4:19 PM Oct 13
A Revival of Reverend Wright?	12:05 PM Oct 2
Striking Voters: If you look hard, you might see a pattern	8:36 AM Oct 1
Ifill and Blather	10:32 AM Oct 2
Senator Norm Coleman Gets by with a Little Help From His Friends	3:27 PM Oct 6
When Challenged on Ethics, Sen. Coleman and Rep. Keller Blame the Bloggers	2:41 PM Oct 8
Lowry’s Little Burst	2:24 PM Oct 3
Did PBS Bury Torture Documentary?	8:33 AM Oct 14
A New Media Hero is Born: Just a few years too late	9:11 AM Oct 15
Electing Republicans: Your tax dollars at work	10:01 AM Oct 15
Norm Coleman’s Denial and “Transparency”	2:29 PM Oct 15
John McCain: The only man in America with reception for his iPhone	6:58 PM Oct 15
Harper’s Book Event Tonight in Washington	8:52 AM Oct 16
Is ACORN Plotting a Coup?	12:10 PM Oct 16
Joe the Plumber Is Not Having a Good Day	12:41 PM Oct 16
McCain’s Other Joe Problem: Should the senator switch to Sanka?	12:54 PM Oct 16
Did She or Didn’t She? McCain’s alleged girlfriend denies story of affair	7:43 AM Oct 17
How AIG Spends Its Money: Resort stays and political support	8:09 AM Oct 17
The Gipper At Play	8:45 AM Oct 17
Is It Over?	10:11 AM Oct 20
Is It Over? Part II	10:22 AM Oct 20
Buying the Election	3:24 PM Oct 20
About the Youth Vote: A reader sees high turnout for Obama	7:50 AM Oct 21
Turkmeniscam at TPMCafe Book Club	8:00 AM Oct 21
Endorsement Fever: This is good news?	8:42 AM Oct 21
Sarah Palin, Nieman Marcus and Senator Norm Coleman’s Friends	2:26 PM Oct 22
The Cost of Democracy	6:56 PM Oct 22
McCain Maintains Advantage In Poll Of Family Members: But Obama closing gap	4:51 PM Oct 23
Will African Americans Turn Out?	9:12 PM Oct 23
How To Elect A Tinklenberg	9:28 PM Oct 23
Is It Over, Part III	11:01 PM Oct 23
Young Voters Still May Be Key	7:12 AM Oct 24
Oleg Deripaska and the Buying of Washington: Controversial oligarch funds local think tanks	9:53 AM Oct 24
Six Questions for Chris Kromm on the Election in the South	12:02 PM Oct 24
It’s October. Where’s Our Surprise?	3:25 PM Oct 27
Good News For Senator Stevens: He can keep his congressional pension	4:33 PM Oct 27
Washington’s Congressional Bloc	8:09 AM Oct 28
Cheers: Bailout for rum makers	8:15 AM Oct 28
Six Questions for Kent Moors on Saudi Economic Problems, American Foreign Policy and the Future of Oil	8:37 AM Oct 29
Obama Campaign Offers Pre-election Sale On Democratic VIPs	9:33 AM Oct 29
More Mystery on Senator Coleman and His Donor Friend	2:58 PM Oct 30
Lawyer In Case Involving Senator Coleman: “We had information and documents to back it up”	8:20 PM Oct 30
Exposed: The community organizer/crack cocaine connection	7:00 AM Oct 31
Is The Coleman/Kazeminy Lawsuit Just Politics?	3:18 PM Oct 31

By Wyatt Mason

Weekend Read: “Whether I was more a loser or gainer”	5:58 PM Oct 3
Blowin’ Up!	3:53 PM Oct 8
Weekend Read: “Safety, peace, and prosperity”	5:57 PM Oct 10
Warning: Kill kill kill kills	2:57 PM Oct 6
He Pretended to Be Deaf and Dumb	3:26 PM Oct 1
Wyatt Mason is Reading…	Oct 15
Little Men in Themselves	4:05 PM Oct 20
Less Reprehensible Regions of Conspicuous Consumption	4:40 PM Oct 22
Weekend Read: “Better Mendacities”	5:40 PM Oct 24
Muted, Undone, Overcome	10:22 AM Oct 27
Simulated Ignorance	3:55 PM Oct 29
Weekend Read: Happy Hohnukkah!	11:18 PM Oct 31

By Scott Horton

DOJ Goes Long for Sarah Palin	8:00 PM Oct 8
Lope de Vega’s Judith	9:23 AM Oct 5
Pythagoras’s Human Typology	8:58 AM Oct 11
Nerval: A Man and His Lobster	8:26 AM Oct 12
Petrarcha’s Ascent of Mt Ventoux	9:42 AM Oct 4
The Ifill Factor	11:55 AM Oct 5
The Torture Presidency	10:29 AM Oct 15
The Wobbly Political Theology of Sarah Palin	10:21 AM Oct 16
Niebuhr’s Relationship to the Past	10:33 AM Oct 18
Shakespeare’s Quality of Mercy	6:27 AM Oct 19
Justice in the Gutter	3:38 PM Oct 19
The Best of the ’08 Campaign I: Best Speech in a Comic Mode	12:50 PM Oct 21
The Best of the ’08 Campaign II: Best local press coverage	7:07 AM Oct 23
Tolstoy on the Role of History	12:14 AM Oct 25
Best of the ’08 Campaign III: Best National Columnist	6:26 PM Oct 25
Pushkin’s Autumn	12:21 AM Oct 26
Will Justice Hack the Vote?	9:27 AM Oct 26
Palin’s Nightmare	9:16 AM Oct 26
Best of the ’08 Campaign IV: The Art of the Endorsement	10:07 AM Oct 27
Best of the ’08 Campaign V: Northern exposure	8:00 AM Oct 29
The New McCarthyism	10:59 AM Oct 29
Best of the ’08 Campaign VI: Numerology	9:58 AM Oct 31
Goldfarb Gets a Smackdown	10:05 AM Oct 31

By Mr. Fish

A Cartoon	3:49 PM Oct 10
A Cartoon	2:16 PM Oct 2
Cartoons	3:00 PM Oct 17
A Cartoon	10:13 PM Oct 19
A Cartoon	1:21 PM Oct 24
A Cartoon	10:40 PM Oct 30

Event Alert: John R. MacArthur discusses the presidency pre-debate in Brooklyn, NY By John R. MacArthur	5:17 PM Oct 6
Americans Unwilling to Face Reality By John R. MacArthur	1:57 PM Oct 15

Six Questions for Eric Janszen on the Economic Collapse

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

5:36 PM

Oct 16

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