The Week in Review

Monday on the Report, we covered the death of the radical journalist Alexander Cockburn, and discussed his complex rivalry with Christopher Hitchens, to whom he has always been compared, even in obituaries. The peacock's tail is beautiful and decorative for biological, Darwinian reasons, even though Darwin himself was obsessed and confused by the feature. We found that America is a violent country, but not quite as violent as it used to be, and that Americans are generally more concerned about obesity than smoking. In response, I presented a case against strident anti-smoking messages such as the ones produced in New Zealand.

Also on Monday, we examined the political implications of a Romney tax return release and asked why Romney is so difficult to like — and why that might be a good thing. We also linked to an essayistic history of the Norway massacre, and discussed the IOC's refusal to set aside a minute's silence for the victims of the Munich massacre. In other news, semicolons are still difficult, and the science of immortality is not really considered science yet. We took a brief look at the speculation about post-United States Afghanistan, including the role militias may play in the outbreak of civil war. And of course we celebrated Rush Limbaugh's oh-so-sound logic on the Aurora shootings. Please note: Bird watchers are annoying, and songs for Mitt Romney have a kind of hathos effect. Finally on Monday, we considered the then-proposal to pull down the statue of Joe Paterno.

On Tuesday, we echoed David Carr's question regarding what Yahoo actually is, and wondered whether the boy-band One Direction played any role in redefining masculinity. I concluded not only that they were not, but that no such redefinition was taking place. We took a brief look at the neuroscience of hoarding, and the Endowment Effect that causes people to think more of their possessions than perhaps they should. Michele Bachmann's bizarre Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy theory was dismissed as delusional, and so was the idea that Walter Cronkite had been responsible for elevating the integrity of American journalism.

Wednesday began with a continuation of our discussion on the need for commemoration of the Munich massacre. We briefly looked at Angelica Dass' effort to collect and categorise human skin tones, and at the increasingly common trend of outing rapists online. There's a case to be made for the grand statement that Malcolm Gladwell caused Lehman Brothers to fail, and no case to be made for the existence of God based on how beautiful the world is. We applauded the Pentagon's decision to allow uniformed service members to take part in gay pride parades, and at the same time denounced the Boy Scouts' strange decision to ban gay people. The more obsessive the coverage in the event of shootings, the more likely another shooting becomes. We need a different kind of media attention when people are killed by a gunman. Fake artworks can be masterpieces, too. 

I asked whether Romney belonged to a cult, and explored the questionable history of Mormonism. The conclusion? Someone should ask Mitt Romney what it felt like to be a member of an officially racist organisation.


Thursday on the Report, we found out why Giles Fraser has rejected liberalism, and were confused as to why the NCAA decided to erase a history of sporting victories for Penn State under Joe Paterno. We drew a little attention to tactless tweets by a Wall Street Journal reporter, and found that maybe — just maybe — honesty is overrated. Continuing with our discussion on the fall of violence, we quoted the Harvard neuroscientist Steven Pinker, and quoted Andrew Sullivan, who opined that the failure of the NYT to acknowledge Sally Ride's sexuality amounts to homophobia.

On Friday, we linked to a profile of the speechwriter and columnist David Frum. We also found that Thomas Paine had interesting thoughts on Obama's apparently controversial "you didn't build that" speech. We discovered that there is such a thing as the politics of being boring, particularly when it comes to Veepstakes. Mitt Romney's visit to what he called the "Nation of Great Britain" was an unmitigated disaster.

Saturday saw us ask if America has a responsibility to stop mass killings. Boris fired back at Romney over criticism of the Briton's Olympic efforts, and we agreed that persecuting the press diminishes us all. Since there was no gun control debate in Norway following the Anders Brevik massacre, it's strange that in the US, a shooting is a catalyst for a revived debate on the role of firearms in society. We discussed the legal requirement for ultrasounds for abortion candidates under informed consent, and I objected to the characterisation of the unborn child as anything less than such. We admired James Joyce for his admiration of Oscar Wilde and wondered if better pay made for better writing. It seems that there's a complex relationship between art and money. The two state solution for Israel and Palestine probably won't die: here's why.

I responded Amy Davidson's interview with Jose Rodriguez, who spent more than thirty years at the CIA, eventually becoming an instrumental player in some of the United States' most notorious counter-terrorism methods. Was Christopher Hitchens a sort of modern Orwell? There's a case to be advanced. And finally: Romney's gaffes in London weren't gaffes; they were just expressions of his true worldview.

Image of the Day here. Required Listening here.