November 2009 Acquisitions

Books:
Jennifer P. Mathews, Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, From the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley, 2009.
Frank Miller, Sin City, Volume 4: That Yellow Bastard, 2005.
Frank Miller, Sin City, Volume 5: Family Values, 2005.
Frank Miller, Sin City, Volume 6: Booze, Broads, and Bullets, 2005.
Frank Miller, Sin City, Volume 7: Hell and Back, 2005.
James Oakes et al., Of the People: A History of the United States, 2009.
Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht, The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Christmas, 2002.
Walt Disney's The Jungle Book, 2003.

DVDs:
The Exiles, 1961.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, 1982.
The Killers, 1946/1964.
There's Something about Mary, 1998.
Yo Gabba Gabba: Meet My Family, 2009.

"Any Senator Can Stick Up the Senate"

"The only problem is that, because the filibuster had rendered the chamber so laughable, with renegade members pulling all-nighters and blocking all the Senate's business, the 'reformers' came up with a new procedural filibuster--the polite filibuster, the Bob Dole filibuster--to replace the cruder old-fashioned filibuster of Senate pirates like Strom Thurmond ('filibuster' comes from the Dutch word for freebooter, or pirate). The liberals of 1975 thought they could banish the dark Furies of American history, but they wound up spawning more demons than we'd ever seen before."

In The Nation, Thomas Geoghegan and the magazine's editors oppose the filibuster.

Slippin' into the Future

"Americans have always been a work-focused people. And despite the fact that this stresses us out immensely (Americans report feeling more stressed than citizens of other nations, and we also suffer from more heart disease and other stress-related health problems than others), we report feeling happiest when at work. In fact, if we had more free time, surveys suggest that the majority of us would fill it with more work. We have a very difficult time unplugging, and many of our technological advances have ensured that we don't have to. Cell phones, e-mail, laptops, jet travel, and hotels wired with wi-fi all allow the capability to be at work all the time, even on vacation. Part of it might be what Hoffman refers to as our quest for 'big promotions, big money, big homes' and that fear that came with knowing that 'if you didn't succeed in "making it," as the colloquial phrase had it, you had only yourself to blame.'"

Jessa Crispin in The Smart Set reviews Eva Hoffman's Time.

"Advertising Is Based on One Thing: Happiness"

Gawker.TV presents "The Tao of Don: A Complete Collection of Don Draper's Words of Wisdom."

"Without a Single Footstep to Guide Us"

"One area where Wood makes a particularly noteworthy contribution is in tracing the surprise development of America’s democratic identity. 'Surprise' is the word. Too often forgotten is the fact that America’s patrician founders harbored great fears about the 'excesses of democracy.' Though the new country was to be a daring trial in self-government, it was expected to be guided less by egalitarian impulses than by the aristocratic beliefs of well-bred gentlemen. That day, however, was quickly waning."

In The New York Times, Jay Winik reviews Gordon Wood's Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815.

Fixing Windows

"Most of all, he continues to have the same burning need for significance, and his stock has never been higher. His old boss, Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, hails him as 'America’s top cop'; a California police official says Bratton is 'as close as there is to a deity in our business.' Even a onetime critic like Steven Levitt, who in Freakonomics disparaged Bratton’s role in New York’s crime drop--instead attributing it to the legalization of abortion--is now a believer. 'Someone who’s able to go to two different places and reduce crime dramatically in both of them? You have to give the guy some credit,' Levitt says. 'If you asked me who I’d want as police commissioner in my city, I’d say Bratton.'"

Jason Zengerle in New York wonders what is next for former New York and Los Angeles police chief William Bratton.

Shop til You Drop

"We hear a lot about recession-proof occupations--nursing, for example. These jobs are recession-proof because we can't realistically manage without them. America needs more recession-proof products, and Americans need to refocus their spending habits around those products. In contemplating a purchase, we might ask ourselves: Does it actually do something? Does it do it better than the previous version? Or does it just make me feel good to own? And: How much am I paying for amenities that aren't a part of the product's basic job description?"

In the Los Angeles Times, Steve Salerno argues in favor of a "vanity tax."

And Meghan Daum contemplates the wonders of the SkyMall catalog.

Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon interviews Joel Waldfogel, author of Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays.

"We Still Seek No Wider War"

"I will tell you the more I just stayed awake last night thinking about this thing, the more I think of it, I don't know what in the hell it looks to me like we're getting into another Korea [...] I don't think it's worth fighting for and I don't think we can get out. And it's just the biggest damned mess that I ever saw."

Bill Moyers on his PBS program presents recordings of Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and 1965 as the president decided to increase the American involvement in Vietnam.

Well, Well, Well, You're Feeling Fine

"To her surprise, patients often got greater relief from pot than from prescription drugs--and they reported no side effects. In 2007, she shut down her family practice on Sunset and went herbal all the way on Melrose. Her answer to the obvious question? Yes, the money is better."

Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times visits Dr. Sona Patel, the most glamorous marijuana doctor in L.A.

"Trapped in the Face of a Monster"

"'What I'm worried about is that you think you're going to meet your birth mother or father and they're going to love you and welcome you with open arms. But he's not that kind of person.'"

Pete Samson in The Sun interviews Matthew Roberts, who recently found out that his birth father is Charles Manson.

Populist Parties?

"This shift in emphasis is connected with the shift in the social base of the Democratic Party from the working class to an alliance of the wealthy, parts of the professional class and the poor. And progressive redistributionism also reflects the plutocratic social structure of the big cities that are now the Democratic base. Unlike the egalitarian farmer-labor liberalism that drew on the populist values of the small town and the immigrant neighborhood, metropolitan liberalism tends to define center-left politics not as self-help on the part of citizens but rather as charity for the disadvantaged carried out by affluent altruists. Tonight the fundraiser for endangered species; tomorrow the gala charity auction for poor children."

Michael Lind in Salon wonders if a populist wave will benefit Democrats or Republicans.