Sunday roundup

Georgia (Republic of) has come a long way, but there are still disasters. Like the criminal justice system.

Also not functioning at optimal competence: Cambodia's tribunal.

A new book on the roots of the Vietnam war.

The metro DC region's biggest polluter is shutting down.

Steve Pearlstein gives voice to the job creators.

Some of the women who got us here. And yet, we're still in no way the richer sex. Here's why the man-crisis theory is appealing but false:

If the ascent of women has been much exaggerated, so has the descent of men. Men’s irresponsibility and bad behavior is now a stock theme in popular culture. But there has always been a subset of men who engage in crude, coercive and exploitative behavior. What’s different today is that it’s harder for men to get away with such behavior in long-term relationships. Women no longer feel compelled to put up with it and the legal system no longer condones it. The result is that many guys who would have been obnoxious husbands, behaving badly behind closed doors, are now obnoxious singles, trumpeting their bad behavior on YouTube.

How marketers convinced people they were better off medicated.

I took part of Parade's version of the citizenship test for fun. Someone has a sense of humor: one of the options for "what was the US most concerned about during the Cold War" was "climate change."


I hear this argument, but I'd still encourage anyone cycling in DC to wear a helmet. It is an issue with bike-share programs--we were just talking about that--but maybe bike-share stations should have lockers with helmets? Bring your own shower-cap if that makes you queasy, until they develop a sanitization system.

Patti LuPone calls out unwittingly obnoxious audience members.

Does Maureen Dowd's column have a point other than to tell the world that she's friends with André Leon Talley.

The other week's Style Invitational (scroll down to Report from Week 986) is not bad.