Monday Medley

What we read while wishing our Dads a happy birthday…

• Eli Saslow’s Washington Post piece on the Barton family in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting is everything a newspaper piece should be: In-depth on multiple levels on a story that needs to be told, it also exercises an admirable authorial restraint. Saslow is quick becoming a writer whose every word should be read.

• Some Edward Snowden fallout: Polling indicates most Americans support Snowden’s leaks, and he has several notable defenders. Still, certain journalists are uneasy with him, and there has been predictably harsh backlash. His girlfriend, at least, is not happy. Meanwhile,  other leakers have backed up his story and even indicated things are a lot worse.

• Perhaps lost in all the discussion of the leaker are the leaks themselves. Here are some reasons why the information about the NSA and PRISM and the cyber-targets is so dangerous, and why citizens should be upset. David Simon had an exchange with Clay Shirky on the program’s impact. Of course, Hollywood warned us.

• Patton Oswalt writes about rape jokes, comedy thieves, and heckling.

• So it turns out Derek Jeter is actually clutch. Even though clutch players don’t exist. In other baseball news, an interview with Ken Singleton and Jonah Keri on the inflated value of closers.

• A very sickening survey about college sexual assaults.

• George Packer on Silicon Valley’s politics, or lack thereof. In other class news, everyone is poor now (though a court ruling on paying interns might help). And Bank of America lied to homeowners looking for foreclosures.

• The Star-Ledger‘s Andy McCullough, already one of our favorite baseball writers, shows his range with this heartfelt post on his late father.

• The war behind Call of Duty.

• Here comes the Del Close Marathon.

• Pete Carroll thinks 9/11 was an inside job.

Monday Medley

What we read while the government spying- NEVERMIND EVERYTHING’S FINE!

• So you may have heard about a few government leaks last weak, including a court order to Verizon for millions of phone records of American citizens, a program called PRISM that allows the NSA to monitor computer activity, and a government order of possible targets for a cyber attack. They caused a bit of a kerfuffle: Though elected representatives think anything goes when it comes to terrorism, many citizens for some reason think the ability to monitor who calls whom, when, and from where might be a breach of privacy and not just troubling but even “obscenely outrageous,” since it is exactly what a totalitarian dictator would want. David Simon, who wrote a whole television series about government surveillance, thinks we should have seen this all coming.

• The Internet companies implicated in the leaked documents rushed to issue denials, though they were carefully worded and other evidence points to their complicity. The result is a massive surveillance system built by Bush and Obama that spans the entire globe. In a quirk of timing, Julian Assange had just penned an attack on Google’s stated “Don’t Be Evil” mission. Meanwhile, the claims that these programs save lives seem dubious.

• All of this only underscores the importance of whistleblowers in this era of government secrecy. The hero who leaked all this information actually came forward: His name is Edward Snowden (“There, there”) and, though he will likely face extreme punishment if he is not granted asylum, he felt the public’s right to know trumped his personal well-being.

• Speaking of invasions of privacy, the MLB is looking to suspend up to 20 players based on the dubious evidence obtained in the investigation of Biogenesis. Why baseball continues to go so vigilantly after suspected steroid users is a little puzzling, but probably has to do with Bud Selig’s concern for his own legacy. And it’s important to remember that not everyone involved is as hated as A-Rod.

• People in other parts of the country talk weird.

• An absolutely crushing story from Eli Saslow on mourning in Newtown.

• Is recycling actually bad?

• This week in oral histories: The sexual history of the UCB Theatre. And did ESPN kill oral histories with this instant oral history of Tony Parker’s shot at the end of Game 1 of the NBA Finals?

• Everything you need to know about Pretty Little Liars in advance of Tuesday’s season premiere.

Monday Medley

What we read while wondering where they found this Jaden Smith kid…

• Last week was Spelling Bee week, and as if John S didn’t love the Spelling Bee enough, they made an Arrested Development reference.

• A new lobbying group that can stand up to the NRA. Of course, handguns might not be the cause of America’s high murder rate anyway.

• Where the atheists live!

• As tornadoes struck Oklahoma again, native Oklahoman Ben Montgomery delivers a story from the scene.

• Is Megan Draper going to die?

• This week in troubling criminal justice stories: How three pacifist protestors became “terrorists” and 10 facts about racial injustice in prison. On a somewhat related note, fire Eric Holder.

• Against intervention in Syria (no matter what The Onion says).

• Bradley Manning and Amnesty International.

• The heaviest sixth grade metal band ever.

• Ever wanted to see 42 takes of one scene dissected?  Here you go.

• On Nassau Coliseum.

Monday Medley

What we read while waiting until midnight PACIFIC time…

• Season Four of Arrested Development went online at 3 AM EST yesterday, ending our long national nightmare of no new episodes of Arrested Development. But did fans binge-watch, or savor the new episodes as Mitch Hurwitz recommended? Hurwitz did the press tour to promote the show’s new episodes, and thank the fans for bringing it back. The cast also made the rounds.

• In other comedy news, Michael Schur talks about his new pilot getting picked up, and a history of Stella and the Internet comedy boom.

• The trials of the cop speaking out on stop-and-frisk.

• President Obama gave a speech about the war on terrorism, after acknowledging that four Americans have been killed in drone strikes. There was some to like in the speech, but it remains to be seen what, if any, actions will follow. The ACLU is not a fan.

• You might be a liberal imperialist if…

• This week in oral histories: The 2003 World Series of Poker.

• WikiLeaks is not happy about the new movie about WikiLeaks.

• How to fix Mad Men.

• A map of every place Bob Dylan ever sang about.

A Problem with Series Finales

In case you somehow missed it, The Office aired its series finale last week. Now, I’m on the record with my problems with that show, and fans seemed to like the finale a lot, so I won’t rain on their parade with my criticisms of it. But it brought to mind a problem I have with series finales in general: It really bothers me when characters in TV finales act like they know they’re in a TV finale.

This is a very common problem, especially with comedies. Plot-driven shows can spend their finales concluding whatever series-long arcs it has been developing: (Spoilers) The Sopranos settled Tony’s war with New York, Battlestar Galactica found “Earth,” Lost explained the Island (kind of), etc. But shows that are more character-driven end up filling the time with a lot of “finale talk.”

Monday Medley

What we read after deleting the AP from our contacts…

• The Obama Administration seized two months’ worth of phone records from the Associated Press, ostensibly to investigate a leak in Yemen. Understandably, reporters did not like this infringement on freedom of the press, citing the “horrific chilling effect on journalism.” The law behind the seizure is tricky (and may be changing), but the dangerous effects are already clear.

• Every recurring joke in Arrested Development.

• Angelina Jolie had a preemptive double mastectomy and spoke out about BRCA.

• How are the Yankees winning?

• A goodbye to Barbara Walters.

• What is “terrorism”? Does Benghazi count? And how does radicalization happen?

• The future of online education.

• Jaron Lanier on the Internet and the middle class. Also, a review of Lanier’s new book and other Internet partisans.

• Here’s what OWS is up to lately.

Against Student Loans

Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the few American politicians willing to challenge the current financial system, has introduced her first bill in the US Senate. With student loan rates set to double from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1, the Bank on Student Loan Fairness Act would temporarily reduce those rates to 0.75%, which is the same rate that banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve.

There’s certainly something nice about the symbolism of this bill: Highlighting the discrepancy between the rates offered to financial institutions and rates offered to students investing in an education illustrates the inequities of the financial system. When Senator Warren frames it as a choice between students and banks, it’s clear which side you should be on. And since the bill has no chance of passing, that symbolism is important. But the spirit of the bill is misguided, because the problem with student loans is not that they are too expensive, but that they are too cheap.