Monday Medley

What we read after knocking out Manny Pacquiao…

• Some great lists of the year’s best photographs, as well as an illustrated deck of cards for The Wire characters.

• The leaked audio of Fox News’ Kathleen McFarland talking to David Petraeus last year is sickening and revealing.

• Judd Apatow edited the first comedy issue of Vanity Fair, which featured, among other things, this oral history of Freaks and Geeks.

• The ongoing persecution of Bradley Manning continues, but most of the media, including The New York Times which benefited from his leaks, is still ignoring him.

• Joe Posnanski on breaking down the baseball Hall of Fame. Also, Will Leitch on Bob Costas.

• Everything you ever wanted to know about New York City candy shops.

• The militarization of America’s police forces, and some moral questions about the military itself.

• What happened to Google Reader?

• Why significant credit card bonuses are here to stay.

• Noam Chomsky celebrated his birthday this weekend.

• Why the fiscal cliff doesn’t really matter.

• Jay-Z on the subway.

• The worst free throw of all time.

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Monday Medley

What we read while everyone misremembered Mary Shelley’s book…

• Last week was the foreign policy debate, which spent a total of about one minute discussing the devastating secret drone program. When pressed, an Obama spokesman offered this defense of killing an American teenager. Good thing the “assassination czar” is so “priest-like.” On the other side, Robert Wright argues that Mitt Romney is more likely to start a war, and Stephen Walt analyzes the “genius” of neoconservatism.

• Is Homeland unfair to Muslims and Arabs?

• In other election news (sorry, but only 8 more days!), President Obama sat down with Rolling Stone, and Matt Taibbi responded to some of his points. Ezra Klein called Obamacare the most important issue in the election. Time wonders why climate change has essentially disappeared as an issue. And is Ron Paul the future of the American left? Finally, Mitt Romney’s homophobic past, and his differences from Mormon’s early socialist history.

• Stephen Colbert’s Playboy interview.

• Joe Posnanski on the artistry of Bob Costas.

• A touching, personal defense of euthanasia.

• Where did the myth of voter-fraud come from?

• Sexy/sexist Halloween costumes.

Penn State, Child Abuse, and Moral Standards

“What’s the fascination with this story?” The question was asked to no one in particular, just the whole room, really. It wasn’t asked in any pointed way, but just out of sincere curiosity. “It’s about football, right?”

I got the sense that most of the people in the room were not big sports fans. Of course, it wasn’t just about football. It was about football at Penn State, which was, as someone else in the room tried to explain, a well-respected institution, known for its “Grand Experiment” of emphasizing a higher ethical standard.

“Like the Catholic church?” he deadpanned, to general laughter.

“But wait,” someone else said, “isn’t Penn State like a huge party school?” It can’t really be about moral hypocrisy, or high standards, or even child abuse. We brush away stories about child abuse all the time. Really, it must be about football.

I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t sure what exactly I disagreed with. Penn State was a party school; we had seen this all before with the Catholic Church; even the culture of cover-ups at athletic departments was old news.

But at least one thing seemed wrong to me: It’s not about football.

Monday Medley

What we read while Reagan’s ghost cleaned up the mess at UC-Davis…

• In the real darkest timeline, Community was left off of NBC’s mid-season schedule, though NBC insists the show isn’t actually cancelled. Fans of the show are panicking and taking to the Internet to express their outrage. Alison Brie even showed up on The Soup (which may actually have more viewers than Community) to hype the show. The last episode of the show bore some resemblance to this recent GQ story.

• In news from the other end of TV comedy spectrum, Arrested Development has a new home!

• An in-depth look at sex education.

• States all across the country have been coordinating with federal law enforcement and barring media access and destroying books (America truly is the land of the free…) while they shut down the Occupy Wall Street protests. There’s a decent argument that this will help the movement in the long run, but don’t tell that to the elderly women and peaceful students who’ve been getting pepper sprayed. There have been questions about the police response throughout the country. Some of the most damning footage has come from UC-Davis, where some faculty have expressed outrage and are calling for the resignation of the school chancellor. Two police officers have been placed on administrative leave.

• Meanwhile, the 1% really want to pay more taxes.

• Life pokes fun at itself with its 20 worst covers.

• The tragedy at Penn State continues to unfold, with more reactions pouring in from all sorts of perspectives, including a priest’s and a whistleblower’s. Plus, here’s the full transcript of Bob Costas’ interview with Jerry Sandusky, for which he had 15 minutes to prepare.

• On the other end of college athletics spectrum, Coach K passed Bobby Knight for the most wins in Division I college basketball.

• Roger Craig pulled off possibly the coolest move in Jeopardy history in last week’s Tournament of Champions. Esquire‘s Chris Jones breaks it all down. Jones also spent a Friday in Cambridge talking craft with Gay Talese. You won’t believe what Talese takes his notes on.

• Speaking of Alex Trebek, Matthew Weiner has a bone to pick with him. Also, an inside look at the Nielsen numbers.

Mark McGwire Is Finally Here To Talk About the Past!

Mark McGwire picked a good week to publicly admit using steroids. Between the Conan/Leno stuff, the NFL playoffs, and Simon Cowell leaving American Idol, one of baseball’s most-anticipated steroid confessions almost got swept under the carpet. Almost. 

The reaction to McGwire’s admission has been surprisingly negative. I may not be the best judge of reactions to steroids, but I would have thought an unprovoked, damningly complete (since he admitted using during his record-breaking 1998 season), and heartfelt apology from someone as once-beloved as Mark McGwire would have been greeted with something more akin to a sigh of relief. After all, this revelation is not exactly stunning. At least the issue is finally out in the open.

Instead, people have picked the apology apart. The main problem with it, apparently, is McGwire’s insistence that steroids were not what made him a great hitter. This is, admittedly, pretty laughable. What is McGwire’s explanation for how he was able to hit home runs at a rate higher than anyone who has ever played the game? Well, apparently God gave him magical powers: “I truly believe I was given the gifts from the Man Upstairs of being a home run hitter, ever since…birth.” He goes on to talk about how he’s been a home run hitter at every level of play, since before he took steroids: “My first at-bat in Little League was a home run…They still talk about the home runs I hit in high school.”

This is, of course, absurd. Nobody gives a shit about McGwire’s Little League career. McGwire was not a surefire HOFer because of the home runs he hit in high school. And the fact that he hit 49 home runs as a rookie—while impressive—wasn’t enough to make some consider him the best right-handed hitter of all-time. What made Mark McGwire “Mark McGwire” were his feats of strength from 1996-99. And those numbers were undoubtedly a byproduct of the steroids he was taking.