Monday Medley

What we read while Dwight Howard decided to become Egypt’s new President…

• More fallout at the NSA, as details of its worldwide spying apparatus continue to emerge in foreign countries and it finally faces backlash domestically. Meanwhile, the Agency’s policy of misinformation and dishonesty continues.

• Edward Snowden, on the other hand, has received asylum offers from three countries in Latin America and released a statement about his situation.

• Radley Balko on the rise of SWAT teams and the militarization of police forces.

• A history of the Voting Rights Act, after the Supreme Court’s pivotal ruling on it. Also, Erwin Chemerinsky weighs in on one of the Court’s less-discussed rulings.

• David Brooks thinks the Egyptian coup shows that Egyptians can’t handle democracy.

• An interesting critique of startup culture.

• On Richard Peaver and Larissa Volokhonsky, celebrities of the Russian translation world.

• A look back at The New Yorker when Robert Gottlieb replaced William Shawn.

• This week in oral histories: The March on Washington, in honor of its upcoming 50th anniversary.

• Is college worth it?

• On Albert Pujols.

• Ellie Kemper’s Del Close Marathon diary.

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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.

Monday Medley

What we read while intentionally walking Josh Hamilton….

• Mad Men‘s fourth season, which John S reviewed this week, concluded last Sunday, and Vulture featured a series of interviews with the show’s cast and creative team. They also wondered when Betty Draper became such a monster, and if Don disappointed his fans. Also, here’s Alan Sepinwall’s breakdown of the finale.

• One of the Tea Party’s founders tells the Tea Party to go screw itself.

• There are A LOT of people with college degrees and they do things that, you know, lesser-educated people do.

• If there’s anything more intriguing than a literary mystery, we don’t know what it is. This week: Jane Austen wasn’t as good as everyone thought! (Psh…we’ve known that for years.)

• “This site records my foolhardy attempt to illustrate Finnegan’s Wake.” We at NPI cannot express our enthusiasm for foolhardy attempts enough.

• FiveBooks recommends, well, five books for just about any subject, including, and here’s the callback, the five Jane Austen books to read.

• Our favorite Canadian magazine, The Walrus, views the travels of a bust of Lenin as a metaphor for the Soviet Union as a whole.

• With the Giants now officially in the World Series, here’s an interview with Wiley Wiggins (a.k.a Mitch Kramer in Dazed and Confused) about looking so much like Tim Lincecum.

• South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker had to issue an apology when their spoof of Inception bore too close a resemblance to Dan Gurewitch’s on College Humor. Gurewitz accepted the apology. Speaking of films John S reviewed this year: Robert Wright wondered if Mark Zuckerberg is actually a visionary.

• Simon Rich explores the intricacies of Google Dictionary.

• Finally, a shallow look into whether her run-in with Kanye West helped Taylor Swift’s career.

• How many Cam Newton highlights can Tim link to before it gets tiresome? Can he have one more? Newton’s 49-yard run against LSU on Saturday left veteran broadcasters Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson (NPI faves, btw) incredulous. The Tigers, meanwhile, are now No. 1 in the BCS standings.