Monday Medley

What we read while making nostalgic Top Ten lists…

• David Letterman, the longest running late night host on TV, announced his retirement last week. Tributes to him poured in from the rest of television, which owes him a debt of gratitude. (If you’re curious what the fuss about Letterman is about, you can watch this or this or this or this or this or this.) Letterman was also the subject of the first short story David Foster Wallace published in a national magazine.

• Michael Lewis has a new book on the latest Wall Street scam.

• Was firing its CEO for opposing gay marriage the right thing for Mozilla to do?

• Emily Nussbaum on TV shows with bad fans.

• More tales from America’s absurd criminal justice system. Meanwhile, should juveniles be on sex offender lists?

• Ralph Nader weighs in on GM’s latest safety travesty.

• Shocking! A politician who actually agrees with most Americans on pot, gay marriage, and the NSA!

• In defense of modern language.

• The latest comic book movie is an attack on the Obama kill list.

• We owe rats an apology.

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Monday Medley

What we read while passing the eye test…

• March Madness is here! Yesterday was Selection Sunday, and following such a wild regular season in college basketball, people are predicting crazy things. Kansas earned a #1 seed, and Joe Posnanski wrote about what makes Bill Self great.

• A 16-year-old was shot and killed by the NYPD last week, inspiring anger and protests on the streets of Brooklyn. Outrage intensified when the autopsy revealed he had been shot seven times, including thrice in the back. The NYPD also allegedly arrested someone for criticizing stop-and-frisk. But, hey, at least New Yorkers can still drink large sodas!

• Kickstarter.com had a breakthrough, when a potential Veronica Mars movie was funded by fans on the site in less than one day. Some criticized it as “charity” for movie studios, but others see it as a hopeful sign of the future of movies. Series creator Rob Thomas is just happy to get to make his movie.

• Seinfeld vs. The Simpsons: The ultimate sitcom showdown.

• Rob Portman, who was almost Mitt Romney’s running mate last year, came out as a proponent of gay marriage last week, after announcing that his son is gay. Some called his move selfish, since he only did when it affected his own family.

• What was the new Pope’s role in Argentina’s Dirty War?

• Jack Kerouac: Sportswriter.

• Get ready for the most depressing 10 year anniversary ever.

• Is solitary confinement worse than death?

• Brandon McCarthy believes in chemistry.

Monday Medley

What we read while President Obama’s position on gay marriage was intelligently designed…

• Twitter tried to stand up for a user’s privacy, but was blocked by the courts. Speaking of Internet policing, a look at Anonymous, the online hacker collective.

• The Intelligence Squared debate on banning college football is worth watching, if only for the spectacle of Buzz Bissinger.

• In case you weren’t paying attention: On the heels of North Carolina’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and rights for gay couples, President Obama announced his personal support for gay marriage (just as John S predicted he would do three months ago). This is one of Obama’s better flip-flops. Posner and Becker opine on gay marriage.

• The NYPD released troubling numbers on its “Stop and Frisk” policy.

• Roger Ebert likes women.

• A DFW link to more DFW links!

• How did Wall Street kill Dodd-Frank?

• NBC surprisingly renewed all of its low-rated but well-regarded comedies. One of them, Parks and Recreation, aired its season finale last week. Showrunner Michael Schur broke down the season with Alan Sepinwall. Presumably, noted sabermetrician Schur would love this spinoff.

• Brewers’ closer John Axford sums up all postgame interviews in a note.

• Mad Men paid a small fortune for the rights to air a Beatles song last week, as I’m sure John Lennon would have wanted…

Monday Medley

What we read while gays finally felt welcomed in New York…

• New York passed a same-sex marriage law last week, and President Obama’s views on the subject are now “evolving” (for anyone who believed his previous opposition was anything other than political). It looks like public opinion is finally turning, not that it should matter.

• Harris Wittels ranks the world’s best Humblebraggers.

• Louis C.K. was interviewed by Pitchfork. Josh and John S reacted to last week’s premiere of Louie.

• Joe Posnanski’s profile of presumptive AL MVP Jose Bautista.

• The New Yorker breaks down the Galleon insider trading case.

• Eamonn Brennan captured our thoughts about the NBA Draft, even before it happened.

• The culture wars in Europe, including usage of the term zeitgeist, early and often.

• Finally, the sports aesthetic links: the Bills got new (and better) uniforms, they’re officially the Winnipeg Jets, and this is a really cool graphic of MLB logos.

The Gay Marriage Conundrum

On Monday, Perry v. Schwarzenegger—the first legal challenge to the constitutionality of Proposition 8, California’s 2008 ballot initiative banning gay marriage—began in San Francisco. No matter what the outcome, the case is expected to make it to the Supreme Court on appeal.

Ironically, many liberals have been the most outspoken critics of the lawsuit, and for a very good reason: There is a very good chance that this lawsuit will not succeed. After all, 45 states have laws prohibiting gay marriage, only one court (the Iowa State Supreme Court) in the entire country has ruled against gay marriage bans, and the Supreme Court is not very fond of staying out in front of public opinion. The most famous example of the Court’s social progressiveness*—Brown v. the Board of Education—had Chief Justice Earl Warren as a champion; forgive me for skepticism, but it’s hard to imagine John Roberts going to bat for this case.