Stay Florida, Florida.
The ever-stylish and fiendishly talented Joan Didion.
For this new James Patterson book, you’ll also get a couple nights on the town … and an explosion.
The real blame for why the West ignored the latest round of Boko Haram attacks lies here.
Author of The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven admits that, no, he didn’t actually make it to the pearly gates.
“Where the hell is the damn plow”? There are no libertarians in a Buffalo blizzard, it would seem.
Guns, gun owners, and lies everyone tells.
In the five years since Citizens United, super PACs have spent over $1 billion on federal elections, more than half of it coming from just 195 people; thanks Supreme Court!
A little corner of France, in Israel.
Print and read: Crusaders to ISIS: Why are so many so desperate to not call a thing by its real name?

Department of Weekend Reading: January 16, 2015

On January 16, 2015January 15, 2015 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

This omnivorous list of everything that Steven Soderbergh read, watched, and listened to in 2014 is a good guide to his artistic approach.
Ministry to New Order and the Beastie Boys: The greatest albums of 1989.
Mark Ronson and how Michael Chabon helped write the funk.
How could this go wrong? FAA says CNN can use their own drones.
Also: putting people who don’t believe in science in charge of … science.
After Tahrir Square and everything that followed, Mubarak may still end up going free.
More delays that you could imagine and passengers opening the emergency exits at will: Flying on Chinese airlines.
Print and read: Two academics assaulted in a parking lot realize their problems just got worse, as their attackers were cops.

Department of Weekend Reading: January 2, 2015

On January 9, 2015January 8, 2015 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

That’s it! I finally caught up on everything you guys have been telling me to watch, read, and listen to.
Get rid of the mortgage deduction; it doesn’t even help the people it’s supposed to.
Racism in Ukraine: At least it’s out in the open.
Most overlooked books of 2014.
What happened at the end of the NAACP march to Jefferson City after the Michael Brown killing: “Shoot thieves.”
Movies to look forward to (or not, see: Chappie) in the coming year.
When the Beatles were the greatest threat imaginable against Christian America.
Print and read: “Do what you love” is great career advice, for a very few.

Department of Weekend Reading: January 2, 2015

On January 2, 2015January 1, 2015 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Letting Cuban ball players sign to the MLB without having to use drug smugglers.
Thomas Piketty offered France’s Legion of Honor, refuses.
Central Park at 4 a.m., between the carousers and the dog-walkers, with only the racoons for company.
All too common: Scratch a southern conservative, find a neo-Nazi.
New Pope: Fighting modern slavery also means avoiding low-cost goods made by coerced labor.
Is Selma fair to LBJ?
Could Idris Elba finally end up as the new Bond?
Print and read: American chickenhawks and the military’s collapse into a black hole of praise.

Department of Holiday Reading: December 24, 2014

On December 24, 2014December 24, 2014 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Baldwin to Sontag and Mailer: The 10 greatest essays since 1950.
The year in photos, so far.
Moses and whether he could have parted the Red Sea without God’s help.
Catherine the Great to My Friend, Dahmer: the year’s best unproduced screenplays
The Times‘ 10 Best Books of 2014.
Lila, Boyhood, and Transparency: If everybody basically agrees, why are there so many best-of lists for 2014?
The Big Lebowski, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Rio Bravo among the films added to the National Film Registry in 2014.
A roll-call of notable 2014 obituaries.
Alamo Drafthouse stands up for, well, freedom.
The Ramones and other great Christmas songs.
Bill O’Reilly does his darn best to ruin another holiday season.
Chris Rock: “If poor people knew how rich rich people are, there would be riots in the streets.“
Print and read, bonus year-end edition: Daniel Pearl’s last story, smoking pot with David Brooks, and other selections from Longread’s best stories of 2014.

Department of Weekend Reading: December 19, 2014

On December 19, 2014December 17, 2014 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Holding torturers accountable: Pardon them.
That story about the high school students who made $72 million in stocks was pretty cool; also totally untrue.
Being smarter about Cuba, only a few decades late.
Bipartisan Cold War rhetoric and the “borderline euphoria” with which defense contractors responded to Russia’s takeover of the Crimea.
The coming year in global instability: Iraq and Afghanistan maybe unraveling; Somalia, less so.
Some reasons why Keystone may not matter anymore, and everybody can go home happy(ish).
Between Western sanctions and plummeting oil prices, life in Russia is about to get real ugly.
Even John Yoo thinks some CIA interrogators might be vulnerable to prosecution for torture.
Making kids repeat algebra might actually be a bad thing.
So how do we domesticate corporate bullies like Uber into acting like responsible humans?
Print and read: Most teachers are never taught how to teach, and other horrific oddities of the American education system.

Department of Weekend Reading: December 12, 2014

On December 12, 2014December 10, 2014 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

Five-year veteran of the St. Louis PD: “I won’t say all, but many of my peers were deeply racist.“
Here’s one way to hold the last administration and the CIA accountable for torture: Pardon them.
Not only did these guys get paid $80 million to train the CIA how to torture people, they weren’t even good at it.
So who do millionaires want to see as president?
GOP 2016: There can be only one.
How do Republicans keep outperforming Democrats despite, well, reality? Ideological homogeneity and unapologetically being themselves.
Burritos for justice.
Time bomb: Mexico’s southern region is filling up with tens of thousands of refugees who can’t get into America and can’t go home.
Print and read: The true history of Reagan’s fabled Chicago welfare queen was more violent and bizarre than previously known.

Department of Weekend Reading: December 5, 2014

On December 5, 2014December 5, 2014 By chrisbarsantiIn Omnium GatherumLeave a comment

“Oath Keepers” on the roofs in Ferguson.
It is nearly impossible to know how many people the police actually kill every year.
Centuries ago in Poland, people were sometimes buried with sickles across their necks—just in case they might have been vampires.
France gets into the ISIS fight.
Patrolling the north with Canada’s Rangers, their Native American reserve defense force.
Once upon a time, General Motors was Google, and before them…
No more Social Security checks for you Nazis.
At this office, no ugly water bottles (or anything else, really) allowed.
Print and read: The 2010 Mother Jones investigation of the Oath Keepers quasi-insurrectionist movement that recruits cops and veterans.

Chris Barsanti

Category: Omnium Gatherum

Department of Weekend Reading: March 13, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: March 6, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: February 27, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: February 20, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: February 13, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: February 6, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: January 30, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: January 23, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: January 16, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: January 2, 2015

Department of Weekend Reading: January 2, 2015

Department of Holiday Reading: December 24, 2014

Department of Weekend Reading: December 19, 2014

Department of Weekend Reading: December 12, 2014

Department of Weekend Reading: December 5, 2014