Friday, April 23, 2010

Friday link roundup

Infuriating
Cheering
Interesting
  • Rafe notes two ways to break news, only one of which actually leads to informing the public.

  • The Civil War can be seen as a battle with three sides, the South, the North, and African-Americans.
    What you see, as the war goes on, is a gradual, and rather amazing, process by which blacks, free and enslaved, force the North to accept the cause of emancipation as their own. The logic of the war makes it unavoidable.
    A good example of a frame that changes the way you see a wide range of events, in illuminating ways. I recommend the whole thing.

  • Washington, D.C., has to balance its desire to be a national monument against the benefits of becoming a modern liveable city...
    The monumentalist vision of Washington has choked nearly all urban life from the Mall and its environs. It has fashioned large sections of our city into pleasing vistas for tourists but has given the rest of us lifeless wastelands ... The monumental core should be the city's heart, not its parasite
    This issue arises in many different contexts, and in other cities as well.
    (via Atrios at Eschaton)

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