Stuff to Read (2/24/10)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

With the Olympics on, and with me blogging a bit less than usual, I have a good excuse to start what I hope to be an ongoing series here at the blog: Stuff to read.

You see, I read a lot, on any given day, that I don't end up blogging about. And so what I'll do, hopefully on a frequent basis, is link to interesting articles, reviews, stories, etc., often with a sentence or two of commentary. Some of it will be political, related to our posts here, but a lot of it won't be. And I'll try to get the co-bloggers to add their recommendations, too.

So if you're looking for stuff to read, look no further. Let's begin.

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Slate: "Spaghetti With Eyes," by Constance Casey -- An utterly fascinating look at the eel (yes, the eel), a far more fascinating creature than I thought, with migratory and reproductive patterns that are simply amazing. I'll think twice before ordering unagi again.

ESPN: "Tiger still playing by his own rules," by Bill Simmons -- You shouldn't need me to tell you to read the greaet Bill Simmons (aka The Sports Guy) regularly, but this piece is a reminder of his value as a sportswriter. Instead of fawning all over and enabling Tiger Woods like so many in the media, Simmons exposes that sham of a news conference last Friday for what it really was: more of the same freakish, manufactured BS, "a borderline train wreck," everything seeming "staged," with Tiger pathetically hiding behind the addiction excuse.

The New Republic: "The Republican Obama," by John B. Judis -- Floridian Republican upstart Marco Rubio as the new Obama? Really? Judis makes an interesting case, and it's true that Rubio "assiduously avoided endorsing any of the notions of the crackpot right" at CPAC over the weekend, but there was an awful lot not to like in that pandering speech, a lot that was borderline insane, with Rubio playing enthusiastically to the right far more than Obama ever did to the left (did he ever?), and with nothing on the left mirroring the utter insanity of the right.

Okay, that's it for this first installment of Stuff to Read. Enjoy.