What Happened to the Real Lou?

Polarizing CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is leaving the network. Just how did a respected financial-news guru turn into an immigrant-hating, birther-supporting zealot?

Source: Daily Beast
Published: Aug 1, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,441 words)

Sincerely, John Hughes

Published: Aug 6, 2009
Length: 4 minutes (1,228 words)

Ghosts of Mississippi

When I was 5 or 6, because of my dad’s political activism in the Mississippi Delta, local white supremacists burned a cross in our front yard. My parents had a decision to make: Wake me up or let me sleep. They chose sleep. On that night, hate and fear would not be passed to another generation.

Source: ESPN
Published: Aug 1, 2009
Length: 59 minutes (14,947 words)

Karzai in His Labyrinth

Hamid Karzai applauds himself for his big-tent, forgive-and-forget approach. But his opponents are thrashing him for it. “If the goal is to consolidate a group of drug dealers as the government of Afghanistan so that you have relative peace, then what is the vision?”

Published: Aug 4, 2009
Length: 38 minutes (9,667 words)

North Korea’s Dollar Store

Office 39, North Korea’s billion-dollar crime syndicate, pays for Kim Jong Il’s missiles and cognac. Why did the Bush White House choose not to shut it down?

Author: David Rose
Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Aug 5, 2009
Length: 19 minutes (4,853 words)

My Father The Dope Dealer

When I was young, we lived the high life. Then it all went up in smoke.

Source: Newsweek
Published: Aug 1, 2009
Length: 17 minutes (4,324 words)

The Only Bigmouths Were the Fish

My short, bewildering seasons covering the professional bass circuit.

Source: Slate
Published: Aug 5, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,468 words)

For Many Americans, Nowhere to Go but Down

Source: Washington Post
Published: Aug 3, 2009
Length: 18 minutes (4,730 words)

Manhood for Amateurs: The Wilderness of Childhood

The thing that strikes me now when I think about the Wilderness of Childhood is the incredible degree of freedom my parents gave me to adventure there. A very grave, very significant shift in our idea of childhood has occurred since then. The Wilderness of Childhood is gone; the days of adventure are past. The land ruled by children, to which a kid might exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the neighboring kingdom of adulthood, has in large part been taken over, co-opted, colonized, and finally absorbed by the neighbors.

Published: Jul 16, 2009
Length: 8 minutes (2,163 words)

Nate Silver to Republicans: Raise Taxes

The GOP is no longer the party of the rich. It’s a populist party now, and the deficit can be its ticket back.

Source: Esquire
Published: Aug 4, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,269 words)