We are roughly a month away from another summer solstice (and less than a week away from the highly publicized NATO Summit). Take your mind off any worries and slip into a summer state of mind with these hot LA links. Note: A lot of good journalism this week keeping the liberal arts proud.
- “The Red Flag In The Flowerpot,” by Jeff Himmelman at New York Magazine. Woodward and Bernstein’s Watergate coverage is roughly four decades old, but as seen from editor Ben Bradlee’s perspective, the drama is still just as fresh.
- “Heavy Lifting: Why I Chose Manual Labor Over Making Lattes,” by Aaron Leaf at GOOD. Working with one’s hands and seeing results is inherently satisfying, and for some, it was a happy means to an end.
- “Koch Brothers’ Activism Protects Their 50-Year Stake in Canadian Heavy Oils,” by David Sasson at InsideClimate News. Retrieving any kind of information on the secretive and private Koch Industries is incredibly difficult, but David Sasson and others dig deep to try and find out why and how the Koch brothers got so heavily invested in Alberta’s dirty tar sands oil. (Note: This story just feels like the beginning. The ending is somewhat abrupt, and many questions are still left unanswered, but many times investigative journalism leads to new questions with new answers.)
- “Does Controversy Sell?” by Paul Farhi at The Washington Post. In case you missed it, both TIME and Newsweek recently unveiled controversial covers, and it begs an important question: Does today’s corporate media take a superficial and crass route to sell paper and make a buck, or do they legitimately spur people to talk about pertinent issues? Discuss in the comments.
- “I Took A Vacation Day Today,” by J. Paul Spencer at The Daily Kos. So why did Paul Spencer take a vacation day this past Tuesday? Moral ground, my friends. A great read on why we should never bow away from what we really believe in.
- “Columbia University Janitor Cleans Up With Bachelor’s Degree,” by Verena Dobnik (Associated Press) in The Los Angeles Times. The epitome of what people get out of the liberal arts, and this story could be a summary of this site. “The richness is in me, in my heart and in my head,” Gac Filipaj said. “Not in my pockets.”
- “Accidentally Released — And Incredibly Embarrassing — Documents Show How Goldman Sachs Et Al Engaged In ‘Naked Short Selling,” by Matt Taibbi at The Rolling Stone. It’s Matt Taibbi, and it involves a probe into the financial sector. Just go read it.