Partial Readings: Murdoch’s Toxic Assets

To Infinity and Beyond
Thirty feet above Manhattan, visitors took their first steps on to the High Line Park last week, proving that New Yorkers can eke out communal space even in midair. This new economy of aerial development is also evident in the rapid expansion of tax-incentivized urban rooftop gardens. Soon, you may be faced with skyscrapers of corn.

Murdoch’s Toxic Assets
“We’re not that interested in the future of Republicans or conservatives,” Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard, announced to the New York Times this week. While this certainly leaves one to wonder what he does care about, a good guess might be that he is concerned with Rupert Murdoch selling his magazine to billionaire conservative Philip Anschutz. One media investment banker suggests that Murdoch’s apparently sensible wife Wendi is embarrassed by the “winger” publication.

Israel’s Military-theological Complex
“The state of Israel may be cultivating the seeds of its own potential disintegration,” writes Gershom Gorenberg of the government-funded seminaries that combine military preparation with Talmudic study. “Orthodox soldiers and officers are taking a steadily more prominent role in the army. Many come to their service directly from institutions…that promote the theological nationalism of the settlement movement.” Adds Susie Linfield in her review of New Historian Benny Morris’s One State, Two State, “In Israel, history has no chance…of escaping politics.”

From the Department of Half-Full Glasses
David Callahan in Democracy: “The great financial crash, Bernie Madoff, predatory lenders, and easy credit–for all the pain, there is an upside: A long overdue conversation about how unchecked markets can distort and damage American society has begun.”