Slate Articles

Santorum vs. Gingrich, Komen vs. Planned Parenthood, and How Chipotle Is Like Apple

Anna Weaver — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:45:00 GMT

“The Last, Best Hope for Conservatives: Gingrich says that’s him. Then why is Santorum riding high?” by John Dickerson. After winning Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota, John Dickerson says that Rick Santorum is a conservative voter’s best hope to beat Mitt Romney to the nomination. And he says Santorum is “the lonely warrior who has triumphed without playing a soundtrack of self-regard, without the ready millions of Gingrich's gambling-magnate patron, and despite more derision from the elite media than Gingrich has faced.”

How To Make It in the New GOP

David Weigel — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:56:59 GMT

The man who would be U.S. senator is running late. Just 15 minutes or so. Nobody’s panicking. Richard Mourdock just refused to take a taxi from Reagan National Airport, and his arrival at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) depends on the whims of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. “He’s cheap!” says Diane Hubbard, Mourdock’s grassroots director. “This is how he is. It’s one of the reasons I work for him.”

Did Early Christians Practice Birth Control?

Will Oremus — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:06:25 GMT

After a backlash from Catholics, President Obama on Friday softened his stance on contraceptive coverage in health insurance plans for the employees of religiously affiliated universities and hospitals. Have prohibitions on birth control always been part of Christian dogma?

Return

Dana Stevens — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:05:33 GMT

Such is the power of Freaks and Geeks that, even though I was in my early 30s when it first aired, its young cast feels to me a decade later like people I knew and loved in high school. There’s an absurd rush of “Hey, I knew them when!” pride whenever one of the kids from that show finds a measure of success in his or her career. Unfortunately, the “hims” have found a lot more of that success than the “hers.”The entire male “freak” contingent (James Franco, Jason Segel, Seth Rogen) has gone on to stardom and the creative freedom that comes with it, while the equally talented female freaks, Busy Phillips and Linda Cardellini, have kept working without ever quite getting the chance to bust out that they deserve. (The “geeks” would require another column entirely: I for one will not rest until Martin Starr, Samm Levine, and John Francis Daly all headline their own comedies in the same programming block.)

The Mystery of the Millionaire Metaphysician

James Ryerson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:42:10 GMT

In the July/August 2001 issue of the late, great magazine Lingua Franca, James Ryerson published an enthralling article about an anonymous benefactor who was paying professors huge sums of money to review a strange 60-page philosophical manuscript. Slate editor David Plotz talked about “The Mystery of the Millionaire Metaphysician” on this week’s Political Gabfest, citing it as one of his favorite magazine articles of all time. Ryerson gave Slate permission to republish the story in full.

Bain Loves Romney, and Congress Loves Earmarks

Blair Hickman — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:34:33 GMT

Here are this week's top must-read stories from #MuckReads, ProPublica's ongoing collection of the best watchdog journalism. Anyone can contribute by tweeting a link to a story and just including the hashtag #MuckReads or by sending an email to MuckReads@ProPublica.org. The best submissions are selected by ProPublica's editors and reporters and then featured on the website and @ProPublica.

The Killer Dolphin Gabfest

Emily Bazelon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:40:03 GMT

Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there.

Go Vest, Young Man

Julia Felsenthal — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:18:00 GMT

Rick Santorum, the GOP presidential candidate from Pennsylvania, is known—as you’ve probably heard by now—for wearing a sweater vest. That sweater vest now has its own Twitter account, Facebook page, YouTube video, and fundraising campaign. The vest is everybody’s favorite fun fact about Santorum—but nobody seems to agree on what it’s actually doing for the politician (besides, perhaps, helping him to associate some new search terms with his blighted name). The range of responses to Santorum’s knitwear has been wide. Scarlett Johansson, who just declared the vest “so sad,” associates the look with her father. Griffin Perry, son of Rick Perry, tweeted that the vest reminded him of infamous sweater-vest-wearing football coach Jim Tressel. The Hartford Courant declared, perhaps prematurely, that Santorum had single-handedly transitioned the sweater vest from a neutral political status to a “right-wing vestment.” The New York Times positions the vest as grandfatherly; the LA Times prefers “avuncular.” Meanwhile, the Boston Herald went out on a limb and accused Santorum of “looking like a McDonald’s trainee.”

The Real Problem With Google’s New Privacy Policy

Thomas Gideon — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:55:06 GMT

When Google announced impending changes to its privacy policy, users and the media alike were focused on one thing: the inability to opt-out, short of deleting your account. Though Congress keeps pushing Google for more clarification, many users have grumpily acknowledged the Gmail notifications and moved to new privacy concerns like an iPhone app that copied and uploaded users' contacts.

How To Win the Westminster Dog Show

Josh Dean — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:15:00 GMT

For his new book, Show Dog: The Charmed Life and Trying Times of a Near-Perfect Purebred, Josh Dean spent more than a year following Jack, a champion Australian Shepherd. What follows is an excerpt from the book, adapted from a chapter on the world of show-dog backers. Also see our Magnum Photos gallery on dog shows.