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Articles

Harper’s Index

Percentage change since 2010 in the per-pound cost of a Thanksgiving turkey : +22 Portion of the total U.S. corn crop that goes to make ethanol : 2/5 Estimated number of chickens killed after…

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How We Became Israel

By Andrew J. Bacevich, from the September issue of The American Conservative. Bacevich’s article “Glory Days” appeared in the June issue of Harper’s Magazine. Peace means different things to different…

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All the Rage

In the political contest now entering its final few weeks, there are numerous issues great and small being debated by the candidates. But there is only one Issue before the…

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The Entitlement Crisis That Isn’t

At September’s Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton roused his party when he said that Republicans, having left Barack Obama with a “total mess,” were now complaining that the president hasn’t…

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Guerrillas in the Mix

From comments posted on YouTube about a rap video released in September by the Colombian guerrilla group FARC. The song describes their upcoming peace talks in Cuba and Norway with…

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Notes From Underground

From a May 23 expert-witness statement submitted as evidence in the trial of three members of the Russian activist collective Pussy Riot, who were sentenced in August to two years…

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The Cake Killer

From “ ‘Being There’ in Toronto,” a May 3, 1987, speech by Jerzy Kosinski. Oral Pleasure, a collection of Kosinski’s speeches, essays, and interviews, edited by Barbara Tepa Lupack and Kiki…

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Ceci n’est pas une poop

From the 2011 testimony of Ira Isaacs, who was found guilty of obscenity in April, on charges relating to four videos he distributed through his company Stolen Car Films. Michael…

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Give Bleach a Chance

From a 1979 letter by John Lennon to a laundry in New York City, where Lennon lived with his wife, Yoko Ono. The John Lennon Letters was published by Little,…

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Piggy Bank

From a June 8, 1972, letter by William Styron to Frederick Exley, the author of A Fan’s Notes, who was a guest lecturer at the University of Iowa that year.…

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Renaissance Man

From an interview with Paul Hudert, a juggler who performs under the name Paolo Garbanzo at Renaissance faires and with the Flying Karamazov Brothers, by Rachel Lee Rubin, an American…

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Color Correction

From a message posted in July by Victoria Foyt on the website for her young-adult novel Revealing Eden: Save the Pearls Part One, which Foyt describes as a “sci-fi fantasy…

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Fright of the Navigator

From messages sent to NASA’s “Ask an Astrobiologist” Web page. David Morrison, who responds to the questions, has received more than 5,000 messages related to “Doomsday 2012” and the planet…

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Street Meat

From the press release of a performance held in July at Allegra LaViola Gallery, in New York City. Artist Laura Ginn and Allegra LaViola Gallery proudly present Tomorrow We Will…

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Ali-Baba

By Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, from her collection of stories There Once Lived a Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, and He Hanged Himself, to be published in February by Penguin. Translated…

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How to Rig an Election

The G.O.P. aims to paint the country red

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A Brief Period of Rejoicing

Never mind the European meltdown, here’s the Olympics!

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Letters

Paper Routs In “The Only Game in Town” [Report, September], David Sirota unjustly mentions an old publisher of Philadelphia’s two dailies in his catalogue of newspaper owners who use their…

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The Invisible Stimulus

In search of what Obama built

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December 2012

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