#Fridayreads/12-30, ‘Field Gray’ by Philip Kerr, a Bernie Gunther Novel

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#Fridayreads Philip Kerr’s Field Gray, a Bernie Gunther novel featuring the detective who’s navigated the amoral world of Berlin before, during and after WWII in seven magnificent books. The latest has especially brilliant plotting, w/the narrative taking Gunther and his memory through all the war years as he endures harsh interrogation from Yanks who arrest him in Cuba in 1954. I find inflections of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib in the book. Kerr is a master. If you’ve never read a Bernie Gunther novel, I urge you to begin the series. March Violets is the first, and I do recommend you read them in order, though one could also just start with Field Gray.

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Verizon’s Quick U-Turn a Sign of Anti-Corporate Energy

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I love how rapidly Verizon caved on their plan to charge subscribers a $2 fee for processing certain kinds of monthly payments. As reported in the New York Times, reactions from customers, communications industry watchdogs, and FCC officials ranged from outrage to threats of investigations. The recent campaign that made Bank of America drop its proposed $5 debit card fee took a few weeks to reach its goal, while this explosion of anger at Verizon was over in a scant 24 hours. This says something about the anti-corporate mood prevalent in the U.S. right now, thanks to the #OWS movement. Only at their peril do companies blithely try putting anti-consumerist policies into place. GoDaddy’s loss of subscribers over their support for SOPA, which I posted about last night, is another example of the same impulse in the consumer zeitgeist.

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Mitt Romney’s Nixonian Non-Transparency

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Josh Marshall at TPM is definitely on to something here–Mitt Romney and his campaign are willing to put up with reporters asking embarrassing questions about his refusal to release his tax returns, probably because what’s in them is even more embarrassing, and potentially damaging, than all the pesky questioning they’re getting and will continue to get for the foreseeable future. Invoking the “Buffet Rule” Josh points out that Mitt’s tax rate has likely been at the effective capital gains rate of 15% for years and not the rate about twice that paid by ordinary wage-earners. // more

Late update from TPM: A weird remark by one of Mitt Romney’s many sons, Matt–suggesting the Romney campaign may release Mitt’s tax returns once President Obama discloses his grades and birth certificate–has given Mayor of Minneapolis M.T. Rybak, DNC Vice-Chair, an opening to hit Romney over his lack of transparency. “It’s a bad joke that the Romneys think they can repeat a lie to distract from his failure to be honest about his income.”

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Stay With GoDaddy for Influence, or Ditch ‘Em?

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TPM’s IdeaLab has a very thorough analysis covering the controversy buffeting web hoster GoDaddy in the past week. Until today they’d been supporting the controversial SOPA bill that failed as Congress ended its recent session. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been criticized by netizens who fear it will just allow large content owners to dominate the streams of […]

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Count Me Among the 8M NY Times Subscribers Receiving Screwy Email

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The Times hasn’t adequately explained how such an enormous screw-up could have occurred, and their attempts at damage control have been as insufficient as the original email was incorrect. Just as I noted the headline above was misleading, so too was the Times’ first report on the incident. On Twitter they reported, “If you received an e-mail today about canceling your New York Times subscription, ignore it. It’s not from us.” A few hours later they had to admit this too was wrong; the message hadn’t been spam, it really had come from the newspaper. Reflexively blaming spam for the transmission of an email to 8,000,000 readers, when it was supposed to go to 300, is bad form. // more

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The Broken Bones of Mona Eltahawy

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As Mona Eltahawy points out in this essay for the Guardian, her first extended article since the beating she suffered on Nov. 23, “Bashar al-Assad’s henchmen stomped on the hands of famed Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat. Our dictators tailor wounds to suit their victims’ occupations.” In one of her first tweets after Mona was freed she wrote, “The whole time I was thinking about article I would write; just you fuckers wait”. Here it is then. I urge you to read Ms. Eltahawy’s essay and follow her on Twitter. Hers is a brilliant, brave voice. // more . . .

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#Fridayreads/Dec. 23

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#fridayreads Just finished reading one of Archer Mayor’s great Joe Gunther mysteries, ‘The Ragman’s Memory’ and listening to compelling audiobook of ‘The Psychopath Test: Inside the Madness Industry’ voiced by author Jon Ronson. Now moving on to read his ‘Men Who Stare at Goats.’ Ronson’s a great reporter w/obsessive interests that mirror my own.

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Why Did NYC Let Time Run Out on the Old Penn Station?

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How did New York ever countenance the demolition of this splendid building? As an urbanite and a train enthusiast, it hurts my heart to view these photos and contemplate what we lost when the old Penn Station was pulled down for a miserable modern building. H/t to Dina Spector for publishing her article with these beautiful photographs.

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