TOP READS THIS WEEK
FLASHBACK
Guns and the Second Amendment
The Supreme Court has struck down a D.C. ban on private handgun ownership. A collection of Atlantic writings debates the true intentions behind the Second Amendment and the safest approaches to firearm ownership. read more
Atlantic Voices
by Matthew Yglesias
“I'm a Jewish liberal from New York City so naturally I grew up to believe in gun control. Crime is bad, gun crimes are deadly, gun enthusiasts are weird, the NRA should get off our backs. I changed my mind on the subject because I started reading Mark Kleiman, who's also very much the sort of person who'd be for gun control...”
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Video
Where Ideas Come From
Filmmaker David Lynch and folk-rock icon Donovan reflect on the creative process. (Also, read "The 11 1/2 Biggest Ideas of the Year" in the July/August Atlantic, and submit your own nominations for most important ideas of the year. Some submissions may be included in part or in full in a future issue of the magazine.)
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Atlantic Voices
by Megan McArdle
“Sure, sexual manipulation often works; pick your favorite economic or neurobiological model, it will probably be effective....”
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BIRTHDAYS
Transcripts of a Troubled Mind
The short, sad life of Breece D'J Pancake (b. June 29, 1952), whose writings in The Atlantic brought to life the dissipated Appalachian world in which he was raised.
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Atlantic Voices
by Jeffrey Goldberg
“It was dirty and ill-kept, the bathroom was about as clean as the men's bathroom in Penn Station was in 1974 (I remember that bathroom, that's how crappy it was), and the employees appeared just as down-and-out as the customers... ”
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Atlantic Voices
“I think that it will be best for China, the world, the athletes, the spectators, and the Olympic Movement itself if the Beijing games come off as a big success. No one will benefit if China feels disappointed or under-appreciated about how these years of work ultimately pay off... But I am getting a bad feeling about the buildup to these events...” read more
Atlantic Current
Obama and the Evangelicals
“If Obama wants a historic mandate, rather than a narrow win—if he wants to cut the heart out of the GOP coalition and leave the Republicans for dead—then breaking with his party's abortion orthodoxy to go hard after the evangelical vote is one obvious way to do it.” read more