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Obama's second-term crisis, sexual ethics, Al Qaeda on Twitter, and more...

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This Week on TheAtlantic.com

May 10, 2013

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Calm Down, People: Obama's Second Term Was Already in Tatters
From appointments to gun control to the budget and taxes, Washington had reverted to its gridlocked self well before the latest scandals broke.
Garance Franke-Ruta

How Twitter Is Messing With Al-Qaeda's Careful PR Machine
Individual jihadis are increasingly taking to social media with their own opinions, sparking disputes within the terrorist organization.
Tony Busch

How Colleges Are Selling Out the Poor to Court the Rich
A new report finds hundreds of schools are charging low-income students obscene prices, even while lavishing tuition discounts on their wealthier classmates.
Jordan Weissmann

What We Mean When We Say 'Race Is a Social Construct'
In a world where Kevin Garnett, Harold Ford, and Halle Berry all check "black" on the census, even the argument that racial labels refer to natural differences in physical traits doesn't hold up.
Ta-Nehisi Coates

How to Walk Away
The psychology of lost causes
Heidi Halvorson

The Ethics of Extreme Porn: Is Some Sex Wrong Even Among Consenting Adults?
A defense of consent as a lodestar of sexual morality
Conor Friedersdorf

On Criticizing China
A unified field theory on assessing goods and bads
James Fallows

So This Is How It Begins: Guy Refuses to Stop Drone-Spying on Seattle Woman
Is this legal?
Rebecca Rosen

The Great Gatsby Movie Needed to Be More Gay
Tobey Maguire plays Nick Carraway as a guileless heterosexual -- but in the novel, his sexuality's ambiguous, and he's linked to Gatsby by their shared need for deception.
Noah Berlatsky

In Focus: Harley Davidson National Rally in China
Last weekend, Reuters photographer Carlos Barria traveled to Zheijiang Province, China, to photograph the roughly 1,000 motorcycle enthusiasts who gathered for the event.
Alan Taylor

Video: The Nostalgic, Dangerous Appeal of Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps
Why Blackie Pagano risks electric shock to restore old amplifiers
Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg

Most Popular from the Magazine

1.	The Cheapest Generation Why Millennials aren't buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann

2.	What If We Never Run Out of Oil? New technology and a little-known energy source suggest that fossil fuels may not be finite. This would be a miracle--and a nightmare. Charles C. Mann

3.	Why Women Still Can't Have It All It's time to stop fooling ourselves, says a woman who left a position of power: the women who have managed to be both mothers and top professionals are superhuman, rich, or self-employed. Anne-Marie Slaughter

4.	The Touchscreen Generation Young children--even toddlers--are spending more and more time with digital technology. What will it mean for their development? Hanna Rosin

5.	How Not to Die Angelo Volandes's low-tech, high-empathy plan to revolutionize end-of-life care Jonathan Rauch

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