Readings and viewings to help make it look as if you’re actually buckling down to work on Monday:
- A long London Review of Books essay, “Andropov was right,” that explains why Russia’s Afghanistan adventure was doomed from the start, with obvious implications for the current moment. Also, one of the books mentioned in the essay has this great name: Afgantsy.
- John McCain’s dopey claim –– quickly shot down by the Forest Service — that illegal immigrants were setting forest fires in Arizona to send one another signals.
- The inimitable Michael Tomasky’s typically incisive explanation of the rise of inequality in America and the implications of same for Social Security finances, all based on an excellent Washington Post report from the weekend.
- An otherwise vague yet still intriguing report that happens to have this wonderful headline: “Impulsive neutrinos change their flavor.” Well, of course they do.
- A video of one minute of traffic on the 405 freeway through the Sepulveda Pass, which will soon be closed for construction for a couple of days, throwing all those cars onto terrible alternative routes through the Santa Monica Mountains and creating what those clever folks at LA Observed call “carmageddon.”
John Mecklin, writer/editor 