What We're Reading

Preeti Aroon

"Woman Blinded by Spurned Man Invokes Islamic Retribution" by Thomas Erdbrink in the Washington Post. In 2004, a rejected suitor dumped sulfuric acid on Ameneh Bahrami, blinding her and disfiguring her face. Bahrami, now 31, requested literal eye-for-an-eye retribution, and last month, her attacker was sentenced to five drops of the acid in each of his eyes, to be carried out whenever the judiciary decides.

Elizabeth Dickinson

"Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience." Odd as it sounds, this 513-page report, leaked to The New York Times over the weekend, is a page turner. It meticulously traces the steps leading up the Iraq War, the invasion itself, and the massively under planned reconstruction. Details and characters emerge from the chaos to paint a clear picture of how things went wrong, and where they did go right. (Keep an eye on Passport for some juicy highlights.)

Rebecca Frankel

"Faith Equals Fertility." In the Winter edition of Intelligent Life, Anthony Gottleib looks at the global geographical phenomenon of the "huddling of the faithful" explained by the fact that most people assume the religion of their parents. Noting that religious communities are growing significantly in population when compared to their non-religious neighbors, Gottleib wonders if "one might half-seriously conclude that atheists and agnostics ought to focus on having more children, to help overcome their demographic disadvantage."

Joshua Keating

"We Agree: Get Froze," by Robin Hanson on his blog Overcoming Bias. If FP ever does a "Think Again" on cryonics -- or "freezing folks in liquid nitrogen when the rest of medicine gives up on them" -- econo-blogger Robin Hanson would be the guy to write it. As a bonus, check out his post on "whole brain emulations," which prompted a lengthy discussion of robots and inequality in the comment thread.

Kate Palmer

"Marching Through Georgia." Wendell Steavenson (The New Yorker, Dec. 15). An excellent postmortem on this summer's war between Georgia and Russia, framed around a profile of the colorful Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili. My favorite bit? "Waiting for his car by the side entrance, Saakashvili was ebullient. He flipped through a copy of Newsweek with his picture in it and showed off his new watch: 'Kenneth Cole. I got it in Miami.'… He said that he didn't want to stay for the dinner after Bush's reception. 'First, they don't feed you well at this thing,' he said, 'and then they sit you next to Mugabe.'"

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