Leadership Hits the Fan
When I was in junior high, my principal called me into his office to explain that I wasn’t “being enough of a leader” at school. I insisted I didn’t know what he meant. He grew increasingly frustrated, and we ended the meeting agreeing to disagree. I’m pretty sure at least one of us is vindicated by a New Yorker article that suggests that, just maybe, leadership itself is overrated. After all, we’re far more enthusiastic about the idea of leadership than about our actual leaders. Or as Joshua Rothman writes: “The glorification of leadership makes existing leaders seem disappointing by comparison, leading to an ever more desperate search for ‘real’ leaders to replace them.” Shut Up and Sit Down. Why the leadership industry rules. (I’ve got like 162 browser tabs open. So who’s leading now? Boom!)
Superfluous Tuesday
In the end, Super Tuesday did little to change the narrative of the election as both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump added a some more cushion to their leads. Bernie’s base remains solid, but his chances look weaker. Meanwhile, the GOP establishment (that has made no secret of its desire to derail the Trump train) is running out of time.
+ If we had to narrow the Super Tuesday GOP story down to one district, then maybe that district should be the Texas border town where Trump wants to build a wall.
Kim Jong and the UN
“The international community, speaking with one voice, has sent Pyongyang a simple message: North Korea must abandon these dangerous programs and choose a better path for its people.” So said President Obama as the UN approved sweeping new sanctions against North Korea. The goal of the sanctions (backed by China and Russia as well) is to get North Korean leaders back to the bargaining table.
An Unwanted Sequel
From The Atlantic: “On Tuesday, two days after a film about a massive Catholic sex-abuse scandal in Boston won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Pennsylvania’s attorney general released a grand jury report chronicling ‘staggering and sobering’ accounts of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.”
+ Reveal takes you behind the scenes of Spotlight’s reporting, provides a look at (ongoing) related scandals, and heads to Latin America on the trail of priests who fled the U.S. after being accused of sexually abusing children. The Glare of the Spotlight.
Rocking the Roe Boat
Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked some tough questions in what is “probably the most important Supreme Court abortion case since 1992.” ProPublica has a detailed reading list for the Supreme Court’s Texas abortion case.
+ Vox: Take this test to see if you know more about abortion than most Americans.
Bills and Thrills
“Almost 6,000 people fell out of the ultra-high-net-worth bracket.” Bloomberg on the many ways it’s getting harder to be one of the world’s wealthiest people.
+ You don’t have to encounter a throng of dot com zombies walking around San Francisco to realize that market forces have taken a toll on the super rich. But they keep on buying luxury items at pretty much the same pace. (Makes sense. Right now, it’s probably safer to have your money in a yacht than in the stock market.)
The Internet is Rigged
“The App Store’s middle class is small and shrinking. And the easy money is gone.” These days, the big winners in the app store are almost always the big companies. From Casey Newton in The Verge: Life and Death in the App Store.
+ I’ve been talking about this issue for a long time. Ever since we moved from the open web to the world of apps, it’s become increasingly clear that The Internet is Rigged.
Bobbing for Dylan
“Sitting in climate-controlled storage in a museum here are two more Blood on the Tracks notebooks — unknown to anyone outside of Mr. Dylan’s closest circle — whose pages of microscopic script reveal even more about how Mr. Dylan wrote some of his most famous songs.” The NYT on Bob Dylan’s Secret Archives.
An Affair to Remember
“Some people found they could be identified by their height, weight, and erotic desires.” Six months after hackers leaked the names of Ashley Madison customers, The Guardian’s Tom Lamont sifts through the wreckage: Life after the Ashley Madison affair.
+ A student steals a teacher’s phone and then sends nude photos to other kids in the school. So who is at fault? Obviously, the student right? So why is the teacher facing possible charges?
Bottom of the News
“It was impossible to hear him over Chris Christie’s eyes.” If the Internet is any indicator, the most remarkable element of Super Tuesday was Chris Christie’s Stockholm Syndrome-esque stare as he stood behind Trump at an impromptu press conference. WaPo on Chris Christie’s wordless screaming. From Buzzfeed: What was up with Chris Christie? And the many pained faces of Chris Christie.
+ Popular Mechanics: The Unlikely Birth of the Beloved Zamboni.
+ The Hollywood Reporter with the industry’s favorite movie quotes.
