22 September 2008: Afternoon

Quick, suggests Bush, pass this bailout package without scrutiny, before it's too late!

Capitalism as we have known it is no more. The free-market surrenders, and a new, regulated age begins.

Letter to Bernanke and Paulson: "My student loans are too big and it is hurting the economy. Can I have a bailout, please? I need $92,000."

Hitchens: Why is Obama so vapid and hesitant and gutless?

San Francisco wine bar no longer selling much Palin Syrah.

Hothead McCain may yet win, and he'll have "truthiness" to thank.

Wonderful Lethem piece on our failure to act responsibly or hold people accountable for their actions.

Sarah Hepola's minute-by-minute recap of the Emmys.

Chabon on "how it sounded when the first black president accepted the nomination of his party."

Loving your cage: A writer lured into a teaching position wonders what it means for a country to have "a tenured literature."

Some of the better gentlemen's instruction videos found on YouTube.

Comparison of food pornography with regular pornography.

Stephen Hawking unveils bizarre, ornamental clock that depicts time "as a destroyer."

Life in Iran can make you feel like a teenager in an eternal boarding school. Busted by Tehran's "morality police."