Hump Day Reading #4

Welcome to the fourth issue of Hump Day Reading, where I compile a small collection of links to letters, blog posts, articles, opinions, columns, videos, and pictures for your intellectual enjoyment.

Feedback is always welcome!

- Probably the single greatest paragraph that I have seen all week. This is all you need to know. No Marxist conspiracy, no Randian handouts to "moochers", just a radical failure and degradation of the relationship between business and government.

- Following in that vein, I wrote about Ayn Rand and new Republican Veep nominee Paul Ryan. This article is hilarious, and goes much further than I did.

- A Dutch study of childhood education is being recommended as a model for New Zealand reforms. Sounds brilliant to me, and I may follow up with a piece of my own.

- Props to The New Inquiry for pointing this out. To those of you who think that film criticism is overwrought - you ain't seen nothing yet. Brilliant analysis of some brilliant films.

- Literary criticism was once the bread and butter of serious writers, but in a digital age, are we falling behind on the culture of reviews?