The Editors

Today on TAP online: Ann Friedman argues that we could learn a lot about the realities of fighting — and perhaps avoiding — wars if we only paid more attention to the daily lives of civilians in a war zone: The news outlets that still report from Iraq rarely publish accounts of daily life there. […]

The site will be down for 15 minutes starting at 2 PM so we can get a system in place to kill those pesky spam comments on articles. If we’re out for longer than that go see the Pope or something (should be an hour at the longest). –The Editors

Dean Baker has a second installment of his new weekly roundup of economic news: Some politicians have trouble distinguishing between tax day and April Fools’ Day. After all, they both come in April — it’s so confusing. This year, Senator McCain pulled the best prank — he proposed a huge tax break for Exxon and […]

Jay Winter reviews historian James Sheehan‘s recounting of how Europe willingly shed its bellicose past: Sheehan’s focus is this passage of Europe from “garrison” to “civilian” states, the achievement that may now allow Europe to put its history in its past. The change came about through two massive political transformations after 1945. The first was […]

Prospect.org will be upgraded tomorrow to, we hope, get rid of those annoying spam comments on articles. Expect a brief outage after 2 PM EST, and, in the unlikely event things go poorly, a longer one. –The Editors

Sarah Posner on the religious right: The battle over who the “elites” are in evangelical circles, Mike Huckabee poses a challenge, Pentecostals face the ire of the IRS, and religious freedom is challenged at U.S. Air Force Academy. Read (and comment) on this week’s FundamenaList here. –The Editors

Reid Cramer says that more spending isn’t really what the economy needs: The bipartisan prescription to jumpstart the economy was to deliver over $100 billion in rebate checks back into household coffers. Once again, in times of potential peril, our leaders appear to be issuing a deafening call for Americans to continue their consumption habits […]

Sarah Posner attends last night’s Compassion Forum and finds the proceeds lacking for better moderators: If FIPL’s [Faith in Public Life] purpose is to elevate the broader interfaith agenda beyond the hot-button culture war issues, it would be well-served by sticking with religious leaders posing policy questions to candidates rather than with journalists asking absurd, […]

Kriston Capps has an update on his piece from the last print issue (now available online here) about how oil drilling threatens a rare and unique piece of art: According to Jim Springer, spokesman for the Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining, the state’s Division of Forestry, Fire, and State […]

From our April issue: Kriston Capps looks at the renewed interest in drilling for oil in Utah’s Great Salt Lake, home of Spiral Jetty, the iconic piece of Earth art which was built, coincidentally, amongst the debris of abandoned crude oil prospecting equipment: Today, as oil costs rise, even difficult extraction missions become potentially lucrative […]