Peter Beinart started his talk at the Heard Museum in Phoenix with praise for Israel. Israel’s creation, Beinart said, has been a blessing for the Jewish people. It has provided a homeland and refuge for Jews from around the world, it has made Hebrew a living language, and it has bound together Jews everywhere. But “these inspiring, even miraculous, accomplishments” are under threat, for “if democracy is not the entirety of the Zionist dream, it is essential to the Zionist dream.” …
Actor Adrian Grenier sees the paparazzi as storytellers. Us Weekly editor Carolyn Davis publishes their photos to entertain. And celebrity photographer Galo Ramirez is just trying to make a living. But why do the rest of us crave photographs of Brad and Angelina’s wedding, or Jennifer Aniston’s baby bump—the two hottest “dream shots” of the moment—and what makes a great paparazzi photo? …
Even after six years of living in China, journalist James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic and author of China Airborne, can only guess where the country is going next. Life in China is characterized by unknowability about the future and contradictions in the present, Fallows told audiences at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica and at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, at an event co-presented by Arizona State University. But in the story of the country’s burgeoning aviation industry he found “a lens for all the things worth paying attention to in China,” as well as a cast of fascinating characters whose personal struggles were emblematic of the country’s larger struggles. …
With almost $500 billion in revenue in 2011, ExxonMobil is the largest corporation in America—and one of its most secretive. What goes on behind its doors, and how does it wield its enormous influence outside them? How has it weathered struggles and calamities but still managed to maintain a spot in the top five corporations in the U.S. since 1954? Speaking to a crowd at the Petersen Automotive Museum, The New Yorker’s Steve Coll, author of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, explained how Exxon has come to resemble something more like a state than a corporation. …
Why can’t the United States build a rapid transit system like China’s? Is a firmer hand needed to guide the European Union through the financial crisis? Does California’s direct democracy system need more limits? These were among the questions global political thinkers tackled in a conversation about whether democracy is too slow for the 21st century in a panel at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum as part of the Zócalo/Cal Humanities “Searching for Democracy” series. …
ArticlesFeuilletonFriday, December 3, 2010 How One Family Created Chinese America
PoetryThis week in L.A.From the green room
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