Is The Great Gatsby a love story?

The director has made 'a great, tragic love story', but Fitzgerald himself thought his book was more about delusion and failure

Daisy is a projection of male desires, a coquettish mirage, a collection of great one-liners – but it is also a matter of narrative expedience.

If Daisy were to be investigated in any great depth, the reader would learn too early the particulars of her and Gatsby's "romance". These are saved for the end of the book, when we learn that Gatsby, originating from a penniless Midwestern family, had courted Daisy in the hopes of marrying her, letting her "believe that he was a person from the same stratum as herself". He was subsequently sent to fight in the war and Daisy, under pressure to marry someone rich soon, married Tom Buchanan instead. The reason? "She must have her life shaped now, immediately – and the decision must be made with some force – of love, money, of unquestionable practicality – that was close at hand." And so she breaks it off: "The letter reached him while he was still at Oxford."

Blacks Surpass Whites in Voter Turnout

Last year's presidential election marked the first time since at least 1996 that African-Americans voted at a higher rate than whites or any other racial or ethnic group, data released by the Census Bureau show

Exit polls showed that Mr. Obama expanded his share of the vote among Hispanic and Asian voters, a margin that helped secure his victory in hard-fought states such as Florida. But the census study shows that voter participation among Hispanics and Asians actually fell last year from 2008, with just 48% of eligible Hispanics and 47.3% of eligible Asians casting votes. "Hispanics" appear in official forms as an ethnic category that can be any race.

Can the N.R.A. Be Beaten?

by John Cassidy

How can supporters of sensible measures to prevent the proliferation of deadly firearms hope to defeat the gun lobby?

‘Hot’ Heat Fan Who Flipped Off Noah Was Once Suspected of Killing Her Hedge-Funder Husband

She is Filomena "Phyllis" Tobias, widow of CNBC's Seth Tobias

Benghazi Is Whitewater - Not Watergate

Far from Watergate, the hearings are a fake "scandal" used against a Democratic President and Hillary Clinton.

By Frank Rich

Why are the Republicans getting so little traction with this story? After all, they have been pounding it for eight months. They believed that Benghazi was figuratively as well as literally the 9/11 of 2012, and that its fallout would usher Romney into the presidency. In fact, it barely registered as a concern in any polls. Now they believe (in Lindsey Graham’s characteristically understated judgment) that Benghazi is “every bit as damaging as Watergate,” a gateway both to the president’s impeachment and to a GOP victory over Hillary in 2016. Yet no one else does. There are several reasons: Clinton has taken responsibility for the systemic failures that occurred on her watch; Republicans in Congress have not been able to deflect their own share of the blame, the budget cutbacks that shortchanged embassy and consulate security; Susan Rice’s endlessly parsed talking points notwithstanding, no one to the left of Sean Hannity seriously believes that the Obama White House was trying to cover up a terrorist attack. But the main explanation for Benghazi’s inability to catch fire with the public has to do with the American intelligence failure that led to the original 9/11 in which 3,000, not four, Americans were killed: Bush and Cheney’s inability to heed such warning signs as the President’s Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, “Bin Laden determined to strike in US.” Many of the same voices who are pounding Obama and Clinton on Benghazi — Graham, for instance — are the same ones who defended that lapse and then cheered on an Iraq War that drained resources from the battle against Al Qaeda and the search for Bin Laden. They have no credibility.

Congress's Doomed, Misguided Attempt to Help Working Families

Why doesn't the government ask overstretched parents what sorts of policies would make their lives easier?

Did anyone actually ask American mothers what type of workplace flexibility they really need and would like to see implemented by business firms or legislated in a "working families flexibility act"? In a forthcoming book, Mothers Unite, Jocelyn Elise Crowley describes research where she does precisely that. She surveyed five national mothers' groups: Mothers and More, Mocha Moms, Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS), MomsRising, and the National Association of Mothers Centers (NAMC) to see how moms cope with role overload (too much to do at once) and role conflict (frustration when parent and worker roles collide). The 3,327 respondents were, on average, 38 years old with two children under age 18, almost equally spilt between stay-at-home and work-for-pay mothers.

In Senate, Efforts to Reshape, or Derail, Immigration Bill

By ASHLEY PARKER

Lawmakers on Thursday are considering more than 300 amendments to the legislation, keeping an eye out for “poison pills” intended to thwart the bill.

Mr. Schumer, in his opening statements, said, “We know there are many who want to kill this bill,” but urged his colleagues to “be constructive.”

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, in his opening remarks acknowledged that the Democratic majority had the power to vote down Republican amendments, but implored his colleagues to consider all measures with an open mind.

Defense system failed in Boston, Lieberman says

Sari Horwitz

Former senator Joseph Lieberman says the FBI and Homeland Security have many questions to answer about efforts to investigate bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev before the attacks.

“To put it bluntly, our homeland defense system failed in Boston,” Lieberman said in a written “statement for the record” submitted to the committee. As a senator, Lieberman introduced legislation that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

McCain's Right: We Should Have Heard From Gregory Hicks

Steve Clemons

A twist in the Benghazi debate. 

Are Single People More Resilient Than Everyone Else?

For decades, social scientists have been predicting that getting married makes people happier and healthier. The media has been persuaded, and has blithely perpetrated singlism and matrimania. A close look at the findings, though, shows that single people fare far better than theories or mythologies have led us to expect. What are we not understanding about single life?

In California, Push for College Diversity Starts Earlier

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

States that have outlawed affirmative action in college admissions, like California, are giving potential applicants a leg up for overcoming disadvantages.

The University of California, Irvine, spends $7 million a year on preparing poor and minority high school students for college. 

California was one of the first states to abolish affirmative action, after voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996. Across the University of California system, Latinos fell to 12 percent of newly enrolled state residents in the mid-1990s from more than 15 percent, and blacks declined to 3 percent from 4 percent. At the most competitive campuses, at Berkeley and Los Angeles, the decline was much steeper. Eventually, the numbers rebounded. Until last fall, 25 percent of new students were Latino, reflecting the booming Hispanic population, and 4 percent were black. A similar pattern of decline and recovery followed at other state universities that eliminated race as a factor in admissions.

U.S. and Russia Plan Conference Aimed at Ending Syrian War

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and RICK GLADSTONE

Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia jointly intensified pressure on Syria’s combatants to settle a conflict that has killed more than 70,000.

The announcement appeared to signal a strong desire by both countries to halt what has been a dangerous escalation in the conflict, with evidence of chemical weapons use, a surge in the number of civilians fleeing combat and a refugee crisis that is overwhelming Syria’s neighbors. Israeli aerial attacks this past weekend on suspected munitions sites in Syria heightened and further complicated the tensions in the region. 

Here's how to pay off your student loans quickly

Antibiotics 'could cure back pain'

Plane crash at Madrid air show

Pentagon Study Finds Sharp Rise in Military Sexual Assaults

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER 

The problem of sexual assault in the military came into unsparing focus on Tuesday as the Pentagon released a study estimating that 26,000 people in the military were sexually assaulted in the 2012 fiscal year, up from 19,000 in the same period a year before.

Ohio Abduction: Possible Psychological Impact

Three women believed to have been abducted as teenagers have been found alive in a house in Cleveland, Ohio. It is possible to envisage one or all three of the women suffering from an apparently paradoxical psychological reaction that the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot baptized "Stockholm Syndrome."

In Praise of Nate Robinson, the NBA Playoff Scene-Stealer

Kevin Craft

The 5'9" Chicago Bulls point guard won't be the most valuable player in the NBA postseason, but thus far, he's its most entertaining. 

A Man's Drive for Muscularity and His Views about Women

The drive for muscularity reflects a man's desire to fit the cultural ideal of men as strong and dominant. New research shows that the men most dissatisfied with their body images are also most likely to feel negatively toward women. Whatever your gender, you can benefit from rethinking your views about male-female roles, and in the process more fully accept your own body.

Is Technology Making Us Stupid (and Smarter)?

Technology makes life more complex and simple at the same time, which makes us both smarter and dimmer.

Two Strengths that Together, Reduce the Risk of Suicidality

Brand new research on resilience. What two strengths in combination decrease the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors?