5 smart reads for the weekend

The ideology of gun-ownership absolutism doesn't appeal to me. Unlike hard-line gun-rights advocates, I do not believe that unregulated gun ownership is a defense against the rise of totalitarianism in America, because I do not think that America is ripe for totalitarianism. (Fear of a tyrannical, gun-seizing president is the reason many gun owners oppose firearms registration.) But I am sympathetic to the idea of armed self-defense, because it does often work, because encouraging learned helplessness is morally corrupt, and because, however much I might wish it, the United States is not going to become Canada. Guns are with us, whether we like it or not. Maybe this is tragic, but it is also reality. So Americans who are qualified to possess firearms shouldn't be denied the right to participate in their own defense. And it is empirically true that the great majority of America's tens of millions of law-abiding gun owners have not created chaos in society.

Movies — ephemeral, imaginary — have a way of sending fans in search of something real. The Sound of Music left such an imprint on Salzburg after filming there in 1964 that tours to see where Julie Andrews played "Do-Re-Mi" on her guitar still attract tens of thousands of visitors annually. In Scotland, tourism skyrocketed at the Wallace Monument following the 1995 release of Braveheart. And in Natchitoches, La., devotees continue to spend $175 a night to sleep in the Shelby Room, where Julia Roberts became a star in Steel Magnolias some 23 years ago. (Yes, it is pink.) But the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which took in over $3 billion at the global box office between 2001 and 2004, changed the film tourism game entirely. To the surprise of almost everyone, it took possession of an entire country.

Last summer, a small group of prominent foreign-policy Democrats who call themselves the Phoenix Initiative, and who first came together in early 2005 — the link between their name and Kerry's defeat should be obvious — published a report. It had the kind of aggressively bland title that is typical of such efforts ("Strategic Leadership: Framework for a Twenty-first Century National Security Strategy") and got almost no attention... The Phoenix Initiative's report was published with a brief preface by Susan E. Rice, who is one of Obama's top foreign-policy advisers and is almost certain to serve in a high government position if he wins the Presidency. Rice, a brisk, direct woman in her early forties, had worked in the Clinton Administration, first on the National Security Council and then as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and had been part of John Kerry's foreign-policy team in the 2004 campaign. The report lays out a new approach to American foreign policy, and in so doing it implicitly promises that the Democrats might be able, finally, to set the terms on national security.

The Golden Globes' always-shaky reputation took what should have been a fatal hit when fabulously untalented newcomer Pia Zadora beat out lesser actors like Kathleen Turner (for Body Heat) and Elizabeth McGovern (for Ragtime) to win the New Star of the Year Golden Globe in 1982. In a shocking coincidence, the same voting committee that objectively determined that Zadora was the top newcomer in all of the world that year (they are the Golden Globes, after all) had previously been treated by the film's producer, Meshulam Riklis — also then Zadora's husband — to a glamorous night in Las Vegas watching Zadora perform, plus a lunch and private screening at Riklis' Hollywood mansion. Bear in mind that when Zadora won the Golden Globe for Butterfly, the film hadn't even been released domestically, so if audiences knew Zadora at all, it was from her performance as a child actor in Santa Claus Conquers The Martians.

In terms of aesthetics, a raga is the projection of the artist's inner spirit, a manifestation of his most profound sentiments and sensibilities brought forth through tones and melodies. The musicians must breathe life into each raga as he unfolds and expands it. As much as 90 percent of Indian music must be improvised and because so very much depends on understanding the spirits and nuances of the art, the relationship between the artist and his guru is the keystone of the ancient tradition. From the beginning, the aspiring musician requires special and individual attention to bring him to the moment of artistic mastery. The unique aura of a raga (one might say its "soul") is its spiritual quality and manner of expression, and this cannot be learned from any book.