Economist , May 2 (posted Saturday, May 2, 1998) The cover editorial predicts that Europe's single currency will lead to political confusion. The enormous, powerful monetary union will be forced to take political stands (on the Asian fiscal crisis, for example), but it's not clear how member nations will agree what stands to take. ... A story says microwaves are being used to clear minefields. Portable microwave units heat the moist earth that surrounds mines but leave the mines themselves unheated. Infrared cameras then use the temperature difference to find the buried explosives. New Republic , May 18 (posted Friday, May 1) The cover story deplores liberals' embrace of the tobacco tax. The tax 1) is regressive; 2) won't reduce teen smoking; and 3) won't be used to aid those who will disproportionately pay it. Under Clinton's plan "less than one-quarter of the cigarette-tax revenues remain for programs that help the less prosperous." ... A story wonders why we don't tax fat instead of cigarettes. While higher cigarette taxes don't convince the poor to stop smoking, studies have shown that a fat tax could convince them to buy less junk food. ... A story uncovers a weird new corporate strategy: Instead of prosecuting kids who hack their computers, businesses now hire them as security consultants. New York Times Magazine , May 3 (posted Thursday, April 30, 1998) The cover story explores a booming new industry: corporate anti-dating police. The "cupid cops," who work in human resources departments, help companies draft and enforce rules on office romance. Even consensual sex between workers of different levels can be considered sexual harassment. Just one lawsuit can empty a firm's coffers and cripple its reputation. ... A story counters the only-child myth. They aren't the maladjusted head cases we thought they were. In fact, only children suffer no self-esteem or socialization problems and have slightly higher IQs than kids with siblings. ... An Israeli participant in the 1993 Middle East peace negotiations in Oslo argues that the current chilliness between Israel and the PLO is temporary. Palestine is willing to compromise. Peace will come when both sides forge "a genuine security partnership against common enemies and a political partnership to encourage regional economic cooperation." New York Review of Books , May 14 (posted Thursday, April 30, 1998) An essay claims the left and the right now function solely in reaction to "the Reagan revolution" and "the Sixties," respectively. The right cannot understand that ordinary Americans sparked the '60s cultural revolution. The left cannot understand that ordinary Americans caused the Reagan-era shift toward anti-tax corporatism. Since these movements occurred within the same generation, they now coexist, as President Clinton's '60s morals and '80s politics attest. Young people work in a corporate world by day but play in a "moral and cultural universe shaped by the Sixties." The author urges both sides to admit defeat and move on. Time and Newsweek , May 4 (posted Tuesday, April 28, 1998) Time 's Viagra cover story praises the anti-impotence pill's power to work wonders with very few side effects. The high-minded warning: We should not reduce the marvelous complexity of human sexuality to the ability to sustain an erection. Time also asks several celebrities about the pill (Camille Paglia: "The erection is the last gasp of modern manhood.") ... Newsweek 's cover story says astronomers have witnessed the formation of a planetary system much like our own. Planets are a prerequisite for extraterrestrial life, and one astronomer now guesses "there are planets around 30 to 50 percent of stars." Time 's trend story: Krav Maga, a self-defense technique invented by the Israeli military, has become popular in American gyms. Its basic premise: Anything goes--including eye gouging and groin kicking. Newsweek studies the trio of centrist challengers for the 2000 Democratic nomination. Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey has the best organization and a heroic military background; former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley has new ideas and name recognition, but may be too airy and intellectual; dark horse Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is little-known, but he may spend heavily in the campaign (drawing on wife Teresa Heinz's $800 million fortune). ... Newsweek says African-Americans, who once thought life in Asia would be marred by brutal racism, are finding Asia less racist than America. Asians are ignorant about American blacks but not hateful. U.S. News & World Report , May 4 (posted Tuesday, April 28, 1998) The cover story says Christian radio host James Dobson may orchestrate a huge split from the Republican Party. Fed up with Republican candidates' laxity on moral issues, Dobson threatens to back a new candidate (possibly Gary Bauer). Dobson's millions of fans may follow his lead. ... A story pegged to Bill Clinton's proposal to raise the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour says the boost would neither lessen poverty nor slow the economy. The last minimum wage hike (to $5.15 in 1996) had little effect: No jobs were lost, and the poverty rate remained unchanged. Weekly Standard , May 4 (posted Tuesday, April 28, 1998) An essay argues that we must levy sanctions on China to improve its human rights. Repeating the claims of Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, the essay says China needs American business and will accede to human rights demands to keep it. ... A story says the Republican Party is in grave danger of losing its base: Americans of faith. (See U.S. News , above.) Republicans must appease their religious constituents while sticking to the tax policies demanded by their other base--Americans of wealth. ... An editorial claims Bill Clinton made the right decision on clean needle programs, but for the wrong reasons. Clinton denied federal funding for clean needles because it was politically advantageous; he should have denied funding because needle-sharing programs may actually increase AIDS rates rather than reduce them. --Seth Stevenson