Economist , March 6 (posted Saturday, March 6, 1999) The cover story warns that cheap oil, though a boon to consumers, could bankrupt the poor and politically unstable nations that produce it. ... The magazine diagrams the current Chinese-American diplomatic impasse. The United States berates China for human rights abuses and illicit transfer of defense technology; Chinese officials see U.S. policy as inconsistent and hypocritical--President Clinton has sent mixed messages about Taiwan and most favored nation status. ... A piece describes the monuments Saddam Hussein has erected to himself. One is made from a fallen American missile melted down and remolded in the image of agonized Western leaders groveling at Saddam's feet. New Republic , March 22 (posted Friday, March 5, 1999) A profile accuses Christopher Edley--the president's premier policy adviser, operative, and ghostwriter on race--of being doctrinaire and intolerant of dissent. He single-handedly closed the discussion on class-based affirmative action and excluded conservatives from the president's race initiative. ... Prostate cancer screenings are now de rigueur for men, says a piece, but they may lead to premature and overaggressive surgery. The operations are often deadlier than the cancer itself. ... The cover story calls CIA Director George Tenet an energetic, clever, and appealingly iconoclastic leader but questions his--or anyone's--ability to reform the stumbling agency. ... A review savages Barbara Kingsolver and Anna Quindlen: Their writing is heartfelt, but their politics are naive and their use of emotion is cheap. New York Times Magazine , March 7 (posted Thursday, March 4, 1999) The magazine's special shelter issue, titled "The Human Habitat," self-consciously departs from glossy, expensive interior-decorator culture. The opening essay rejects overdesigned sleekness for the "flowing, tangled" realism of everyday mess. Short pieces feature a family farm in India, repossessed houses in the Los Angeles suburbs, and the many uses of storage lockers. There's even a special section ("Making the Most of It") devoted to the poor, portraying struggling-but-content families, living in a $30-a-month Tennessee mountain shack and in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. A photo spread depicts how people have made various unlikely settings--including missile silos, water towers, and mausoleums--into cozy and functional homes. Time and Newsweek , March 8 (posted Tuesday, March 2, 1999) Time 's peculiar cover story announces and names the new "femaleist" movement: biological feminism based on new research showing that women's bodies are "tougher, stronger, and lustier" than stereotype dictates. According to femaleism, ancient women hunted along with their male mates, the clitoris is anatomically superior to the penis, and menstruation is an expression of "primal female power." The story is oddly competitive, keeping score between the genders on strength, agility, and aggression, and mischievously wondering "which sex should rule." Photographs of scantily dressed, genetically gifted women illustrate it. A sidebar traces political attitudes toward women's bodies, from Margaret Sanger to ... Cybill Shepherd. It's a big week for women's health at Newsweek , too. Its "Health for Life" supplement gives practical, soothingly written advice on a long list of women's health concerns, from familiars such as pregnancy and breast cancer to perimenopause (pre-menopausal hormonal irregularities) and hormone replacement therapy. Newsweek 's regular issue is devoted to Americans at war. The introductory essay argues that war has been the central influence and organizing principle of the 20 th century. The bulk of the magazine is given to firsthand narratives by veterans and others. A sampling: The founder of the Navy SEALs recalls his near-drowning at Guadalcanal, David Halberstam describes the military's spin apparatus in Vietnam, and Nancy Reagan reminisces about the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit. Time prints a quick and dirty guide for rebel groups who aspire to statehood. From Chechnya to Kurdistan to Quebec, independence is achieved through television, luck, and location, location, location--no way for far-flung East Timor, maybe for European Kurdistan. U.S. News & World Report , March 8 (posted Tuesday, March 2, 1999) The grim cover story explains why depression is so hard to treat effectively: Insurers won't pay for the trial-and-error process of finding the right medication, and the disease is still mistaken, even by its victims, for everyday doldrums. The cover promises new treatments, but the story inside says very little about them. ... A piece asks if Saddam Hussein is finally losing his marbles--or at least his judgment. Unsettled by sanctions, riots, and the West's steady bombing, the dictator has been firing military brass and assassinating clerics. ... An article describes how American personal-injury lawyers thronged to Nairobi after the U.S. Embassy bombing, convincing Kenyans to sue both the U.S. government and Osama bin Laden. The New Yorker , March 8 (Posted Tuesday, March 2, 1999) A profile of Goldman Sachs argues that the investment house is a mirror of capitalism itself. The firm's decision to go public was driven by unbridled individual greed and represents the demise of the long-term, group-oriented thinking that spurred the firm's original success. One telling detail about the firm's legendary emphasis on teamwork: Employees have constant access to a database where they can input evaluations of their co-workers' performance. ... Two men--brothers, English professors, and gambling addicts--unrepentantly describe how they blew their inheritance at Mississippi blackjack tables. ... A writer finds head-spinning confusion at the National Archives, where librarians are straining to keep up with the antiquatedness of old technologies and the information sprawl caused by new ones. For example, a 1989 court case requires all federal agencies to archive their computer files and e-mails, but it took the Archives over two years just to copy the records of the Reagan White House. And even those records "are gibberish as they currently stand," sighs one former Archives librarian. Weekly Standard , March 8 (posted Tuesday, March 2, 1999) The lead editorial pleads with the media to pursue the Juanita Broaddrick story. ... The cover story opines that Bill Bradley should be the Democratic nominee for president, because he's smart, principled, and destined to lose. Whereas Republicans would have to play hardball to beat Al Gore, Bradley is a "listless and uninspiring" candidate who could be vanquished quietly and nobly. ... An article sings the virtues of "alternative country music," which is authentic and religious. Big-name country artists have forsaken the form--not only for filthy lucre, but also because mainstream success helps them "lose the sense of inferiority they've had since Appomattox."