Economist , May 31
(posted
Saturday, May 31)
The
cover editorial and article confront the problem of "the disappearing taxpayer." Tax
revenues will fall worldwide because companies can move to avoid levies, and
because electronic commerce is virtually impossible to tax. The remedy: Raise
taxes on consumption and property, which are easy to track, while cutting
corporate and income taxes. An 18-page survey pegged to the EEC's
40 th anniversary claims that the European Union is suffering from a
"mid-life crisis." Citizens have lost confidence in it. Instead of pressing
forward as planned with currency union, the organization should take a respite
until popular trust returns. An alarming article warns that
antibiotic-resistant bacteria have arrived. Unfortunately, drug companies are
not developing new antibiotics to fight the drug-resistant bugs, so they may
spread unchecked.
New
Republic , June 16
(posted
Friday, May 30)
The
six-story cover package, "Africa Is Dying," is as gloomy as its headline. Among
the lowlights: An article contends that the much-touted new African leaders
(Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, Congo's Laurent Kabila) are as
tyrannical as their predecessors. A long review of a book about Nigeria's
decline concludes that that west African nation, like the rest of the
continent, has nothing to offer the modern world: Its labor is unnecessary, its
commodities are expensive, and its government is monstrous. Henry Louis Gates
Jr. describes returning to Africa 25 years after his first visit: He is stunned
by the squalor. Also, a piece on the Paula Jones decision warns that the
continuing Clinton investigations are undermining the integrity of the
executive branch.
New
York Times Magazine , June 1
(posted
Friday, May 30)
The cover
story is a week in the life of five Muscovites--a real-estate mogul, a
Playboy Playmate, a baker, a pianist, and a pensioner. The point: Moscow
is the most exciting city in the world, "brasher than New York, faster than
Tokyo." Typical scenes: The baker is visited by his mob "protection"; the mogul
spends $2,000 for lunch; the pensioner scavenges bottles to make ends meet.
"Kenneth Starr, Trapped" finds the Whitewater prosecutor engaged in an
impossible task: Unable to indict the president or the first lady, he'll find
it difficult to close the investigation. The case demonstrates the shortfalls
of the independent-counsel statute. Also, a writer complains that all computers
look the same, and that all are ugly: He proposes six alternative designs,
including the "Trellis" and the "Odeon."
Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report , June 2
(posted
Wednesday, May 28)
Computer doomsaying from
both magazines. Newsweek 's cover story, "The Day the World Crashes,"
predicts disaster on Jan. 1, 2000, when computer clocks will fail to recognize
the year 2000. Programmers are furiously debugging old software, so we're
likely to avoid catastrophic shutdowns of electrical grids, banks, air-traffic
computers, medical equipment, and the like. Even so, the "Millennium Bug" may
cause 5 percent (!) of all U.S. business to go under and cost the U.S. economy
$600 billion. In U.S. News , a long book
excerpt warns that Internet security is dangerously lax. It recounts the
misdeeds of "Phantomd," a teen-age "cracker" who infiltrated computers at
nuclear-weapons labs, military bases, banks, dams, and major corporations
before he was caught. U.S. News berates computer users for picking
obvious, easily cracked passwords and chastises system administrators for
ignoring basic security precautions.
U.S. News ' cover
story, "Road Rage," raises alarms about aggressive driving--incidents are
up 51 percent since 1990. The causes: worse traffic; pugnacious immigrant
drivers; and sport-utility vehicles, which make drivers feel impervious.
( Newsweek 's short article about aggressive driving is also titled "Road
Rage.")
Newsweek 's article on Lt. Kelly Flinn does not excuse the Air Force
pilot, but emphasizes that her superior officers treated her clumsily, and that
her lover Michael Zigo was "a cad." A piece commemorating the 50 th
anniversary of the Marshall Plan notes that while it was a noble idea, it also
had a political purpose: to prevent Soviet domination of Europe.
Time , June 2
(posted
Wednesday, May 28)
The cover
package depicts Kelly Flinn's case as an irreconcilable "conflict between two
codes of conduct," military and romantic. Flinn was wrong to have committed
adultery and lied, but she deserves sympathy, says Time . Flinn says she
still believes in the Air Force. A book excerpt chronicles the military's
history of mistreating female soldiers. Female recruits have been routinely
raped, humiliated, and harassed, but they rarely complain, because the military
punishes few male offenders. An article contrasts dueling Hong Kong leaders
Tung Chee-Hwa and Martin Lee. The conservative Tung agrees with China that Hong
Kong needs order; Lee believes it needs freedom. Both are stubborn. A piece on
ABC entertainment chief Jamie Tarses warns that the network's slumping ratings
may cost the glamorous Tarses her job.
The
New Yorker , June 2
(posted
Wednesday, May 28)
Two
pieces by dead writers. "A Visit to Camelot," by the late literary critic Diana
Trilling, describes a 1962 White House dinner for Nobel Prize winners. James
Baldwin, Robert Frost, John Dos Passos, and other literary lions attended. Jack
and Jackie glittered. Trilling's husband, Lionel, talked to Jackie about D.H.
Lawrence and Vassar. The
New Yorker also publishes a long-lost
short story by Nathanael West. Also, an article explores Mexico's immensely
complicated Salinas family scandals. Raul Salinas, brother of former Mexican
president Carlos, has been accused of murder. But the soothsayer who
"discovered" the skeleton of the murdered man at Raul's estate actually planted
the bones. And the current Mexican president, Ernesto Zedillo, may have
orchestrated Raul's indictment in order to save his failing government. (The
whole story is much more Byzantine than this.)
Weekly Standard , June 2
(posted
Wednesday, May 28)
An
article scoffs at "stress": It's a bogus disease that white-collar workers use
as an excuse to skip work. The "stress management" industry is a "racket." The
cover story, "Professor Narcissus," criticizes academics for first-person
scholarship. Instead of pursuing traditional objectivity, professors now
incorporate their own experiences into their work. It's yet another sign that
the academy has gone soft, grumps the author. The Danish mother who left her
baby unattended in New York prompts an indictment of Denmark. It is not the
child paradise the media has portrayed it to be: Child pornography is rampant,
and adolescent suicide is epidemic.
The
Nation , June 9
(posted
Wednesday, May 28)
The
left-wing magazine challenges its own. The cover story condemns left-wing opposition to biology. Many
social scientists, notably anthropologists, foolishly claim that humans are
shaped only by culture, not by genes. These "secular creationists" wrongly
ignore scientific evidence. An article warns that a Middle East war may be
imminent. Israel is increasingly belligerent, while Arab states no longer trust
the United States as a mediator. The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. writes a column
imploring Bill Clinton to champion civil rights and affirmative action.
Esquire , June 1997
(posted
Friday, May 23)
Historian
Paul Johnson contends that Clinton is the "most disreputable president ever."
The profusion of scandals--from Whitewater to Paula Jones to FBI files to
campaign finance--proves that he lacks any moral fiber. A writer stakes out the
Cornish, N.H., home of J.D. Salinger ("the last private person in America") and
meditates on the writer-hermit's career. Salinger drives by, but doesn't speak.
A profile of MCA chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. suggests that he's too nice for
Hollywood. His purchase of MCA was financially disastrous: The DuPont Corp.
shares that he sold to buy the entertainment conglomerate have since gained
$9 billion in value.
Atlantic
Monthly , June 1997
(posted
Tuesday, May 20)
Traditional public-health measures such as widespread testing and notification
of the infected would slow the spread of AIDS, argues the cover essay. Gay and
AIDS activists have resisted such measures as stigmatizing. An article debunks
environmentalists' belief that we consume too much: Raw materials, energy, and
food are more plentiful than ever. But we should worry that our materialism is
making us lose our reverence for nature. A short piece says there is a "child
famine" in the Great Plains: North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, and
Wyoming are not producing enough children to sustain their small towns.
