Economist , July 19
(posted
Saturday, July 19)
An
article makes the case that Turkey's secular military has gone too far in its
struggle against the Islamist Welfare Party. It recommends that Turkey replace
the rigid modernism of Ataturk with a synthesis of democracy and Muslim values.
The cover editorial argues that economically and politically stable nations of
Southeast Asia must take an active role to shore up troubled neighbors such as
Cambodia. And a piece probes the claims of Israeli historical revisionists, who
have drawn controversy by challenging the moral basis of their country's early
history.
New
York Times Magazine , July 20
(posted
Thursday, July 17)
The cover
story tracks the progress of medical marijuana in California, made legal by a
state referendum passed last November. Many Californians have softened their
views on pot because they now view it as a beneficial medicine, not as a wicked
street drug. This sea change has infuriated the government, which battled the
referendum. A profile of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, like a recent one on
Arizona's John McCain, lavishes attention on a Republican who bucks her party's
leadership to support campaign-finance reform. A piece about South Africa
reports that many of the country's schools have integrated since the end of
apartheid, but that they still harbor white racism. And a serious look at
making airplanes safer proposes, among other ideas, a scheme in which drill
sergeants would bark out preflight safety instructions.
Time and Newsweek , July 21
(posted
Tuesday, July 15)
Blond bombshells on the
outside, fluff inside. Time puts folk-rocker Jewel on its cover for a
story on women musicians. The piece praises the women-only Lilith Fair festival
(dubbed "Galapalooza") for its sensitive yet sexy coffeehouse music. The
sidebar on Jewel marvels at her unpretentiousness, the result of a rugged
Alaskan childhood. Newsweek 's story about the cigar vogue is decorated,
inexplicably, by a cover shot of MTV/NBC/ Playboy icon Jenny McCarthy.
The article denounces cigars as expensive, repulsive, and unhealthy. (Though
not as dangerous as cigarettes, they still raise the risk of cancer, stroke,
and heart attack.)
Time credits Mexico's
young voters--the "NAFTA generation"--for the ruling party's defeat in last
week's elections. The under-30s despise Mexico's corrupt, one-party government,
but they are not as skeptical about capitalism as the leftist candidates they
voted for. Also, a pair of articles on juvenile crime: One criticizes the
recent trend to charge kids as adults and confine them with adult prisoners,
saying that such Draconian treatment hardens rather than reforms young
criminals. The other piece describes a vicious murder in Flint, Mich., of a
white teen by a gang of black men, a crime that has inflamed that state's
racial tensions.
Newsweek rehashes last week's Mars cover story with a long feature about
the ingenuity and spiritedness of the NASA team. Also, Che chic: A story notes
that Che Guevara is cool again, 30 years after his death.
U.S.
News & World Report , July 21
(posted
Tuesday, July 15)
The
impassioned cover story warns that America's national parks are being
ruined by overcrowding, underfunding, invasion by exotic plant and animal
species, and commercial development. The solution? Lots more federal funding
for the National Park Service and stricter regulations for development on park
perimeters. Yellowstone and the Great Smoky Mountains are singled out as
especially endangered parks. An article about the bankruptcy of Montgomery Ward notes that the
United States has 10 times as much retail space per person as Britain
and perhaps twice as much as it needs. A long piece
alleges that Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and his cronies have plundered
their country, pocketing millions from state-owned companies and
foreign-currency reserves.
The
New Yorker , July 21
(posted
Tuesday, July 15)
An
article chronicles the so-far-unsuccessful battle by a gay auto worker to force
Chrysler to adopt anti-gay-discrimination policies. His double burden:
Management doesn't want to address the issue, and many of his fellow factory
workers are violently homophobic (literally). A Galápagos travelogue/essay says
that Darwin's curiosity and enthusiasm enabled him to make sense of the
peculiar islands' ecology. It also credits him with "de-sanctif[ying]" nature
writing. Also, a book review makes the case that cosmetic surgery can be
art.
Vanity Fair , Aug. 1997
(posted
Thursday, July 10)
A long
story on Robert Kennedy's 10 children rehashes their familiar troubles (Joe's
divorce, Michael's babysitter affair, etc.). It concludes that Ethel Kennedy
indulged her brood, and that Michael Kennedy probably did not sleep with the
babysitter until she was 16, a legal age. A piece predicts that the Bancroft
family, which controls Dow Jones, may oust CEO Peter Kann because of the
miserable performance of the company's stock. The article depicts Kann as an
ineffectual pushover and his wife, Karen House, a reporter-turned-Dow Jones
exec., as a monster who terrorizes her Wall Street Journal underlings. A
story says that legal publisher Steve Brill will launch a glossy, hard-hitting
media-criticism magazine called Content . Mel Gibson is on the cover: The
puff inside implies, unpersuasively, that he has a deep, dark soul.
