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."
