(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
The cover story on murder victim JonBenet Ramsey explores the "strange world" of child beauty pageants. Newsweek's take: The pageants may be fun for kids, but they teach awful lessons (i.e., beauty is important; always please authority figures, etc.). A sidebar on the murder investigation offers no news. A three-article package rejects private investment of Social Security funds as a "fantasy" solution: Americans don't know enough to invest safely, and a stock-market crash would be a national disaster. Instead, the United States should cut Social Security benefits by lowering the Consumer Price Index. Also, Newsweek rehashes last week's New Yorker story about the re-release of the Star Wars trilogy.
(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
"Where the Jobs Are" finds business booming in Silicon Valley, Phoenix, Seattle, Boston, the Research Triangle, and other high-tech hotbeds. The article confirms that the economy is fantastic for skilled workers, lousy for others. Time disagrees with Newsweek about Social Security: Americans do know enough to invest their retirement funds on Wall Street. Also, a profile of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who remains intransigent about the hostage crisis. And an excerpt from Robert Coles' new book on raising moral children: He favors kindness.
(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
U.S. News' cover story on Bill Maher says the Politically Incorrect host could become the "highest-impact political entertainer since Will Rogers." True to the spirit of editor James Fallows, U.S. News then wonders if Maher's comedy helps American democracy. The conclusion: maybe. Maher's acid satire is admirable, but the show's celebrity gabfests don't raise the level of public discourse. An article argues that the Federal Election Commission was designed to fail: Congress does not really want the FEC to enforce campaign laws. Also, the Steve Jobs backlash: Apple goofed by buying his NeXT operating system, which is way too complicated to be commercially viable.
(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
A chilling account of the freighter MaerskDubai, whose Taiwanese officers are accused of throwing two stowaways over the side and murdering another in early 1995. The Filipino crewmembers who turned in the officers to Canadian authorities have been badly mistreated by the Canadian government, and the officers may well go free. A long article/review rhapsodizes about Washington Post publisher/Watergate goddess Katharine Graham. Mostly a rave review of her new autobiography ("complex" and "intimate"), the article dishes little dirt but does find Graham more conservative than her newspaper. A writer observes the return of Hutu murderers to Rwanda, where they are now living alongside their Tutsi victims' families: It is an impossible standoff in which neither reconciliation nor forgetting seems possible. Also, George Plimpton remembers his performance at the Apollo Theater's famed "Amateur Night."
(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
The cover story, "The War on the Military Culture," could be headlined, "What's Wrong with Women Soldiers." Former Navy Secretary James Webb argues that the presence of the weaker sex weakens group cohesion, introduces jealousy into the ranks, and generally corrupts the military's "socialist meritocracy." (This may be the first and last time the Standard uses the word "socialist" as a term of praise.) Also, another long article pushes the Standard's China line: Beijing must be contained, not engaged. And the editorial claims that if there isn't a constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide (and there isn't, says the Standard), there isn't a constitutional right to abortion, either.
(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
The magazines agree about Social Security. TNR's editorial calls Social Security privatization a "Kevorkian cure" that will destroy the safe national-retirement plan. The cover story debunks the CW that Americans don't save enough and that Social Security is in trouble. Increasing savings won't increase investment; rather, it will decrease consumption, slow down the economy, and reduce national income. Nor does Social Security need a drastic overhaul--it's basically solvent for the next 75 years. The piece accuses the "savings hawks" of "doing Americans a disservice by lecturing them on the evils of consumption." An accompanying article likens the savings hawks who lead the Concord Coalition--Paul Tsongas, Warren Rudman, and Pete Peterson--to cultists.
The Nation echoes the New Republic in a cover story (" Social Insecurity") that denounces the plan to privatize Social Security and condemns the Concord Coalition, Cato Institute, and others for pushing a reform that will hurt the poor and enrich Wall Street. Having agreed with the New Republic, The Nation then berates it: "TNR: The Long Goodbye" declares the "liberal New Republic" dead: Owner Martin Peretz and new editor Michael Kelly are producing a magazine that is nearly as conservative as the Standard and actively hostile to the lefty principles that guided TNR's first 80 years.
(posted Tuesday, Jan. 14)
The cover story is a first-person narrative by Sean O'Callaghan, an IRA murderer-turned-informant. O'Callaghan grew disillusioned with the IRA's viciousness in the 1970s, and went over to the British in the early 1980s while rising through the IRA ranks to head its southern command. Among his claims: He foiled a 1983 plot to assassinate Prince Charles and Princess Diana and stopped a $2-million arms shipment from American supporters to the IRA. Also, Norman Podhoretz gloats about the revelation that George Orwell informed on British Communists: The left can no longer claim Orwell as its own.
(posted Saturday, Jan. 11)
"How Safe Is Your Airline?" You don't necessarily want to hear the answer to the question on the Economist cover. Because airline accident rates have stopped decreasing and the number of flights is increasing, by 2010 there could be a major crash every week. The Economist's solution? Better pilot training, satellite-positioning technology for jets, and a safety make-over for Russia. (The article also questions the truism that airplanes are safer than cars.) A long article puzzles over Gulf War syndrome. It doubts that nerve gases, pesticides, or vaccines could cause the syndrome, but stops short of dismissing the disease as imaginary because of scant medical data and missing evidence from the war zone.
(posted Saturday, Jan. 11)
The media-circus doubleheader: Vanity Fair profiles alleged Atlanta bombing suspect Richard Jewell and former LAPD cop Mark Fuhrman. The redeemed Jewell receives the kind of soft focus that VF usually reserves for movie stars. The article showcases his naiveté, hard work, and devotion to his mother, but barely mentions his campaign to wring money out of NBC, the AtlantaJournal-Constitution, and the FBI. The unredeemed Fuhrman is treated with surprising respect. The ex-cop, who's about to publish his O.J. book, is starting over in Northern Idaho (white-supremacist country): "Mark Fuhrman's dead," says Mark Fuhrman. He's portrayed as an excellent cop, ruined by machismo and dishonesty. Also, the cover story on Johnny Depp likens him to James Dean: beautiful, talented, and oh-so-soulful. And an article bemoans the trend of confessional memoirs by young women: It especially scorns Kathryn Harrison's upcoming The Kiss, an account of her incestuous affair with her father.
(posted Thursday, Jan. 9)
"Saigon: The Sequel" chronicles the sybaritic life of the young American businessmen in Vietnam who drink heavily, bed the local beauties, and sell, sell, sell. A kiss-up profile catches Steven Jobs on the cusp of his return to Apple: He's a visionary; he's a calm family man; and his NeXT operating system really could save Apple. Also, an essayist kvetches about pro football: There are too few stars, too many injuries, and too much coaching.
--Compiled by David Plotz and the editors of S LATE.