Click here for Slate’s complete Kosovo coverage.
Economist, June 19
The cover story demystifies genetically modified food. Europeans are skeptical because they believe genetic manipulation is unnatural, dangerous, and bad for the environment. But nearly all produce is a product of man-bred hybrids, genetically modified food isn’t toxic, and genetic manipulation reduces the need for chemicals. Americans are not bothered by the food fuss because they’re ignorant about what they eat, optimistic about technology, and trusting of their regulatory agencies. … An article asks why stores, such as Wal-Mart, are expanding abroad when most international retailers still get their highest returns at home. Expectations of economies of scale encourage globalization. But few suppliers can source globally, and retailing requires tinkering for local tastes. … An editorial decries the troubling turnout in European Parliament elections. Even though the EU is adopting a new currency and thinking of marshalling an army, only 49 percent bothered to vote. Low turnout suggests that Europeans identify more with their nations than with their new union.
National Review, June 28
The cover story derides Hillary as beloved “First Doormat”: H.R.C. won’t succeed as a solo politician because she has a tin ear for politics and a likability deficit when not acting as Clinton’s stooge. … A piece offers a unique suggestion for avoiding school shootings–remove the disincentives against dropping out. Forcing miscreants to attend high school is pure folly, based on three untruths: 1) any kid can be taught; 2) dropping out will turn a kid toward crime; and 3) without a high-school education you can’t get a decent job. Allowing rebels to quit school would contribute to schoolhouse peace and classroom learning. … Gore’s environmentalism collides with his livability agenda, according to an article. Activists, partially funded by Al’s EPA, wage war on roads being built or expanded by localities. Highway projects are held up and commuters get caught in the constricted traffic.
Atlantic Monthly, July 1999
The cover story claims that the ingratiating ways of dogs manifest an instinct for survival, not a love of owner. Proto-dogs started hanging out with humans because people produced an exploitable ecological niche filled with warmth and garbage. Dog genome projects reveal that inbreeding for pedigree locks in bad recessive traits. Maintaining genetic diversity is the best way to breed man’s best friend. … A piece agitates for a progressive pro-school-voucher coalition. Voucher programs currently cover only 0.1 percent of students, so school choice is an untried solution to education’s ills. A 500,000-student trial of publicly funded school vouchers, accompanied by an increase in traditional school spending, could break the stalemate in the education debate. … An article laments the practice of liberating Sudanese slaves by buying their freedom. Slave redeemers provide a strong financial incentive for the continuation of the slave business, which would otherwise be unprofitable, and have spurred an increase in the number of Sudanese being enslaved.
New Republic, July 5
The cover story claims new technologies will revolutionize political campaigns. The Internet, consumer databases, and sophisticated software help candidates to identify the fattest fund-raising targets and to customize their campaigns to individual voters through e-mail. Personalizing politics might boost voter participation, but it could diminish candidate accountability and threaten voter privacy. … Despite the peace plan’s promise to demilitarize the rebels, the KLA is turning itself into a standing army, according to a Kosovo dispatch. The rebels are manning checkpoints, policing cities to show their force, and voicing their reluctance to disarm. … An article explores the handiwork of Philip Christenson, a foreign affairs consultant (and former Sen. Jesse Helms staffer), who digs up embarrassing information on administration nominees and campaigns against them with critical op-eds and by otherwise purveying damaging tidbits. His most successful effort to date involves Richard Holbrooke, who has endured confirmation limbo for a full year.
New York Times Magazine, June 20
The cover story on racial profiling by police presents the conventional wisdom: Profiling is a blunt instrument; too many innocents are harassed solely on the basis of race; and profiling poisons the citizenry’s relations with police. Profiling is also self-fulfilling: Pull over more blacks and you’ll find more guilty blacks. … A Palestinian state is a certainty, according to an article, but sovereignty will be a sham. West Bank settlements have been inextricably integrated into Israel. Palestinians depend on Israel for employment, and Israel will insist on controlling Palestine’s international borders. … A profile of Steve Jurvetson, the 33-year-old venture capitalist who seeds Internet startups, predicts he will prosper even though Internet IPOs no longer promise exponential returns. Jurvetson’s winning formula is to back original ideas, not “Me Too” products such as drugstore.com.
Time and Newsweek, June 21
George W. Bush takes both covers. The cover head shots reflect the stories inside. Time’s is soft-focused and warmly lighted; Newsweek’s is much harsher. Newsweek concentrates on the obstacles to Bush’s much-touted candidacy. According to the mag, one reason voters don’t know much about the Texas governor is his Clintonian penchant for sophistry. When asked what he stands for, Bush replies, “Honesty, integrity, serving for the right reasons.” When asked what those right reasons are, he elaborates, “America and what America stands for.” But Newsweek analysis suggests that Bush’s Clintonian nature might help him meet the “greatest expectation” for his candidacy: that he can bend the GOP back toward the political center. …Time’s enthusiastic package echoes the familiar line about why Bush is the Republican favorite: The breadth of his support among blacks and Hispanics and his landslide re-election victory wowed the GOP. The party’s “sheer hunger for victory” overwhelms ideological concerns about a Bush candidacy.
Time reports that high schools in 40 states now offer marriage-education electives. The courses, which often involve role play, teach “active listening” and “conflict resolution.” Florida mandates marriage ed and other states may soon follow suit.
U.S. News & World Report, June 21
The magazine alerts readers to another disease they didn’t know they had: Social anxiety, formerly known as shyness, affects one in eight Americans. Clinics invite victims for treatment, but many are too bashful to attend. The treatment for those who do show up: learning to withstand embarrassment. Therapists make patients spill drinks and walk through public places trailing toilet paper from their shoes … A piece says that the Louisiana Republican Party will allow online voting in the January 2000 presidential caucus. Several other states will let absentee voters cast online ballots next year.
The New Yorker, June 21 and 28
A fin de siècle fiction issue prints stories by the country’s “twenty best young fiction writers” as well as glossy portraits of them. The introductory essay reminds readers that a similar list compiled a century ago would not have included Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, or Willa Cather because all wrote their best work after age 40. The stories include: George Saunders’ mock reply to a customer-service complaint, Sherman Alexie’s tale of a hitchhiker, Jeffrey Eugenides’ narrative of a sex anthropologist, and William Vollman’s imagined account of Lenin’s wife.
Weekly Standard, June 21
A piece warns about the popular culture’s fixation with hairless men. To be buff but shorn of chest hair is to manifest male vanity and the desire for prolonged adolescence–two symptoms of male homosexuality, according to the Standard. The proliferation of pretty boys without chest pelts signals the degree to which gay values have distorted mainstream notions of manliness. (No mention is made of Austin Powers’ shag-rug chest.) … An article celebrates rhetoric about God as a political tool. Professing faith allows Republican candidates to woo the religious right without being locked to its agenda on abortion. Gore discusses God to distance himself from the Clinton scandals. … A Yale professor writes that there aren’t many qualified female scientists because women don’t like science, just as they don’t like playing sports. Women are innately less aggressive, and affirmative action supporters should abandon their “harangue against female tastes.”
