Economist, Feb. 9 An article says the world is letting down the new Afghanistan by failing to provide enough international peacekeepers. In contrast to the 60,000 soldiers dispatched to Bosnia, only 5,000 have been promised to Afghanistan. … A piece finds the IMF stuck between a rock and a hard place in dealing with Argentina. If it rewards the country’s timid policies with a big new loan, the IMF will be neglecting its duties to other member countries. If it withholds support, it’ll be blamed for doing nothing. And if it tries to meddle with Argentine policy, the IMF can bet it’ll be charged with trampling democracy. … The obligatory pre-Olympics assessment of Mormonism says the Church of Latter-day Saints is on pace to become the first new world religion since Islam. While the church hierarchy has been trying to open up its members and make them less clannish, the fact is that Mormons have an inherently inward-looking and conservative worldview that differentiates them from their neighbors.— J.F.
New Republic, Feb. 18 The cover story describes why Bush has abandoned Yasser Arafat. First the war on terrorism and then Israel’s capture of the ship headed to Gaza loaded with weapons from Iran, ultimately shifted control of Israel policy from the State Department to the hawks at the Pentagon and the National Security Council. … The editors argue that Arafat’s legacy has created a Palestinian identity crisis that won’t be solved soon. By praising “moderation in the morning and martyrdom in the evening … [Arafat] bequeathed a dreadful confusion about the moral and political substance of Palestinian life.”… A piece says that California Gov. Gray Davis is the quintessential staffer-turned-politician. His falling approval ratings may mean the “staffer mentality”—anal retentive, poll-driven, fund-raising-obsessed—is going out of style.—K.T.
New York Times Magazine, Feb. 10
The cover story asks whether drug rehab really works. There’s a strong push to give drug offenders the option of a stint in rehab instead of jail, but no studies have shown that rehab actually keeps people clean. The industry is mostly unregulated, and the people who run the programs often resist incorporating new, clinically proven techniques into their 12-step ideology. … A piece describes how an organized-crime network put stolen Belgian passports into the hands of the al-Qaida members who assassinated Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. … A piece describes the rise of Eve Ensler from obscure playwright to celebrity activist. With her Vagina Monologues soon to be a film on HBO, Ensler has declared she wants to end all violence against women by 2005. The slogan of V-Day, her anti-violence charity: “Afghanistan Is Everywhere.”—K.T. Time, Feb. 11
The cover story is on the unifying power of the Olympics. After Sept. 11, they celebrate both American togetherness and international understanding. And they represent in microcosm the dramatic struggle we’ve found ourselves in since the fall: Skaters aren’t just skaters anymore—they “come to the ice like a soldier in sequins.”… A stereotype-busting companion piece says it’s a whole new, wide-open Utah. Latinos are moving in, the gay and lesbian community thrives, and Salt Lake’s mayor is an honest-to-goodness liberal. Most important: There are more places to drink beer during these Winter Olympics than at Lillehammer and Nagano put together. … An article explores the tortured process of putting a dollar value on the lives of Sept. 11 victims. The federal fund gives different families different amounts, some people are mad at Congress for capping airlines’ liability, and a few critics whose relatives didn’t die think the government settlements are too generous and a waste of money.— J.D. Newsweek, Feb. 11 The cover story argues that the Quran is inherently more likely than the Bible to incite violence. Because the Quran claims to be the actual words of Allah, its more aggressive verses carry more weight than the wrath of the Old Testament God, which is channeled through the prose of prophets. Moreover, the Quran’s extreme obscurity lends itself to outlandish interpretations about anti-Western jihad. … An article claims that President Bush’s “axis of evil” tough talk has sent Colin Powell and State Department diplomats scurrying around the globe to reassure U.S. allies that we don’t expect carte blanche to attack whomever. … A piece profiles the only stock analysts who made money on Enron: short sellers who bet on companies about ready to tank. Critics say they get rich off the misery of others, but they think of themselves as skeptical truth seekers ferreting out fraudulent companies.— J.D. U.S. News & World Report, Feb. 11
The cover story, which reports that in the last three years con men have defrauded at least 78 professional football players out of $42 million, describes the scams in lurid detail and names a few famous victims (Eric Dickerson, for example). Grifters go after athletes because they have a lot of money and no idea what to do with it. … A piece attempts to sort out the tangle of warlords bringing chaos to ostensibly postwar Afghanistan. The American presence in the cities has kept them quiet and loyal to interim leader Hamid Karzai, but isolated towns have erupted in violence, and the power vacuum has created an environment ripe for brutal factionalism. … An article stresses Russia’s new importance as a source of oil. To reach peak efficiency, Russia needs to form partnerships with foreign companies, but high taxes and histories of corruption make Americans reluctant to invest.— J.D.
The New Yorker, Feb. 11 Another installment in the informal series about World Trade Center tragedies tells the story of Rick Rescorla, head of security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. An English soldier who moved to America to fight in Vietnam, Rescorla left the Army, turned to creative writing and meditation, and fell head over heels in love. But the old combat code never died, and after he evacuated 22 floors, he went back into the second tower to make sure nobody was left behind.… A rehabilitation of the detective-story writer Dashiell Hammett compares him favorably to Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Henry James, Albert Camus, Humphrey Bogart, and Bob Dylan. Hammett, a real ex-detective, represented “the real” for Hollywood fakers in the 1930s. And his spare, no-nonsense prose style created the tough-guy hero of film noir.—J.D.
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Atlantic Monthly, February 2002
The cover story says we’re on the brink of a massive worldwide explosion of new religions. Groups like the Raelians center their theology around UFOs; the Ahmadis are a messianic Muslim sect who believe Jesus escaped from the cross and fled to India; the Cao Dai worship Sun Yat-sen, a Vietnamese poet named Trang Trinh, and Victor Hugo. Any one of these fringe cults could become tomorrow’s major world religion. But it’s more likely that marginalized Christian movements currently brewing in the Third World will become the next big thing. … Ron Rosenbaum meditates on Hitler, Bin Laden, and “hierarchies” of evil. Some have suggested that both Bin Laden and Hitler started out as cynics manipulating an image of sincere belief, but ended up actually convincing themselves that what they were doing was really good. But does mistakenly believing in the morality of their actions make them any less evil?— J.F.
Weekly Standard, Feb. 11
A report from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, says Taliban and al-Qaida detainees are doing just fine. While human-rights groups whine about their inhumane treatment, the prisoners are being well fed, given top-notch medical care, and showered with all sorts of amenities they’d never see back home (like fluoride toothpaste and salon anti-dandruff shampoo). How do they show their thanks? By peeing on equipment and putting the toothpaste up their rear ends. … A hatchet job on Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, accuses the congresswoman of flouting House ethics rules by billing taxpayers for her chauffeur. Her penchant for violent outbursts when she feels mistreated by airlines makes her second only to Richard Reid as a person you don’t want to fly with.— J.F.
The Nation, Feb. 18 The cover article once again makes the case against globalization as we know it and reminds us that “another world is possible.”… Arundhati Roy writes about Enron’s fleecing of the Indian government. Until last year, the country was locked into a contract forcing it to cover the exorbitant fixed costs of an Enron power plant that sold power at twice the price of its nearest rival. When India tried to back out, Enron threatened to take government land listed as collateral in the contract, and U.S. officials warned India that its actions would frighten off future investors. … Jeremy Rifkin explains the converging ideologies that make conservatives and progressives strange bedfellows in the cloning debate. Even if they disagree on when human life begins, both ends of the political continuum are united in their strong emphasis on the intrinsic value of life and opposition to utilitarianism.— J.F.
