New Republic, Oct. 17
The cover follows up on the Michael Brown debacle by drawing attention to 15 other members of the Bush’s administration’s “hackocracy.” The article insists that the appointees are “a diverse group—from the assistant secretary of commerce who started his career by supplying Bush with Altoids to the Republican National Committee chair-turned-Veterans Affairs secretary who forgot about wounded Iraq war vets—but they all share two things: responsibility and inexperience.” … A piece about the ongoing violence in Côte d’Ivoire contends that “the situation in the Côte d’Ivoire is likely to worsen as ethnic tensions grow unchecked.” … A review of a memoir by Elias Canetti examines the Nobel Prize winning author’s misogyny, contempt for the English, and disparagement of his former lover, novelist Iris Murdoch, as “a weak philosopher, a bad novelist, and an unsatisfactory lover, not even physically attractive.” It concludes, “[O]ne cannot read this book without echoing the opinion that Canetti was a horrible man.”—B.B.
National Review, Oct. 10
An article calls out Hillary Clinton for masquerading as a centrist in the name of a presidential run and disagrees with her advisers’ claims that she has not undergone an extreme political makeover. She’s always been a “culturally moderate and sensitive to rural and small-town America” kinda gal who loves talking to upstate farmers about those “funny little things” they grow that end up on the plates of well-heeled Manhattan diners. The author predicts that the presidential campaign will expose her true stripes: “an aggressive, calculating, insincere, opportunistic, and exceptionally liberal woman.” … An article about Poland notes that the country is in the process of restoring “its distinctive civilization” but wonders if the Catholic Church will have a role in that process. Some predict that the removal of the Communist yoke and the death of the pope will render the church insignificant. But the author concludes, “Poles and Catholicism are in a lifelong marriage.”—Z.K.
Harper’s, October 2005
A polemic in defense of experimental writing lambastes Jonathan Franzen and the realist camp, which fawns upon writers who “behave like cover bands, embellishing the oldies, maybe, while ensuring that buried in the song is an old familiar melody.” … Another piece contends that major natural disasters can provide survivors “a satisfaction so profound it transcends even the fear and sadness.” After looking at historic events like the 1906 San Francisco and 1985 Mexico City earthquakes, the article insists that disasters have the power to encourage civil society. It points out that “the people classified as victims” usually look out for one another and soon grasp how weak “the existing authority structure” is. “Perhaps this, too, is grounds for joy,” claims the article. … An excerpt from an essay by two Air Force majors urges the Air Force to use the Ramones as role models because if the punk band had worked for the Department of Defense, “they undoubtedly would have pursued simplicity and maintained a laser-like focus.”—B.B.
Economist, Oct. 8
A piece focuses on Rahul Gandhi, an heir to India’s Gandhi/Nehru dynasty. His mother, the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, is expected to promote him to a prominent position in the Congress Party. Rahul hasn’t shown a flair for politics so far, and “reports suggest that he is primarily concerned about marrying his long-term Spanish architect girlfriend—allegedly against the wishes of his mother, who is said to fear that further dilution of the dynasty’s Indian bloodline would resurrect an anti-foreigner backlash that she herself endured.” … An article focuses on political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan following the “tulip revolution” six months ago. An MP’s murder in September has drawn attention to “a fierce struggle for dominance between the executive and the legislature.” Additionally, the parliament has decided to let is members carry arms and vetoed “the appointment as foreign minister of Roza Otunbaeva, a central figure of the revolution.”—B.B.
Wired, October 2005
In an attempt to make “the world’s first non-disappointing robot,” researcher Javier Movellan is trying to see if robots can teach preschoolers. Movellan had an epiphany in 2002 upon being hugged by a Japanese robot. “[S]hocked by the strength of his own response,” he decided to focus on creating robots that can respond to human emotions. … Another article gushes over kongisking.net, a site that offers online production diaries documenting the making of Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake. While secrecy has traditionally ruled on the sets of big-budget extravaganzas, these journals “have blossomed into a real-time documentary about the making of King Kong, the world’s first comprehensive, downloadable study of how a $175 million movie gets made, down to the last fleck of modeling clay.” Although this might put a dent in DVD sales, Jackson believes that the site is the most effective way to proselytize to Lord of the Rings fans.—B.B.
New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9
In an interview, director Noah Baumbach talks about his recent wedding to Jennifer Jason Leigh and his anxieties about detachment: “The best thing about the wedding was that I felt I actually experienced it. I lived it.” … A piece about the upcoming Iraqi referendum notes, “To vote no means increasing disorder and uncertainty—even if the reason for that vote is that the constitution does not create a government that would be strong or orderly enough.” The article looks at Sunni disapproval of the constitution, and concludes with a guardedly optimistic outlook on democracy for Iraq: “If the constitution fails at the polls, Sunnis may realize that participating in electoral politics is a viable option for them despite their minority status.” … A profile of artist Raymond Pettibon explores how he went from being a “marginal, cultish scribbler and lyric poet of obsessive, black-humored art” to “a model outsider-insider” beloved by the art world.—B.B.
Reason, November 2005
An article reports on a study that debunks anti-smoking activists’ claim that a Big tobacco/Hollywood cabal is out to hook the country’s tykes on smoking. Analyzing 447 films and their main character’s traits, the study revealed, “contemporary American movies do not have a higher prevalence of smoking than the general U.S. population.” Also, “bad guys were more likely to smoke than good guys and … as in real life, smoking was associated with lower socioeconomic status.” … For three decades, “freedom-loving” motorcyclists and their anti-helmet lobby have waged a pretty successful battle to allow riders to “decide what is right for [them], instead of the government jamming regulations down [their] throat.” … Tort reform won’t abet America’s litigious tendenecies, according to an article. The first step in reforming the trial by jury system, according to the article, is recognizing, “American jurors are a bunch of louts, nincompoops, and media whores.”—Z.K.
New York, Oct. 10
An article discusses author Joan Didion’s new memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking. The memoir tells about Didion’s grief after the death of her husband and the struggle to nurse her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, through the system-shocking illnesses. (Dunne died in August.) The article says the memoir “might just be critic proof,” but Didion is skeptical. “I don’t think it’s critic-proof. Not if my daughter’s name wasn’t critic-proof,” she says, referring to a 1979 review that mocked Quintana Roo’s name. … Another piece examines the tug-of-war over a senile man’s vast fortune. Genevieve Pignarre and Dr. Herbert Hofmann married just as doctors and associates were beginning to notice a steep decline in Hofmann’s mental faculties. Now, his lawyer and wife are battling over control of his wealth and the legality of the 2003 marriage. It may be a fitting end to Hoffman’s life, which the article describes as “equal parts Gatsby, Zelig, and Forrest Gump.”—T.B.
Weekly Standard, Oct. 10
An article by Fred Barnes examines the hole left by the embattled Tom DeLay’s step down from House majority leader. Barnes believes that the move will hurt Bush’s agenda. DeLay’s replacement, Roy Blunt, sides with House Republicans and against Bush, saying that spending cuts are needed to finance Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts—and there’s a chance that Blunt will retain the position even if DeLay is cleared of wrongdoing. “[D]espite the White House’s lack of appreciation for DeLay, he has been Bush’s most important ally in Congress for the past five years,” Barnes writes. … Another article follows Karen Hughes on her Middle East “listening tour.” Her repeated references to being a mother and her habit of mispronouncing “imam” has led some journalists to call it the “I-mom” tour. The article explores the negative reaction Hughes received when she condemned the Saudi Arabian government’s ban on female drivers. “What they were doing was taking issue with the portrayal of them as powerless victims,” the author notes.—T.B.
The New Yorker, Oct. 10 An article reports on strife between the Los Angeles Times and its owner, the Tribune Co. The piece examines why many staffers resigned and quotes former editor John S. Carroll, who announced his resignation in July. Carroll, who’d spent a lifetime in the newspaper business, says he was tired of the Tribune Company’s “incessant cost-cutting”: The newsroom lost almost 200 employees to “layoffs, attrition, and buyouts” during the four years that Carroll edited the paper; at the same time, “the weekly news hole shrank by more than fifty pages.” The piece also reports on the troubled relationship between new publisher, Jeffrey Johnson, and editorial editor Michael Kinsley, Slate’s founder, who recently moved on to the Washington Post. … In an essay examining the history of admissions at Harvard, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that the Ivy Leagues “are in the luxury-brand-management business” and have to maintain “an exquisitely controlled fantasy of what it means to belong to an elite.”—.B.B.
