Economist, Aug. 12 A special report chronicles Somalia’s descent into chaos courtesy of a weak-kneed interim government being bullied out of power by Islamist warlords, a fast-growing population, and rampant hunger and disease. It may as well be called the Wild East. “Hardly a day goes by without a cattle raid, a retaliatory attack or a shoot-out over access to a watering hole or the distribution of food aid.” Fears that jihadism will take root among desperate Muslims are well-founded, the piece contends, especially since Osama Bin Laden has already made forays into the region. Solutions should include international help with family planning, agricultural aid, and a political clean-up. … A piece looks at California’s overcrowded prisons. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling a special session of the legislature to address the problem. The article advises lawmakers to start by ending the state’s three-strikes law, cleaning up prison-guard corruption, and taking politics out of the mix.— M.M.
New York Times Magazine, Aug. 13 The Israel-Hezbollah war illuminates a power struggle between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah that has been brewing for years, an article finds. The writer contends that progressive economic and social policies are under fire from Hezbollah, which is supported by Shiite radicals, and the war promises to add sectarian strain between Shiites on one hand and Sunnis, Christians, and Druse on the other. To the government, the abduction of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah “was nothing less than a coup, a brazen effort to show that the majority had no control over so basic a matter as a declaration of war,” the author writes. … An article asks if intestinal bugs can make you fat. Researchers say yes, but worry that the conclusion could lead some to discount the importance of diet and exercise. The study of “infectobesity” finds that adenoviruses, like the ones that cause pink eye or a mild flu, can correlate with obesity in humans. Diet medicines that control microorganisms could become weight-management weapons, but some experts still prefer the behavior-modification route.— M.M. Related in Slate: Complete coverage of the Middle East crisis.
Washington Monthly, September 2006 The cover package features the second annual College Guide, a response to the U.S. News rankings. The list measures a school’s excellence using a fresh set of criteria: social mobility, research, and service. MIT tops the list with UC-Berkeley and Penn State, while Yale, Harvard, and Princeton come in at 12, 28, and 43, respectively. An accompanying piece bemoans the scarcity of data on the quality of teaching in private colleges and postgraduation employment numbers. The author recommends federal disclosure laws: “Then students can decide for themselves if a particular institution is worth the money.”… A piece profiles Republican campaign strategist Dick Wadhams, heir apparent to Lee Atwater and Karl Rove and adviser to presidential hopeful Sen. George Allen. Wadhams has taken “low blows to new heights, combining blistering verbal assaults, nasty wedge issues, and general loud-mouthing in an astonishingly effective manner.”— C.B.
New York, Aug. 14 The cover story analyzes the debate over Bruce Ratner and Frank Gehry’s controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. Ultimately, it comes out against the development, partially out of skepticism of the proposed benefits, which include mixed-income housing and an economic boom, but mainly because of dismay at the strong-armed tactics of its proponents: “It’s outrageous to see the absolute absence of democratic process. There’s been no point in the past four years at which the public has been given a meaningful chance to decide whether something this big and transformative should be built on public property,” the author writes. … An article covers the Brooke Astor scandal and none of its major players—Astor, her son, his wife—come off particularly well. Beneath the slick tabloid surface is a story “simpler and sadder, a tale of parental neglect, repeated generations over.”— B.C.
Related in Slate: Jonathan Lethem looks at Atlantic Yards, and Witold Rybczynksi reviews a documentary about Gehry.
Newsweek, Aug. 14 A fawning profile finds Billy Graham, evangelist to men of power and the utterly powerless, in the twilight of life at 87. Brain operations, prostate cancer and broken bones have taken their toll on Graham’s body, while the state of the world is wearing on his soul. “Others relish the battlefield; Graham now prizes peace. He is a man of unwavering faith who refuses to be judgmental; a steady social conservative in private who actually does hate the sin but loves the sinner; a resolute Christian who declines to render absolute verdicts.”… A piece suggests that Hezbollah represents the new frontier of resistance fighting. Electronic eavesdropping and the latest weaponry are in the hands of fighters who dress in street clothes and subsist on “onions and tomatoes.” The powerful dichotomy has not been lost on Israel, which sent ground troops into Lebanon when it couldn’t overpower Hezbollah from the air. “Their tactics may be from Che, but their arms are from Iran, and not just AK-47s and RPGs.”— M.M.
Time, Aug. 14 Journalists get personal in this issue. Frequent Middle East correspondent Aparisim Ghosh recounts his latest sojourn into Iraq, starting with a harrowing air dive into Baghdad and a trip down the Highway of Death. Ghosh’s diary offers little news, but lots of insight into Iraqi life: the constant specter of suicide bombings, Sunnis adopting Shiite ID cards for safety purposes, rising AK-47 prices. … Reports that Raúl Castro lacks his older brother’s charisma and powerful leadership style are overblown, according to Time’s Dolly Mascarenas, who has known Raúl Castro for “decades.” She writes that Fidel’s chosen successor can be fiery and involved. In fact, she reminds readers, “Raul was red before Fidel.”… Harold Ford Jr. is a black Democrat from staunchly red Tennessee, but he has a shot at a Senate seat, an article reports. Why? His record reads like the GOP platform.— M.M.
Related in Slate: Christopher Hitchens on Raúl Castro.
Weekly Standard, Aug. 14 The cover story examines the growing Guatemalan community in Georgetown, Del. The area’s poultry industry depends on a booming Hispanic population—Hispanics now make up a majority in Sussex County—to fill the “jobs Americans won’t do.” The pending House and Senate immigration bills, however, have mobilized a community not known for its political activity. Recent rallies have raised eyebrows in both camps: “All right, many people muttered, if all your workers are legal, then who are those five thousand people out on the circle?”… A piece finds American and Cuban officials prepping for Raúl Castro’s takeover. With Cuba having strong trading partners in Venezuela and China, Raúl may be prepared to embrace a more open-market economic model. … A piece calls on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, all of which condemned Hezbollah’s initial attacks on Israel last month, to denounce the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a first step toward eliminating regional anti-Semitism.—C.B.
