Weekly Standard, March 10 A cover package memorializes conservative icon William F. Buckley. Editor William Kristol writes that Buckley “knew that different kinds of conservatism could possess different elements of truth—and he would even acknowledge that liberalism might occasionally glimpse certain aspects of the just or the good.” In another piece, Slate contributor Christopher Hitchens observes that Buckley “was never solemn except or unless on purpose, and seldom if ever flippant where witty would do, and in saying this I hope I pay him the just tribute that is due to a serious man.”… A piece frets about Republican prospects in upcoming Senate races, noting if Democrats win seven of the 10 Senate seats in play this year, a “GOP majority [will be] out of reach for many election cycles. And, assuming they can pick off a few liberal Republican votes, they’ll have the effectively filibuster proof Senate needed to pass an Obama administration’s legislative wish list.”
Newsweek, March 10 Buckley also makes this cover. One piece notes, “While he could deploy a sometimes vicious wit—which could descend into cruelty—Buckley disdained the kind of partisan shoutfests that too often pass for political debate on our TVs today.” And Michael Gerson declares that Buckley “made it possible to be a conservative without being a crackpot. He did more than smooth conservatism’s rough edges; he exorcized its tortured soul.”… An article analyzes the hanging suicide deaths of 17 teens in the small Welsh coal-mining town of Brigend. The problem isn’t localized to Brigend: Wales’ suicide rate “is nearly twice that of the United Kingdom as a whole.” Officials investigating the deaths report that all of the victims used the social networking site Bebo and note that “suicide can spread like a virus over the internet.”
Mother Jones, March/April A special issue on American torture contains a disturbing article about ordinary soldiers’ attempts to question interrogation practices they witnessed in Iraq. One reports that he saw a prisoner beaten for two hours, only to discover later the detainee couldn’t speak Arabic or English (the languages he was interrogated in). The soldier then “hid behind a building and cried for the first time since his dad’s death.” Joseph Darby, who first reported the photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, says, “People are pissed because I turned in an American soldier for abusing an Iraqi. They don’t care about right and wrong.”… Another piece reviews the unbalanced sentencing of defendants in the Abu Ghraib court-martials. Pfc. Lynddie England, the lowest ranking defendant, was sentenced to three years in prison. During her trial, the Army prosecutor “thundered ‘Who can think of a person who has disgraced this uniform more?’ ” Lt. Col. Steven Jordan, the only officer prosecuted, was ultimately convicted on the single charge of failing to obey an order. He received a reprimand and a fine equivalent to one month’s pay.
The New Yorker, March 10 In the style issue, Michael Chabon essays about superheroes’ unitards, “a silvery pseudoskin that affords all the protection one needs from radiation and cosmic dust while meeting Code standards by neatly neutering one, the shining void between the legs serving to signify that one is not (as one often appears to be when seen from behind) naked as an interstellar jaybird.”… A Michelle Obama profile develops her image as the reluctant, if fierce, candidate’s wife. “Unquestionably accomplished, but … not a repressed intellectual, in the mode of Teresa Heinz Kerry,” Obama would be the first black First Lady and one of the youngest. … A review looks at the young-adult book series Gossip Girl, whose author “pulls off the tour de force of wickedly satirizing the young while amusing them.”
Time, March 10 Part of a cover package on experience, a piece explores how the much-bandied-about term actually translates to presidential performance and concludes that it “gets its value from the person who has it”—though when a president learns on the job “we all pay the tuition.”… An article usefully considers Bill Clinton’s paradoxical role in his wife’s presidential campaign. Through his numerous campaign stops for Hillary, “It hasn’t always been clear whether Bill Clinton sees Obama as a threat to his wife’s prospects, or to his own legacy.” Some initially viewed him as her biggest weapon, but as one supporter quips, “[T]hat gun kicks as bad as it shoots.”… Joel Stein investigates Ralph Nader’s recently announced candidacy, noting, “It’s important for people who feel they’re not being heard to have the option to vote for insane, incapable candidates.”
