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Times for Restraint

By Jeremy Derfner, Joshua Foer, and Bryan Curtis
Updated Friday, Jan. 4, 2002, at 11:28 AM ET
New Republic

New Republic, Jan. 14
Jeffrey Rosen's cover story makes the case for liberal judicial restraint and praises its champion, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer embraces judicial modesty because he has a sunny view of legislatures: He served as chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1979-80. In the post-Sept. 11 world, where the federal government needs the discretion to respond to unseen challenges, such modesty "will no longer seem like a historical artifact. It will be recognized as a national imperative." … An article notes that GOP governors, once the party's brightest stars, have lapsed into obscurity, even ignominy. Why? Well, during their glory days, the media praised Republican governors for mixing tax cuts with spending initiatives. But this wasn't a durable political philosophy; it was a pure indulgence—made possible by a roaring economy—which the current recession has all but killed.—B.C.

Economist

Economist, Jan. 5
The cover story says "enough is enough": Just because Europe shares a single currency doesn't mean it needs more political unity. Ideas about harmonizing taxes across borders and creating a bailout fund for troubled economies are misguided. The way to cultivate economic strength is through deregulation and market reforms, not political integration. … An article backs a devaluation of the peso as the least bad thing Argentina could do. (It seems to be what the country's newly elected president has in mind.) Part of the blame for Argentina's disastrous situation belongs to the IMF, which should have insisted earlier on a change in the country's one-to-one peg of the peso to the dollar. … An article dismisses the notion that the euro will gradually worm its way into the British economy and eventually into the hearts of Britons. One need look no further than Canada to see that a powerful currency next door doesn't have to undermine local money.—J.F.

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, Jan. 6
The cover story, by Darcy Frey, profiles an ornithologist who has spent the last 27 summers on a desolate island in the Arctic Circle. His objects of study are black guillemots—small, pigeonlike birds that nest and breed on the island. When the birds began to struggle, the scientist realized their livelihood was directly connected to the way the ice was melting around him. And that ice, in all likelihood, was melting because of global warming. … A dispatch from Kandahar profiles Gul Agha, the warlord now in control of swaths of southern Afghanistan. During the war, Gul Agha honed three unique leadership strategies: Fight alongside his troops, often on the front lines; cozy up to American special forces; and, finally, ignore the new Afghan central government in Kabul.—B.C.

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New Yorker

The New Yorker, Jan. 7
A profile of Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres dramatizes the decline and fall of the peace camp in the country's politics. The renewed intifada has turned Peres, who clings still to dovism, into something of a national joke. He still talks about a New Middle East of cooperation and mutual respect, and even as suicide bombers terrorize Israel, he says he is confident of Yasser Arafat's good faith. ... A piece explores the 1968 murder that cemented Martinsville, Ind.'s reputation as a paradise for racists. A young black encyclopedia saleswoman was stabbed in the heart in the all-white town, and the crime remains unsolved, due to police incompetence and Martinsville residents' unwillingness to cooperate. But locals say they have been unfairly scapegoated for the racial sins of the whole country.—J.D.

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Jeremy Derfner is a former Slate editorial assistant. Joshua Foer is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. Bryan Curtis, a contributing writer, writes the "Middlebrow" column.
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