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Annals of Sex

By Julia TurnerUpdated Friday, March 14, 2003, at 12:39 PM ET

New Republic, March 24
If Bonnie Fuller edited the New Republic, this week's cover would likely read: "We're all sodomists now!" Surely the US Weekly editor and newsstand genius would have given a story on the history of sodomy and the prohibitions against it more play. The piece, pegged to the upcoming Supreme Court review of a Texas anti-sodomy law, argues that new church doctrines on the subject "are designed not to ban sodomy from human sexuality but to ban homosexuals from sexual dignity." … Instead, the editors went with "Against War With North Korea"; an editorial inside lays out a blueprint for bilateral negotiations with the country. In return for North Korean disarmament, Bush should normalize the country's economic relations with the rest of the world and then work to limit the country's illicit arms trade and send American disarmament inspectors along with their IAEA counterparts to make sure Kim Jong-il follows through.

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Economist, March 13
The cover story points out—rather obviously—that the increasingly intractable rifts among Western allies are a victory for Saddam. But the notion that a war without U.N. approval would undermine U.N. authority is bunk; of all the wars since 1945, the piece points out, only three have been rubber-stamped by the Security Council. … Tony Blair is on the geopolitical rack, caught between his ties to the United States and pressure from anti-war members of his party, and exhausted by his so-far futile efforts to broker a compromise between the Bushies and the French. Nevertheless, he probably won't be ousted by his party. … Richard Perle, take note: A piece on Britain's plaintiff-friendly libel laws notes that Fortune and Forbes have both been taken to court there, the latter by a Russian pol alleged to be a mobster. If Perle sues The New Yorker's Sy Hersh across the pond (as he's threatened), he'll clearly be in august company. (Slate's Jack Shafer double-dares Perle to sue Hersh.)

American Conservative, March 24
Pat Buchanan on a rampage! In a lengthy essay, Buchanan argues that the neoconservative clique—including Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, among others—that has strongly supported an American invasion of Iraq has snuggly ties to Ariel Sharon and puts Israel's interests above those of the United States. Allow IOM to paraphrase: I am not being anti-Semitic here, isolationist Buchanan protests. I don't hate the Jewish people, faith, heritage, or ancestry. Israel is and should remain our ally. But U.S. and Israeli interests are not one and the same. And only Israel and Sharon would benefit from the full-scale war between the West and Islam that neocons propose. The U.S. would suffer the blows of increasing international terrorism. Buchanan portrays Bush as the neocons' dupe. Sounds like the president had better shape up if he wants Buchanan's vote in '04.

New York Times Magazine New York Times Magazine, March 16
An issue destined to make hypochondriacs squirm points out that modern medicine is rife with myths and mistakes. … The cover refers to the fact that the leech is back in medical vogue as an anti-coagulant and a treatment for arthritis. (Should you want a slimy black sucker, the mag thoughtfully provides a credit: "Leech from Leeches USA Ltd." They're $7.70 a pop.) … Report cards now give surgeons the equivalent of a batting average, leading some to turn away the sickest patients. … In 1939, speech pathologist Wendell Johnson sponsored a study that tried to make healthy orphans stutter. But Johnson never publicized the morally questionable research, which might have undermined his theory that stuttering is a learned behavior, often reinforced by adults worried about a child's speech. (That theory stood from the '50s to the '80s, when speech therapists frequently chose not to work with children, "fearing that the therapy could worsen the affliction.")

Atlantic Monthly, April 2003
Richard Brookhiser plumbs the depths of Dubya's brain in an effort to understand how our 43^rd prez makes decisions. After noting that Bush's defenders often cite the many brainy but bad presidents (Adams, Adams, and Madison), and the not so brainy but good ones (FDR, Washington), Brookhiser argues that our first business-school-trained commander in chief is a classic manager who disarms people with humor and listens carefully to his team. Potential weak spots? His team may not embrace a wide enough range of opinions, and Bush may not have enough imagination to look for more input. … Also, Michael Kelly knocks the self-satisfaction of some anti-war commentators and the publications that sponsor them, including Paul Krugman and Tony Kushner on a lengthy list. "It is hard, if rewarding, work being a Conscience of our Culture," Kelly writes, tongue lodged somewhere around his molars. "We are blessed with many who will let their consciences be our guides."

The Nation, March 24
Speaking of Tony Kushner, an excerpt of his new play appears in this week's Nation. The premise: Laura Bush reads Dostoyevsky to dead Iraqi children. One of Mrs. Bush's speeches: "Oh how can I say this? It isn't right that you should have had to die because your country is run by an evil man who is accumulating weapons of mass destruction. But he is, you see, he really is, everyone knows this and he will kill many, many other children all over the world if he isn't stopped. So, so it was um, necessary for you to die, sweetie, oh how awful to say that, but it was, precious." The piece portrays Mrs. Bush as a stand-in for the disempowered conscience of Dubya's White House but rather belittles her in the process. … A review points out that Kenneth Pollack's The Threatening Storm is not the unmitigated case for war it seems. (See Slate's "Assessment" of Pollack and his book, which came to the same conclusion.)

The New Yorker, March 17
Seymour Hersh pins down Defense Department adviser Richard Perle's connections to Trireme, a company that invests in homeland security businesses. Iraq-hawk Perle did not disclose his involvement in Trireme to others at Defense, and while Perle's desire to see Saddam ousted does not seem financially motivated, the hawk "has set up a company that may gain from a war." (As for the company's name, who knew that international defense investors were so classically inclined?) … The "style focus"—downgraded this year from the usual style issue—includes a portrait of the class striations at Daslu, a luxe São Paulo boutique, and a profile of Suzy Menkes, the International Herald-Tribune's fashion writer whose future is as uncertain as that of her newspaper. … It's unclear whether the profile of artist Vanessa Beecroft, who considers her bulimia a part of her work, is also considered a style piece; the juxtaposition is jarring but not particularly productive.

Weekly Standard, March 17
The cover this week hails the "implosion" of the United Nations; the piece inside argues that the United States should ditch the U.N. and launch the "Big Three"—an alliance among the United States, Britain, and Russia that would shellac U.S. decisions with a sheen of international accord. (After all, the piece argues, "no organization that includes Russia could possibly be America's cat's-paw," but the topsy-turvy nation is "open to persuasion.") More a conversation piece than a blueprint, the story also compares the United Nations to the Whiffenpoofs, but never explains that the goofily-named group is Yale's finest a cappella outfit, giving an instant snapshot of the mag's intended audience. … Fred Barnes also takes up recent critiques of Dubya's religious tendencies. Bush is no more likely to invoke God than many other presidents, Barnes argues, and when Newsweek complained about the president's "evident conviction that he's doing God's will," it offered no evidence to support that claim.

Newsweek Newsweek, March 17
The cover story assesses Saddam's battle plan. Iraq's regular army would not be a major obstacle in a fight; special forces, though fewer, are deemed more crafty and formidable. Saddam is expected to use every trick in the book, including dressing soldiers as civilians and even in American uniforms, to foil an attack. The biggest threats: using WMD against U.S. troops or Israel, or planning to destroy his country completely. According to this article, "he has the means and the demonic imagination." … An article discusses the fate of Roe v. Wade. With Senate debate beginning this week over a ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortions, concerns are rising that the bill is an attempt to chip away at Roe. If the bill passes, partial-birth abortion will be the first medical procedure ever outlawed by Congress. … Jonathan Alter reviews 60 Minutes' Clinton-Dole debate segment. The interchange is short and Clinton's engaging, but Dole's "funnier."—S.G.

Time, March 17
The cover package rehashes Bush's willingness to go it alone in the action against Iraq and profiles the man on the front lines: Gen. Tommy Franks. The portrait of the four-star general would appear fawning if Franks didn't seem like such an admirable guy. Intelligent, efficient, low-key but incisive, he's earned everyone's respect, including the most important person: Donald Rumsfeld. Though the two take different approaches to the conflict, Rummy tending toward flash over substance, Franks the opposite, their good working relationship augurs for a smooth-running high military war command. … A piece examines the future of Daniel Libeskind's winning 9/11 memorial design. Now that the competition's over, big questions arise: How much of the design will actually get built? Who will build it? Astronomical financing and the baroque cast of characters involved in the development boggle the mind and strain optimism that the winning plan will ever see the light of day.—S.G.

U.S. News & World Report, March 17
Are you likable enough to be president? The cover story claims what voters really want to know is not a candidate's position on issues but rather "is he a windbag? Is he arrogant? How is his bearing?" Sen. John Kerry has an uphill battle in this arena; he consciously fights against appearing aloof but frequently loses. On the phone with one campaigner from Iowa, Kerry's heard to say, "That's enormous. I mean, that is really huge." … Saudi Arabia is frantically sending oil toward the United States, trying to shore up the supply in the event of gulf war, a piece says. But economic stability worries continue: Tankers could be terrorist targets, and if war damages imports too much, the precaution of preshipping oil may not prevent prices from skyrocketing.—S.G.