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Celebrity WorshipAn inside look at Demi's and Madonna's spiritual haven, the L.A. Kabbalah Centre.

By Josh Levin
Updated Friday, April 30, 2004, at 6:11 PM ET
New Republic

New Republic, May 10
The cover story goes inside L.A.'s Kabbalah Centre, where celebs like Madonna, Mick Jagger, and Britney Spears can learn, for example, that nuclear waste spreads AIDS. The Centre, like Scientology, offers "self-help techniques, a smattering of postmodern physics, and Star Wars spirituality," and adds just enough authentic Jewish mysticism to seem legit. But then there's all that stuff about meditating on the 72 names of God to alter one's DNA and attain physical immortality. … TRB says former NFL star Pat Tillman's death in Afghanistan is "so moving in part because it is so anomalous." American soldiers increasingly come from minority and military families, and one study shows a decreasing number of people know someone in the military. "Given how little the war is impacting their lives, it's hardly surprising that the college students who flocked to Washington this weekend focused their ire on abortion restrictions and the IMF."

Commentary and Economist

Commentary, May 2004; Economist, May 1
Oil for food: Commentary's helpful overview of the scandal surrounding the oil-for-food program in Iraq concludes that from 1996-2003 the United Nations "offered itself up—willingly, even eagerly—as the vehicle for a festival of abuse and fraud." By 2000, Saddam was allegedly selling oil to French and Russian firms for below-market price and receiving kickbacks in return. Though the program's executive director, Benon Sevan, knew about the corruption, he claimed that he had no authority to stop it. The scandal may implicate both Sevan, who might have received oil himself through a Panamanian firm, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose son has ties to the group that inspected oil-for-food shipments. … But the Economist notes that, though some American congressmen are calling it "the biggest scandal ever," there's "little hard evidence" implicating anyone in wrongdoing. While seven different entities are carrying out investigations, so far most of the evidence comes from Iraqi government documents that haven't been authenticated.

California dreaming: The Economist warns that Arnold Schwarzenegger may have "rekindled a tolerant, Reaganesque brand of western conservatism," but the Gubernator won't fulfill his promise unless he reforms the "unaccountable, capricious, counterproductive and often deeply undemocratic" California government. Schwarzenegger offers the best chance in generations to fix the state's school system by cajoling taxpayers who don't want to pay for new schools and unions who don't want structural reform. If he's really brave, Arnold will put a stop to those pesky ballot initiatives—sure, one may have brought him to office, but another removed three-fourths of the budget from the control of the state legislature.

New York Review of Books

New York Review of Books, May 13
Peter Galbraith outlays a cautious, qualified three-state proposal to the growing Iraq quagmire. Giving the three main factions, the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds, what they want, to some degree, would engender confidence and—one hopes—increase future cooperation with the rest of the world. Without international help, though, U.S. occupation will quickly ruin us financially.  (Slate's Chatterbox thinks Galbraith might be right.) … A glowing review of Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies. "Highly readable … and authoritative," it deserves to be read more than typical D.C. memoirs. Besides Clarke's detailing what went wrong pre-9/11 and his strenuous assertion that Iraq spells disaster for the United States, writing the book itself was an act of integrity and national faith. … Luc Sante compares Nick Hornby's literary "mix tape" to a similar work by Geoffrey O'Brien. Hornby, self-conscious, holds something back; whereas O'Brien's book is poetry—and thus more in line with the "quixotic" and "blurred" nature of pop music itself.—S.G.

New York Times Magazine

New York Times Magazine, May 2
The cover story says the specter of terrorism requires democratic governments to wade into "lesser-evil territory." Counterterrorist measures that make the ACLU blanch—surveillance, detention, coercive interrogation—beat the alternative: another major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, which would lead to "sealed borders, constant identity checks and permanent detention camps for dissidents and aliens." The main challenge for the U.S. is to maintain a system of checks and balances (judicial review, congressional approval) when rapid responses are essential. … Another story reveals that your pet fish can get a $250 CT scan, a screw for a broken bone, and even plastic surgery ("glass-eye implantation"). While fish docs haven't exactly perfected their craft—one vet tries to spay a goldfish before learning midprocedure that it's a male—some veterinary insiders see rapid growth in the near future à la the surging interest in bird medicine in the 1980s.

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, May 3
The cover story argues that Bob Woodward can get "people to tell him stuff," but when it comes to storytelling, the savant reporter isn't nearly as talented. His latest tome Plan of Attack is the latest evidence that Woodward boils down complicated conflict into an overly simplified emotional squabble. That's why those who talk to Woodward about the emotional turmoil of their inner lives, like Colin Powell, get more coverage than the reticent Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. (Slate's Timothy Noah argues that Woodward books are purposefully incoherent. Also, Slate's Bryan Curtis reveals the juiciest bits from Plan of Attack.) … Another piece argues that success in Iraq boils down to doing anything and everything that Grand Ayatollah Sistani wants. The Marines should invade Fallujah to flush out insurgents but lay off the holy city of Najaf, which Sistani has deemed unassailable. Sistani should also be allowed to decide the fate of Muqtada al-Sadr.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker, May 3
In "Letter From Baghdad," Jon Lee Anderson traverses the city slum Sadr City, where some streets are covered with more than a foot of raw sewage. Anderson wonders if Muqtada al-Sadr would've been able to mobilize a large militia of angry Shiites if the coalition had tried to drain the sewage or initiated any other public works programs in Iraq's Shiite strongholds. The piece also suggests that the Coalition Provisional Authority erred in disbanding all Iraqi militias. While the underequipped, de-Baathified Iraqi police faltered when fighting insurgents, a unique battalion of Iraqis culled from various militias and trained by American special forces has performed promisingly and could be the starting point for a native Iraqi security force.

Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and Time

Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and Time, May 3
Department of defense: A Newsweek story argues that "many U.S. deaths and wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur." It cites a defense consultant's study that claims one-quarter of those killed would have been saved if they were riding in vehicles with better armor. Along with a shortage of protected humvees, there's also a dearth of tanks—around 70 battle tanks are now in Iraq, down from 400 a year ago. (Read Slate's Eric Umansky's story on the military's underarmored humvees.) … U.S. News says a rudimentary missile defense system scheduled to go online in Alaska by the end of September is a rush job. The midair missile interception device, designed to blow apart a strike from North Korea, hasn't been adequately tested, and improved radar won't be available until late 2005. Besides, there's no need to rush: North Korea likely isn't close to developing a long-range missile.

The secret lives of presidential candidates: The U.S. News cover story on what John Kerry and George W. Bush were up to in "tumultuous" 1971 doesn't shift the conventional wisdom: Kerry on the stump raging against the Vietnam War; Bush living the high life in Houston and figuring out what he wanted to do with his life. … "She's a lot of woman," says a proud John Kerry in Newsweek's cover story on ketchup heiress turned potential first lady Teresa Heinz Kerry. The piece argues that the campaign should let the free spirit loose—Heinz Kerry's unscripted outbursts aren't that damaging, and her moderate views could win over undecided voters. (Slate's Julia Turner made the same points last December in this "Assessment" of Heinz Kerry.)

Dieting and kids, kids and dieting: Time milks another feature story out of the low-carb craze. In noting that up to 90 million Americans are reducing their carbohydrate intake and that sales of decarbed products will reach $30 billion this year, the magazine occasionally descends into flowery overstatement. "Hunkering down with a thick-crusted, aromatic loaf somehow made Americans feel safer at home in the months after the 9/11 attacks," starts one passage. "Today bread is bad, and it is the beleaguered baker who is seeking solace, both emotionally and economically." … Newsweek notes the trend to destigmatize kids with complicated-sounding disorders. Instead of diagnosing kids with sensory integration dysfunction or pervasive development disorder, some pediatricians have taken to just calling their patients "quirky" or "eccentric."

—Sian Gibby also contributed to this column.

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Josh Levin is a Slate associate editor. You can e-mail him at .
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