New Republic, Nov. 7 The cover story criticizes the trend away from managed care and toward health savings accounts. HSAs are a cheaper option for businesses and healthy individuals, the article acknowledges, but a wholesale shift to them—as the Republicans seem to want—“would place the burden for severe medical expenses more squarely on families that incur them. … It’s a sharp departure from the philosophy of solidarity and shared risk that has governed America’s approach to health care for over 70 years.”… An article explains how illegal immigration could become a key issue in the South. The region’s middle class expanded rapidly in the ‘80s and ‘90s, creating demand for unskilled labor, which in turn led to greatly expanded immigrant populations. A backlash is burgeoning, and anti-immigration platforms may become common in Southern conservative politics—especially if the anti-immigration campaigns of Van Hilleary, a Republican running for Bill Frist’s Tennessee Senate seat, and Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore are successful.—B.W.
Economist, Oct. 29 The cover story and leader on the embattled White House agree that Bush is in a deep hole after the withdrawal of Harriet Miers and the expected Plamegate indictments, not to mention continuing bad news from Iraq and a host of domestic political frustrations. But, argues the magazine, all is not lost for Bush’s second term if he uses these setbacks as an opportunity to clean house. The magazine’s advice: “Choosing somebody who is intellectually first-rate for the Supreme Court would be a good first step.”… Two articles on Ben Bernanke, Bush’s nominee to succeed Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman, express relief that he’s a serious economist but worry about the former professor’s lack of government experience and that, “As a big ideas man rather than a policymaker, Mr Bernanke may not be boring enough to be a good Fed chairman.”—B.W.
New York Times Magazine, Oct. 30 An article dissects how anti-Americanism has become a hobby for the highbrowed European. While “down with America” cheerleaders Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal are still considered to be on the fringe of public discourse in America, things differ across the pond, “where the anti-American left is far more intellectually respectable.” The author suggests combating this verve “by boasting about our benevolence less and proving it more—by acting, that is, in ways that seem worthy of a great democracy. … The cover reveals that America’s pension system is on life-support. One industry leader points out that employee longevity is no longer a valued trait and says, “A pension plan makes no sense in today’s world. It’s not wise for a company to make financial promises 40 or 50 years down the road.”—Z.K.
National Review, Nov. 7 An article reveals how Alaska, a state “that prides itself on its self-reliance and frontier spirit, became so dependent on federal spending.” According to Citizens Against Government Waste, the state places “first in per capita pork spending.” Larry Persily, an editor at the Anchorage Daily New, suggests: “It’s kind of like Alaskans want to go to bed with the feds but don’t want to wake up and share breakfast with them.”… An article calls out the Nobel Prize Committee for its not-so-covert anti-Americanism. The peace prize was awarded to the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, someone who “has opposed the United States and sought to thwart the United States at nearly every turn.” And Harold Pinter, who won the prize for literature, is “just about the most anti-American writer around.”—Z.K.
New York, Oct. 31 The cover story asks people to determine their “New York number,” the amount of money a New Yorker must amass before retiring. Taking lifestyle and investing habits into account, estimates range from $1 million for the frugal to $20 million for the ostentatious. Diversified investments are a must: If you “insist on keeping your New York Number in CDs, bonds, or under the mattress, a rise in cost of living will erode your ‘super safe’ portfolio,” the article warns. … Another article assesses Joel Klein, New York City’s school chancellor. The former Justice Department attorney and media exec drew criticism for proposals such as ending social promotion, but recent test score improvements are burnishing Klein’s reputation and could launch a mayoral candidacy. If he runs, Klein should be good at the baby-kissing aspect of campaigning. “Never has New York seen a huggier political figure than Klein,” the article says.—T.B.
Atlantic Monthly, November 2005 The cover focuses on Pakistan’s nuclear mastermind, A.Q. Khan, who has been under house arrest since February 2004; he doesn’t have access to papers, television, the phone, or the Internet, and is “held beyond the reach of even the intelligence services of the United States.” Refusing to treat Khan solely as the evil genius he’s often made out to be, the article explains how Khan stole nuclear secrets while working at FDO, a Dutch company that designed ultra-centrifuges in the 1970s. Khan never acted like he had anything to hide, and the company utterly lacked a “culture of suspicion.” It even allowed employees to “scavenge keepsakes” from a bin containing “discarded prototype centrifuge parts.” … Another piece, by Slate’s Emily Bazelon, examines comparativism, the Supreme Court’s growing tendency to take other countries’ laws into consideration while ruling on U.S. law. Noting that both liberal and centrist conservative judges like the practice, the article quotes Justice Stephen Breyer’s defense of the practice: “Really, it isn’t true that England is the moon, nor is India.”—B.B.
Mother Jones, November/December 2005 The cover profiles Ohio’s Paul Hackett, a Democrat who narrowly lost his bid for a House seat this summer. Noting that “he scored decisive wins in the white, lower-income, high-unemployment rural areas that Democrats long ago abandoned,” the piece examines Hackett’s outspokenness (he has called President Bush an SOB and a chickenhawk but also said he’d be willing to die for him) and his unorthodox approach to being a Democrat. … A photo essay looks at Thailand’s Moken tribe, famous for evading last year’s tsunami because of its intimate knowledge of the ocean (most of its adults can dive 200 feet into the ocean; historically, they’ve lived on boats for most of the year and rarely spent time on land). The piece emphasizes that the group is going through hard times: drugs, alcohol, AIDS, forced resettlement into a national park, forced separation from relatives in Burma, and an environmentally-minded prohibition against cutting big trees to make houseboats.—B.B.
New York Review of Books, Nov. 17
Peter Canby details the environmental threats posed to Alaska’s North Slope if the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are opened to oil drilling. Together, the coastal plains of these areas are the summer home to millions of caribou, migratory birds from six continents, and other fauna. Canby concludes that a likely development scenario would cover “350 miles of the North Slope coast, and [turn] what had not long before been a wilderness into something resembling a frozen version of northern New Jersey.” … Larry McMurtry reviews a new biography of Joseph Smith by Mormon scholar Richard Bushman. Recounting the fantastic early “history” of the church, McMurtry calls Bushman to task for failing to take a firm stance on the incredible aspects of the story. “Either Joseph Smith was the mouthpiece of God,” McMurtry writes, “or he was just a clever young man who babbled out a kind of trance-written novel.”—B.W.
Rolling Stone, Nov. 3
Jann S. Wenner’s lengthy interview with Bono touches on the usual rock-star topics, including daddy issues, touring, fame, band tensions, drug use, and insecurity. But it also reveals that his “big-mouthed Irish rock star” dedication to the plight of Africa is real—not a PR stunt that allows him to pal around with Paul O’Neill, Jeffery Sachs, and President Bush. He and his wife spent time living and working in an Ethiopian orphanage (where he was known as “the girl with the beard” because of his earring), teaching kids survival skills. And although he admits to being “tired of tin-cupping, begging for the beggars,” he’ll continue because, “if I don’t do it, I’ve walked away from an opportunity to really effect some change in a world that badly needs it.” Oh, and the sunglasses aren’t rock-star shtick; his eyes really are sensitive to light.—Z.K.
The New Yorker, Oct. 31 A profile of Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to the first President Bush, reveals his disenchantment with the state of affairs in Iraq and the current Bush administration. Former colleagues acknowledge that it was Scowcroft’s nudging that prompted Bush pere not to go “wobbly” and to get Saddam out of Kuwait. Yet, Scowcroft did not see the wisdom in pushing on to Baghdad: “At minimum, we’d be an occupier in a hostile land,” says Scowcroft. “Our forces would be sniped at by guerrillas, and, once we were there, how would we get out?” The current conditions reflect what Scowcroft, frozen out by the current administration, was trying to avoid. “We own it. And we can’t let go. We’re getting sniped at. Now, will we win?”… A profile of Justice Stephen Breyer reveals that whenever he feels down, the thought of a scolding by his judicial guru, the late Arthur Goldberg, perks him up: “What are you taking about, feeling sorry for yourself? Get down and do it. Keep going.”— Z.K.
Weekly Standard, Oct. 31 The cover article assesses the military’s three objectives in Iraq: removing Saddam and his sons from power, combating foreign fighters, and handing Iraq back to the Iraqis. With Saddam captured and his sons killed, the military must face the other objectives, which might be too large in scope. Rather than trying to remove foreign fighters, the article suggests, we should focus on improving relations with the Sunni Muslims. Furthermore, a rushed withdrawal would be disastrous. “To imagine that the coalition can withdraw, turn an insurgency over to the inexperienced Iraqi army, and expect that army to defeat the insurgency is folly,” the article says. … The recent gathering for the Millions More Movement, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March, was a “farce,” says an article. This time, there were fewer participants and more ravings from Farrakhan. “To label him a mere demagogue is to give him short shrift as a loon,” the article declares.—T.B.
Time and Newsweek, Oct. 31 Syria: Time’s article on the recent U.N. report accusing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s inner circle of “playing leading roles” in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri suggests that an end to the Assad family’s reign is a “real, if still distant, possibility.” Such a collapse could result in “a political vacuum that leads to a civil war between” the majority Sunni Muslims and the minority Alawites, a sect that includes the Assad family. “This is the most serious crisis in the recent history of Syria,” says a Syrian scholar. … Newsweek shifts the focus from the Assad clan to Sheik Ahmed Abdel-Al, “a central figure in the benign-sounding Association of Islamic Philanthropic Projects in Lebanon” whose phone activity just before and after the assassination makes him look like “a switchboard operator at the nexus of several elaborate circuits.” The sheik’s attempt to steer the focus of the investigation to a man who has since disappeared makes him even more sinister.
Odds and ends: Both magazines review Christ the Lord, the newest book by supernatural scribe Anne Rice. Christ the Lord’s narrator is none other than a 7-year-old Jesus, a significant (or is it?) departure for an author whose previous works center on vampires and demons. Time calls it “an intensely literal, historical, reverent treatment of a year in the life of Jesus,” with “[a] few liberties taken.” Newsweek cautions, “The attempt to render a child’s point of view can read like a Sunday-school text crossed with Hemingway.” … Time’s cover story investigates companies that are reneging on pensions, leaving people without money to finance their retirements, which they say is leading to “the dawning perception among Americans that when it comes to retirement, baby, you’re on your own.”—T.B.
