Campaign 2008

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No Money To Burn
Time and the Economist on how to fix the economic slowdown.
Morgan Smith
posted May 16, 2008
Getting Away From It All
New York on the "suicide tourists" who come to the Big Apple—and never leave.
Morgan Smith
posted May 13, 2008
Break a Leg Like a Girl
The New York Times Magazine on high-school female athletes' alarming injury rates.
Morgan Smith
posted May 9, 2008
Return to the Frey
Vanity Fair revisits one of the publishing industry's biggest fake-memoir scandals.
Morgan Smith
posted May 6, 2008
The Cure for the Rage
The New York Times Magazine on whether inner-city violence should be treated like an infectious disease.
Morgan Smith
posted May 2, 2008
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other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

The Republican ClosetOut on activists' threats to force right-wing congressional staffers from the closet.

By Morgan Smith
Posted Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at 2:53 PM ET

Out, May 2008
An article investigates "Washington in the 21^st century, where … many gay Republicans still cower in the closet until they trip themselves up with off-color instant messages to teenage pages. ..." Gay Democrats and gay Republicans have long feuded over right-wing attempts to "win elections by demonizing gay people." Now, activists are threatening to out gay Republican staffers—and many have left their congressional jobs to avoid the intimidation. … A piece knocks the "man-crush" trend, in which heterosexual men feign romantic attraction for men they admire, like Tom Brady or John McCain. The author writes that it's tempting to "praise how wonderful it is that American straight men finally feel comfortable enough in their own emotional skin to admit that they have attractions for other men"—but he's disappointed that "the only way straight American males can verbalize a possible sexual attraction to another man is to infantilize it."

The New Yorker, April 21
A piece in the "Journeys" issue visits the Sundarbans, a watery mangrove ecosystem between India and Bangladesh, where "crocodiles, sharks, cobras, kraits, swimming tigers, and cyclones—make it one of the most dangerous places in the world." The area is also home to the globe's largest tiger population. Most tigers develop a "taste for humans" only when the tigers are "old or infirm." But the Sundarbans tigers eat humans more readily because they never learned to fear people. Despite their man-eating, the tigers are revered by locals who recognize that if the Sundarbans are lost, "the tiger episode on earth is over." … An essay meditates on elevators and explores their history, place in popular culture, and the tale of the man who "walked onto an elevator one night, with his life in one kind of shape, and emerged from it with his life in another."

New York, April 21
The cover story profiles John McCain to discern "whether [his] maverick persona, which is deeply rooted in his renegade run in the primaries eight years ago, will hold up under scrutiny" in light of his lobbyist-filled staff, reversal on the Bush tax cuts, and "toadying" to conservative firebrands like Jerry Falwell. … In an essay, Slate contributor Amanda Fortini examines the possibility that Hillary Clinton's presidential bid has awakened a "fourth wave" of feminism in America. Right-wing and media response to her candidacy (like the "frat boys at MSNBC portraying [her] as a castrating scold") reveals that the "old gender wounds … had, to the surprise of many of us, been festering all along." But Clinton's campaign has also uncovered a defining rift among women, between "those [women] who have encountered gender-based hurdles and affronts as they pursued their professional ambitions and those who have not. …"

Weekly Standard, April 21
The cover story calls for a "no-fault" boycott of the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony and runs down the Chinese response to criticism of its recent Tibet crackdown. According to the piece, journalists are complicit in China's failure to improve its human rights record before the Olympics because of their "sporadic, selective coverage" of abuses. They have particularly neglected to document the "mindbending persecution" of Falun Gong members. … An op-ed derides the "vultures of the left," led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who "habitually hover, waiting for bad news from Iraq." Such leftists reached their "conclusions about Iraq long ago [and] won't let new facts disturb their settled view." … A piece revels in the Max Mosley Nazi sex scandal: "[U]nlike Eliot Spitzer's pedestrian misdeeds, … this one has everything. Whips, chains, Nazi uniforms, role-playing, five hookers in a Chelsea basement 'dungeon' … and YouTube footage of the hanky-panky."

Newsweek, April 21
The cover story checks in with people who grew up following the 1969 passage of California's "no-fault" divorce law. After interviewing several members of his high-school class, the author proposes that "the urge to stay married is stronger in my classmates' generation than the urge to get divorced was in my parents'." … An article reviews the history of the modern papacy's influence. It argues that in "quietly put[ting] his pontificate behind the forces of Islamic reform," Benedict will be a major player in the "potentially historic tectonic shifts going on, both within Islam and in the world of interreligious dialogue." … An interview examines Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore's rift with the environmental organization over nuclear energy. Moore left Greenpeace because it was moving into " 'pop environmentalism,' which uses sensationalism, misinformation, fear tactics, etc., to deal with people on an emotional level rather than an intellectual level"—part of which is equating nuclear energy with nuclear weapons.

Men's Vogue, April 2008
A profile of Jeff Gordon, the "winningest driver in the history of Nascar's premier series," reveals he is also the "most gay-bashed straight man in America." It's difficult for the self-proclaimed "Prada shoe guy" to fit into the culture of the red states' favorite sport, but the backlash against him is more a response to the commercialization of NASCAR: "its Californication, merchandizing, suburbanization, and feminization." … A piece details the anti-lawn crusade of Fritz Haeg, the architect behind a movement to replace homeowners' front lawns with vegetable gardens. Maintaining a lawn is an "antisocial" activity that wastes time and resources, according to Haeg. He hopes his "Edible Estates" movement will "address a host of issues, including water usages, pesticides, global food production, and human relationships."