(posted Tuesday, Dec. 10)
Having already explored cyber-culture, cyber-commerce, cyber-sex, cyber-news, cyber-tainment, and cyber-just-about-everything-else, Time moves on to cyber-religion. The cover package, " Jesus Online," tours religious Web sites and discussion groups, then declares that the "high-speed spiritual bazaar" may transform religion by creating virtual spiritual communities. "[The Internet] is a vast cathedral of the mind ... where faith can be shaped and defined by a collective spirit." (A Time Web search locates 410,000 references to God, and only 25,000 references to Bill Gates.) A profile of Madeleine Albright enthuses that she has "the heart of a teacher ... and the skills of a talk-show host." And Time describes Florida billionaire Wayne "Blockbuster Video" Huizenga's ambitious plan for a nationwide chain of no-haggle car dealerships.
(posted Tuesday, Dec. 10)
Newsweek encroaches on U.S. News' "news you can use" franchise with a cover package on retirement investing. "The New Nest Egg" advises aging boomers to keep a sharp eye on their 401(K) plans and to diversify their portfolios (i.e., don't just buy U.S. stocks). A sidebar assures boomers that they "won't have to live on dog food" in their "golden years" because they are wealthier than their parents; more have pensions; and many are in two-earner families. A related feature predicts a bear market, then explains why it won't be such a bad thing. The Madeleine Albright profile, "The Lady Is a Hawk," emphasizes her strength and determination, but a commentator warns that Clinton's new foreign-policy team is dangerously lacking in vision. And a behind-the-scenes look at Madonna's Evita.
(posted Tuesday, Dec. 10)
A feature traces the weird relationship between FBI agent Lin DeVecchio and his Mafia informant, Gregory Scarpa, a Colombo crime-family hit man. According to the article, Scarpa may have used confidential information supplied to him by DeVecchio to assassinate rivals. A long review of a Picasso biography declares that most of his painting is lousy, and that his reputation survives only because it is protected by an unthinking "Picasso cult." Also, Joe Klein (late of Primary Colors and Newsweek) delivers his first dispatch as the magazine's Washington correspondent, predicting that Clinton and the Republican Congress will cooperate.
(posted Tuesday, Dec. 10)
U.S. News rings in the holidays with "Sweatshop Christmas." The cover story acknowledges that labor standards differ--a terrible job for an American may be a wonderful opportunity for a Haitian--but says some American firms do too little to protect workers. Disney, Nike, and Guess are slapped; Levi-Strauss is praised. In " I'm OK, You're Not," U.S. News considers this paradox: Most Americans think the country is collapsing, but they also think that they personally are doing fine. Even residents of Cabrini-Green, the notorious Chicago housing project, love living there. They think the rest of Chicago is dangerous. Also, a photo essay on Korean "comfort women," and a review of cruise ships.
(posted Tuesday, Dec. 10)
A Freudian slip by the Standard? Its cover headline reads, "Suppose there is a gay gene ... What then?" Below it: "Maybe You Should Carry a Handgun"--the tease for another story. The gay-gene article argues for the genetic origins of homosexuality ("[It] is like left-handedness, and is neither chosen nor pathological"), then explains why the gay gene should delight conservatives: It vindicates the conservative view of human nature--that "we are born with many important aspects of the way we are." More important, it raises the possibility that gene therapy can transform homos into heteros. The editorial, pegged to the suspension of the California Civil Rights Initiative by a federal judge, denounces the judicial branch's arrogance and suggests abolishing lifetime tenure for federal judges. Also, the Standard ridicules James Carville's assault on Kenneth Starr.
(posted Friday, Dec. 6)
TNR criticizes one of the most-praised books of 1996, and praises one of the most criticized. The cover story unloads on Frank Sulloway's Born to Rebel, which argues that birth order explains history. (Firstborns are conservative; later-borns are rebellious. That's it.) TheNew Yorker, Newsweek, and other media slobbered over Sulloway, but TNR's review ("Birth Order, Shmirth Order") questions his methods and ridicules the universality of his theory. Also, Daniel Goldhagen, whose controversial Hitler's Willing Executioners contended that Germans participated enthusiastically in the Holocaust, writes a long essay defending his book and excoriating his many critics, including TNR's reviewer. And, a writer argues that the recently approved California Civil Rights Initiative is constitutional.
(posted Friday, Dec. 6)
The cover story, which is pegged to the start of the world-trade summit, asserts that free trade is not free enough. Obstacles to free commerce include China's protectionism, fights over industries such as textiles and finance, and disagreements about labor laws. The related editorial wonders if regional agreements such as NAFTA hinder world trade by erecting barriers against nonparticipating countries. Also, the magazine applauds the report that the Consumer Price Index is exaggerated, but warns that adjusting the CPI is not a substitute for real entitlement reform. And, an essay tries to prove that modern philosophy is relevant.
(posted Thursday, Dec. 5)
A two-story package, headlined on the cover as "What Have the Ellwoods Done to America?" profiles health-policy expert Paul Ellwood and his son, welfare-policy expert David Ellwood. "Mugged by Reality" describes how Ellwood fils, who popularized the idea of welfare time limits, saw his idea "hijacked and brutalized" by conservatives. The second story recounts the disillusionment of Ellwood pere: Once America's leading champion of managed care, he's increasingly horrified by HMOs' indifference to quality. Also, a writer wanders with the "travelers"--New York's white homeless street punks--and finds them more pathetic than rebellious. And, an essayist argues that the Internet is "a monument to idleness and wasted time," then explains why that's good.
--Compiled by David Plotz and the editors of S LATE.