Dragon?
The Economist says various problems will hold China back.
By Bidisha Banerjee, Jesse Stanchak, and David Wallace-Wells
Updated Friday, March 25, 2005, at 2:51 PM PT

Economist, March 26
The cover package argues that competition from Japan and the United States, combined with internal corruption, poverty, and political scheming, will prevent China from controlling East Asia in the near future. At the same time, the region's stability is very much dependent on China's response to Taiwan and North Korea. ? Another piece criticizes the Tory response to gypsies in Britain. Because a 1994 law curtailed the number of places where they could park their caravans, gypsies have resorted to illegal camping. In response, the Tories have praised Ireland, where trespassing is a crime; they've also threatened to repeal the Human Rights Act, claiming that it helps gypsies challenge the government. Calling the Tories' proposals "slightly less useful than a sprig of lucky heather," the article points out that Ireland has substantially increased the number of legal camping sites. Also, when gypsies appeal to courts about this issue, their rare victories aren't because of the Human Rights Act.?B.B.
Harper's, April 2005
An article about the effects of strip mining in Appalachia focuses on Lost Mountain in Kentucky "before, during, and after its transformation into a western desert." The piece condemns the destruction of natural resources that we don't have immediate use for, and reflects on the sexual practices of liverwort. (A male liverwort "extends a tiny, umbrella-shaped antenna"; when rain strikes it, "sperm explodes inside that raindrop and bounces a couple of feet," in order to hit a female receptive to the "sperm-laden droplets.") It also laments the loss of the "oldest and most diverse" North American forests and bemoans the impact of modern mining practices (in which "entire mountaintops are blasted off") upon the people who live near the mountain. ? Another piece examines how Cubans have been forced to develop "what may be the world's largest working model of a semi-sustainable agriculture." In response to massive food shortages caused by the fall of the Soviet Union and the stringency of the U.S. embargo, Cubans have created predominantly organic urban gardens.?B.B.
Legal Affairs, March-April 2005
Two former applicants for clerkships with William Rehnquist?one who was hired, one who wasn't?debate the legacy of the chief justice. Despite conventional wisdom that Rehnquist has significantly advanced the cause of federalism during his tenure, the lawyer passed over writes that Rehnquist's juridical inconsistency has favored no ideology, only the absolute supremacy of the court. The lawyer hired by the chief justice argues that Rehnquist's votes for federal restraint demonstrate consistent and "profound humility," rather than activism from the bench. (An accompanying piece charts the rates of agreement among the nine justices of the Rehnquist Court). ? An investigative study examines the degenerate incentive system that animates the Department of Veterans Affairs, where quota systems, rushed judgments, outmoded bookkeeping, and limited oversight have meant many legitimate claims for disability payments have been unfairly denied for decades. According to the piece, a review board overturned more than 60 percent of denials appealed between 2000 and 2003.?D.W.
American Prospect, April 2005
The cover story argues that the pro-life movement has gained ground since Roe v. Wade by casting its arguments in emotional instead of legal terms and says its time for pro-choice advocates to adopt the same tactics to build sympathy for would-be mothers faced with a difficult choice. "The challenge for pro-choicers is to balance America's growing sympathy for fetuses with an equal?or greater?concern for women," writes Jodi Edna. "They must counter the image of a humanized fetus with that of a human, caring, and sometimes suffering woman?with a woman who has needs and feelings and morals." ... A movement to oust Sen. Joe Lieberman is under way in Connecticut, as detailed in a piece outlining both the gripes that many Democrats hold against the senator and hurdles confronting the "Dump Joe" movement in trying to unseat the incumbent.?J.S.
Scientific American, April 2005
Business practices might be a product of evolution, suggests a piece that explores how animal behaviors mirror economics. Through a variety of studies on chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, and cleaner fish, Frans B.M. de Waal shows how concepts of supply and demand, reciprocity, and even valuing good customer service might have been handed down by our animal ancestors. "This evolutionary explanation of how for why we interact as we do," writes de Wall, "is gaining influence with the advent of a new school, known as behavioral economics, that focuses on actual human behavior, rather than abstract principles." ? A new painkiller has its origins on the ocean bottom, reports a piece on Prialt, a synthetic version of cone-snail venom that will be injected directly into patients' spines to treat certain types of chronic pain resistant to opiates and aspirin.?J.S.
New York, March 28
Ben Stiller is profiled as he prepares to open a new drama off Broadway. The 39-year-old actor is found wrestling with the age-old comedian's dilemma of how to be taken seriously as an actor and land the dramatic roles that have eluded him for years. "Apparently, once you've zippered your scrotum, dangled sperm off your ear, been Tasered, faked explosive diarrhea, and filmed yourself in an orgy involving a donkey and a Maori tribesman," writes Logan Hill, "some studios just won't trust you with serious material." ? Cablevision CEO James Dolan grants a rare interview in a piece delving into his public feud with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his private battles with his father, Chairman Chuck Dolan, at family-run Cablevision, "the North Korea of the cable business."?J.S.
New York Times Magazine, March 27
The cover story looks at the exurban megachurch as a supplier of the social infrastructure otherwise lacking in the developing communities of the rural West. The complex maintained by the Radiant Church in Surprise, Ariz., functions as a Christian clubhouse for the boomtown: It offers a flat-screen TV lounge, video games for kids, an upscale coffee shop, bookstore, aerobics classes, and positive self-help sermons on such nontraditional subjects as sex and the stock market. "We want the church to look like a mall," says Pastor Lee McFarland, who believes casual churchgoers will eventually gravitate toward the church's evangelical core. "We want you to come in here and say, 'Dude, where's the cinema?' " ? A photo essay covers how field hospitals treat soldiers injured in the Iraq war. ? A profile of Benjamin Biolay relentlessly compares the singer to French icon Serge Gainsbourg and finds the younger chanteur a reluctant hero to a new generation of French pop.?D.W.
The New Yorker, March 28
In a piece that asks, "Do ads still work?" Ken Auletta focuses on advertising guru Linda Kaplan Thaler, who firmly believes that all publicity is good publicity. (Thaler thought up the enormously successful quacking duck commercials for Aflac, an insurance company.) Noting that the declining importance of network television has put an end to traditional advertising approaches, the article looks at the rise of product placement and Internet advertising. ? In a profile of Antonin Scalia, Margaret Talbot suggests that the conservative Supreme Court justice provides "the jurisprudential equivalent of smashing a guitar onstage." Claiming that Scalia appears to be "campaigning" for the position of chief justice, Talbot explores his disdain for the concept of a "living Constitution," and writes, "[I]t's hard to identify a Scalia Doctrine that speaks for the Court, as opposed to a Scalia Doctrine that speaks for Scalia."?B.B.
Weekly Standard, March 28
A piece excoriates former baseball player Jose Canseco, whose allegations that his former teammates used steroids led to last week's congressional hearings into steroid use: "Jose Canseco is against smoking and stress. He's for the environment. He's a liar. He's a criminal. He's a tattletale. He changes his story from audience to audience. Why isn't this guy in Congress?" ? Another piece defends President Bush's nomination of Paul Wolfowitz as the new president of the World Bank. Citing Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden's support for Wolfowitz, the article calls the Europeans' "caricature" of him "tripe," and argues, "They say he is a warmonger (he is not) and a unilateralist (he is not) and a tool of the Likud party in Israel (he is often quite skeptical of Ariel Sharon and advocated giving the Palestinians a state when that view was considered radical)." (Slate's Fred Kaplan wrote about Wolfowitz here , and Christopher Hitchens did so here .)?B.B.
Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report, March 28
Condoleezza Rice: In an extremely upbeat appraisal of Condoleezza Rice's performance as secretary of state, Time claims that Rice is already internationally "bigger and more popular" than Bush. Arguing that Paul Wolfowitz's recent nomination to run the World Bank means that "Rice and her realist deputies have gained the upper hand over their neoconservative rivals at the Defense Department," the piece evaluates Rice's relationship with rivals like John Bolton (whose departure for the United Nations is another victory for Rice) and allies like Karen Hughes. "[F]or now, the nonstop dissonance of the first term has subsided, replaced by something new: a single voice who speaks confidently for the boss," concludes the article. ? An online-only piece in Newsweek argues that Rice's "mildly pro-choice," position makes her an unlikely presidential candidate in 2008.
Women international: Newsweek profiles Mukhtar Mai , the Pakistani woman whose village council ordered her gang-raped three years ago because her teenage brother was accused of having an affair with an older woman. Since then, Mai has garnered international support and significantly improved life for women in her village. Time reports on the visit to the United States by the sisters and fiancé of Robert McCartney, whose murder has turned public sentiment in Ireland against the Irish Republican Army. They met with several senators and were guests of President Bush at a St. Patrick's Day reception: "Everywhere the women were seen ? Americans applauded their stand against the IRA." ? And, in light of the high-profile divorce of Joan Stonecipher from her husband Harry, the recently deposed CEO of Boeing, U.S. News revisits Lorna Wendt, whose 1995 divorce from a leading General Electric executive "touched off a national dialogue about stay-at-home corporate spouses and what they're entitled to in divorce." (Wendt won close to half of her husband's assets.)
Odds and ends: Time's cover grapples with the prevalence of indecency on television. One year after Janet Jackson's infamous "Nipplegate," there's a new FCC head, and Congress is attempting to increase the agency's power to regulate decency?maybe even on cable. Arguing that indecency is a matter of context, the piece insists that people "don't want absolute rules. They want boundaries: they just want to know where the cultural deep end and the kiddie pool are." ? U.S. News' cover examines FBI Director Robert Mueller's struggle to transform his organization: "Today, the premium is not so much on busting bad guys after they commit a crime but on spotting terrorists and stopping them before they attack." ? And Newsweek's cover looks at the early days of Christianity and asks why the religion was so successful even though Jesus' second coming, which early disciples expected to witness, never happened.?B.B.
Bidisha Banerjee is a Slate editorial assistant.
Jesse Stanchak is a Slate intern.
David Wallace-Wells is a Slate intern.

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- posted by Michael P. Whelan @ 7:13 PM