Slate

No Country for Old Dictators (Slate.com)

Steve Clemons at the Washington Note, proving that all politics are local, weighs the effects of Castro's actions on the U.S. presidential election. He likes Obama because he promises to end our Cuba policy: "Of all the low cost opportunities to demonstrate a new and different US style of engagement with the world, Cuba is at the top of the list. Opening family travel—and frankly all travel—between Cuba and the US, and ending… more

Slate Magazine examines the term socialized medicine. This label is known to have slain past health care proposals, and it was used most recently by 2008 GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani to denounce Democratic candidates' plans to fix the healthcare system. The following is an excerpt from "Who's Afraid of Socialized Medicine?":

... In 1994 the term socialized medicine was heard less often than in previous battles. One of the few who used it was Clinton, when he donned Truman's mantle… more

It's the middle of April, which means it's time to wring our hands about the Alternative Minimum Tax. This parallel tax system, first created to make sure really rich people couldn't avoid paying taxes by notching huge deductions, has slowly expanded its reach. If you live in a state where incomes, property taxes, and state income taxes are comparatively high i.e., the coasts you're in greater danger of paying the AMT. That's why I've dubbed it a secret tax… more

Saudi Arabian Ambassador Turki al-Faisal's remarks Monday night were as carefully tailored as his gray suit. He called for peace in the Middle East and a face-saving solution for all parties involved in the violence. Speaking in a measured tone, as if a baby were sleeping in the next room, he quoted Robert Frost and Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. But beneath the diplomat's even manner was a sharp message for President Bush: If you keep failing to act in the… more

Earlier this month, Sheffield University in Britain offered $252,000 to one of its senior medical professors, Aubrey Blumsohn. According to a copy of a proposed settlement released by Blumsohn, the university promised to pay him if he would agree to leave his post and not make any detrimental or derogatory statements about Sheffield or its employees. For several years, Blumsohn had been complaining of scientific misconduct. His concerns primarily revolved around a $250,000 research contract between Sheffield and the Ohio-based… more

The pharmaceutical industry long ago perfected the art of getting its marketing message into other people's mouths. Amgen quietly paid Rob Lowe to appear on a CNN talk show to chat up the company's cancer drug; antidepressant manufacturers routinely underwrite patient advocacy organizations, like the National Alliance on Mental Illness,that pump up their drugs. But third-party strategy, as it's known in the advertising world, has recently had its perils for PhRMA, the major lobbying group that represents drug manufacturers. The… more

Human beings are self-absorbed creatures, so the response to Hurricane Katrina has naturally included some hand-wringing over the question: Could this happen to my hometown? Depending on the worrywart's location, the theoretical catastrophe could be a flash flood, a wildfire, or an earthquake rather than a hurricane; no corner of the United States is immune to lethal natural disasters.

Still, some corners are safer than others. If an American wants to minimize his chances of dying at Mother Nature's hands,… more

Doctors have long maintained that they are immune to the blandishments of drug companies. The lucrative consulting contracts, fancy meals, trips to exotic locales, free pens, flashlights, coffee mugs, and sticky notepads emblazoned with prescription-drug brand names -- none of these are supposed to cloud a physician's clinical judgment. Doctors like to think they decide which treatments to order and which drugs to prescribe because of scientific evidence, not marketing.

But the companies think they know otherwise. Last week, five… more

The recent spate of terrorist attacks and kidnappings in Saudi Arabia has elicited familiar hand-wringing about the kingdom's stability. On the June 10 edition of Marketplace, reporter Stephen Beard noted, "Saudi Arabia certainly has many of the prerequisites of revolution." On May 31, a columnist in Britain's Independent declared, "Saudi Arabia is in trouble.

Iraq is mired in a Catch-22. The country is unstable because the government lacks legitimacy. The government lacks legitimacy because it wasn't elected. And you can't have elections because the country is unstable.

There may be a way to reverse this grim spiral of logic, a way to create legitimate governance and in the process peacefully disarm insurgents in Najaf, Falluja, and elsewhere. The key is to realize that elections can be incremental. They can occur in stable… more