Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1090

Pulitzer Prizes Awarded

The winners of this year's Pulitzer Prizes were announced this afternoon, in all 21 categories, meaning that there were no surprise non-winners in the fiction category like last year. Here's the list via Pulitzer's website, where you can also see the finalists.

Journalism

Public Service The Sun Sentinel for an investigation of recklessly speeding off duty police officers.

Breaking News Reporting The Denver Post staff for their coverage of the Aurora Colorado shootings at The Dark Knight Rises.

Investigative Reporting David Barstow and Alejandra Xanic von Bertrab of The New York Times for their stories on Wal-Mart in Mexico. 

Explanatory Reporting The New York Times staff for its reports on Apple and other tech companies. 

Local Reporting Brad Schrade, Jeremy Olson and Glenn Howatt of The Star Tribune for reports on infant deaths in day-care homes. 

National Reporting Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan and David Hasemyer of InsideClimate News, Brooklyn, NY for their reports on regulation of the country's oil pipeline. 

International Reporting David Barboza of The New York Times for his work on corruption in the Chinese government. 

Feature Writing John Branch of The New York Times for "Snow Fall," his story about the avalanche at Tunnel Creek. 

Commentary Bret Stephens of The Wall Street Journal for columns on politics and foreign policy. 

Criticism Philip Kennicott of The Washington Post for his art criticism. 

Editorial Writing Tim Nickens and Daniel Ruth of the Tampa Bay Times for what is described as their "diligent campaign that helped reverse a decision to end fluoridation of the water supply for the 700,000 residents of the newspaper’s home county." 

Editorial Cartooning Steve Sack of The Star Tribune for his "diverse collection of cartoons." 

Breaking News Photography Rodrigo Abd, Manu Brabo, Narciso Contreras, Khalil Hamra and Muhammed Muheisen of the Associated Press for their coverage of the Civil War in Syria. 

Feature Photography Javier Manzano, freelance photography Agence France-Presse for his photo of two Syrian rebel soldiers. 

Letters, Music, and Drama

Fiction The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson 
A novel about North Korea. 

Drama Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
Ayad Akhtar's play is about a Pakistani-American corporate lawyer's dinner party. 

History Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall
Logevall writes about the French and American history in Vietnam from 1919 to 1959.

Biography or Autobiography The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss 
The biography of Alexandre Dumas' father, who inspired the author's work. 

Poetry Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds
Poems, which per the Pulitzer site "examine love, sorrow and the limits of self-knowledge." 

General Nonfiction Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
A book about four black men falsely accused of rape in 1949 in a Florida town. 

Music Partita for 8 Voices by Caroline Shaw
An a cappella piece that, according to the Pulitzer site combines "speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies and novel vocal effects" 

       

Guantanamo Prisoner Takes Hunger Strike to the New York Times Op-Ed Page

After 11 years of imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel has never gotten his day in court, but thanks to The New York Times op-ed page, he's finally getting his say in public. Moqbel is one of 43 prisoners at the U.S. military's terrorist detention camp who is currently on a hunger strike, and the essay that appears in Monday's paper under his byline is less a plea for his innocence than it is a horrifying tale of what it's like to be kept alive against your will.

The 35-year-old Yemeni citizen has been living in Guantanamo for more than 11 years, since being arrested in Pakistan in late 2001. Yet, he has never faced any criminal charges and is no closer to being released now than he was on the day he arrived. It's been more than two months since he stopped eating, and now twice a day, military police and under-trained medical staff tie him down and force feed him through tubes. He says he's down to 132 pounds, but that the last time he weighed himself was over a month ago. 

I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose. I can’t describe how painful it is to be force-fed this way. As it was thrust in, it made me feel like throwing up. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.

The hunger strike is spreading through the prison and has occasionally led to violent clashes between inmates and guards. It may also soon start to take the lives of some of the 166 detainees who are still there. (If Moqbel's account is true, more than one has dropped below 100 pounds.) There have been hunger strikes in previous years that have failed to have much impact, but now that this one has moved beyond dry headlines on the newswires to the "paper of record," perhaps Americans will take notice once again and remember that despite a four-year-old executive order from President Obama, the government still hasn't found a way to shut down the controversial jail.

       

The 'Hunger Games: Catching Fire' Trailer Is a Real Trailer After All

We weren't expecting much from the "teaser" for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but we were wrong. Lionsgate released a full blown trailer at last night's MTV Movie Awards—"more than a 'teaser'" indeed—that put the revolutionary spirit of the second book, and, blessedly, some of its most adult moments, on full display. 

Those who have read the Hunger Games books know that the second volume takes a key turn from smart parable about the nature of totalitarianism and reality TV, to direct confrontation of the nature of rebellion. And we see all of that in this trailer, which shows what the fate of an old man in District 11 (poor, fated Rue's district) as well as Gale's brutal beating. All of that is paralleled with Donald Sutherland's evil President Snow in conversation with Philip Seymour Hoffman's gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee, who, remarkably, has no weird facial hair. 

Tonally, it's all right. It's sad, it's dark, it's creepy. (Even though we still have Elizabeth Banks in Effie Trinket's elaborate garb telling Peet and Katniss to smile when they obviously could not want to do that any less.) It seems like new director Francis Lawrence has got this down.

And it's only in the final moments of the trailer that the concept of the Quarter Quell, in which former victors compete in the Hunger Games, gets its big reveal. So, alas, no Finnick of Johanna Mason in this one. Next time. At least we now know that The Hunger Games won't be holding out on us—or holding anything back.

 

       

Chavez Successor Declared New Venezuelan President

Nicolas Maduro, the hand-picked successor of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, was declared the victor in Sunday's presidential election, though the surprisingly close vote may be contested by his rivals. The country's election commission gave Maduro the decision with a 51-49 percent edge, and he immediately claimed victory for himself and his party, despite a winning margin of just over 200,000 votes. The election came just five weeks after Chavez's death, and six months after he was re-elected by more than 12 percentage points. 

The opponent in both that October campaign and yesterday's election, Henrique Capriles, has not gone so far as to declare outright fraud, but has not conceded that Maduro's victory is totally legitimate, saying "We will not recognize the results until every single vote is counted one by one ... Every box, every vote must be counted." His supporters say they have thousands of documented incidents that could indicate fraud in the results. The election commission is skewed heavily toward the ruling party and as the interim incumbent, Maduro had a huge advantage in resources and broadcast time (from state-owned companies) that was only amplified by the very short election cycle.

Unfortunately, for Capriles, he doesn't have a lot of options beyond pressuring the electoral commission for recount. Even if the official tally is eventually accepted, Maduro will be ruling with the slimmest of mandates and now oversees a country with crushing economic problems, high crime, frequent power blackouts, and widespread corruption. One economist tells The Wall Street Journal this is a "Pyrrhic victory," and gives Maduro a year before things really start to fall apart. We guess no good election goes unpunished.

#PHOTO: A supporter of Nicolas Maduro, the declared winner of the presidential election, cheers in Caracas: twitter.com/AFP/status/323…

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) April 15, 2013

       

Re-Live Adam Scott's Electric Masters Win

Thirty-two-year-old Australian high-five expert Adam Scott awoke a nation of napping Americans early Sunday evening—and enlived an entire continent Down Under, where it was Monday morning—with a miracle 20-foot putt at the Masters and a double-overtime win worthy of a wild sports weekend in the South. Here's how one of the greatest finishes in golf's greatest event went down.

The electric young golfer, who had never won a major PGA tournament, began the 18th hole at a rainy Augusta National Golf Club tied with the 43-year-old Argentine Angel Cabrera at 8-under. It was supposed to be a good day for Argentina.

Updated Argentina Power Rankings:1. Messi 2. Pope Francis3. Maradona4. Angel Cabrera

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) April 14, 2013

Then this happened (via Yahoo Sports):

Scott was pretty pumped up, and looked right for Steve Williams, the caddie from New Zealand famous for walking alongside Tiger Woods (via Buzzfeed Sports):

[image error]

"C'mon Aussies, c'mon," in case you're wondering, is an Australian saying that comes from an old cricket commercial jingle. And Scott clearly thought he'd won "for a split second," he would say later. "Good thing he didn't hurt himself on that," CBS's Jim Nantz would say. Seriously—here's a high-five closeup (via SBNation):

Then this happened:

Yes, Cabrera's approach on 18 landed just two feet from the cup. "What a golf shot," said Nantz, not quite as remarkably. But Cabrera tapped in for the rare back-to-back birdie on the final whole at Augusta, and the two headed to a sudden-death playoff.

After tying on the first hole, Scott and Cabrera headed to Augusta's picturesque tenth. And then: Following nearly even approach shots, Scott and Cabrera gave each other dueling thumbs-up before facing off with dueling putts, from almost the same distance. This was for the win. Cabrera laid up literally on the edge of the cup and Scott, from a few feet closer than the wild putt that got him there, nailed another — and earned Australia its first green jacket. Here's how the Aussies saw the final putt:

Fantastic shot of Adam Scott and his caddie Steve Williams celebrating #Masters win. (Getty Images). twitter.com/smh/status/323…

— smh.com.au (@smh) April 14, 2013

CBS was quick with the clichés: "a life-changer," "the Wizard of Oz," and "from Down Under to on top of the world" surfaced on air within a minute of the winning putt. "Great Scott" will no doubt be on at least a dozen newspaper front pages, but, hey, the Aussies love their golf, and Scott, bred to be a star as a young man who got training and advice from every Australian golfer with everything but a jacket, was something of a fitting first. Speaking of which, the jacket fit (again via SBNation):

"I tried not to think about anything today along those lines," Scott told Nantz about whether he felt the presence of all those (very) excited Australia. "And the thing I did out there was stay right there where I was.... Australia is a proud sporting nation, and this is one notch in a belt that we'd never got. And it's amazing that it's come down to me today."

The Aussies, as you can imagine, were pretty pumped up about its "instant national hero" as well:

GREAT SHOT SCOTT. He sinks lengthy birdie putt & leads by 1. Cabrera must birdie the last to force playoff #USMasters smh.com.au/sport/golf/liv…

— SMH Sport (@SMHsport) April 14, 2013

C'mon Aussie c'mon, c'mon! Expect most of Australia to be a couple of hours late for work ... no worries! twitter.com/ideveloper/sta…
— Adrian Ong (@ideveloper) April 15, 2013

The pubs will be open alot later in Australia tonight. I think people are gonna be late for work in the morning.

— Vinny Lofaso (@Thefunnybone123) April 14, 2013

Pubs will be buzzing! “@graeme_mcdowell: 945am Monday morning east coast of Australia now..... I fear for productivity right this second!!”

— Robert Lusetich (@RobertLusetich) April 14, 2013

If Scott and Day make it to a playoff, Australia's work day would be ruined and the country would lose millions. pubs on he other hand...

— Charlie Heritage (@gboropirate) April 14, 2013

Oh, and about that short "belly putter," or broomstick, that Scott prefers—it is, in fact, legal. It won't be in a couple years. But Adam Scott (not that one) has until 2016 to figure that out. In the meantime, he might want to get his rest. That was one of the most energetic hours of golf anyone's put out since this guy, who struggled with the wet, slow greens Sunday and finished lower down on the leaderboard (after a controversial texted-in rule technicality kept him in it), but still above that 14-year-old kid:

Meanwhile, there was no joy in Texas, where sports related tragedy struck—and with a twist: A NASCAR fan shot himself at the NRA 500 in Fort Worth Saturday night. There was arguing in the infield with fellow campers, and there was alcohol, but a medical examiner on Sunday ruled the death of the man, Kirk Franklin, a suicide, apparently "in or around a pickup truck" in the middle of the track. The National Rifle Association sponsorship of the Sprint Cup race had been a point of contention, and despite the peculiarities of NASCAR marketing a spokesperson for the sport told The New York Times, in the paper's Sunday profile of NRA figurehead Wayne LaPierre, that NASCAR was reviewing its sponsorships, given "current circumstances."

       

The Question of Whether We Can Patent Genes Heads to the Supreme Court

While tech types have been crowing over how broken the software patent system has become, the medical community is dealing with a much more serious question: Should we be able to patent genes? That is, does the centuries' old method for protecting intellectual property and rewarding research still apply when the invention comes straight out of the human body? The scientific community is rather divided over this one, but with oral arguments on a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Public Patent Foundation kicking off on Monday, we'll have an answer to this tough conundrum soon enough.

The case calls into question seven patents held by Myriad Genetics, a company started by the geneticist who located and isolated the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in the early 1990s. These are the two genes that indicate whether a woman is more susceptible to breast cancer, and the discovery stood to save a lot of lives. However, because of Myriad's patents on the decoded snippets of DNA — they literally own the rights to that piece of the human genome — other companies were barred from making the tests that women would use to see if they carried the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. This gave Myriad a complete monopoly over the market. Geneticists weren't even allowed to do researcher the gene without Myriad's permission.

Obviously, a lot of people in the medical community don't like Myriad's approach. Lori Andrews, a law professor who wrote a dissenting brief to the Supreme Court for the American Medical Association, told Reuters that "Myriad's exclusive control has led to the misdiagnosis of patients and has precluded the deployment of improved genetic tests." It's not just Myriad any more either. Since those early patents, thousands of more companies have staked out their own claims to piece of the human genome. Genetic researcher Christopher Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College estimates that about 40 percent of the human genome has now been patented and says this sets a really bad precedent. "The overabundance of gene patents is a large and looming threat to personalized medicine," Mason argues. "Individuals have an innate right to their own genome, or to allow their doctor to look at that genome, just like the lungs or kidneys."

Myriad and many other pharmaceutical companies disagree. Those in favor of gene patents say that the practice motivates researchers to pursue costly, arduous research with the hope of patenting and profiting from the findings. Those profits are substantial, as well, and sure to continue growing  genetics play more of a role in medicine. Myriad, which didn't even exist before the discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, is now a $2.1 billion company, and the tests they sell to women who want to know if they have the mutation cost $3,340 each. The company's president told the press that Myriad has "been able to save thousands of patients' lives" with those tests. They've also made millions of dollars. And who knows how many more lives would have been saved if the many labs that were shut down for infringing on Myriad's patents could have stayed open.

It's up to the judges to decide on these questions now, but the rest of the government is letting its opinion be heard. For the first time in 30 years, the Justice Department disagreed with the U.S. Patent Office and said that only synthetic genes should be eligible for patent protection. This so-called cDNA is made outside of the body. Again, the genes that are currently patented come straight from the human body. Some would liken putting a patent on a naturally occurring gene to putting a patent on one of the elements on the period table. The periodic table is already off limits, and everyone from the American Society of Human Genetics to James Watson, the Nobel laureate who do-discovered the structure of DNA nearly 60 years ago, thinks that the human body should be off limits, too.

       

Trayvon Martin Shooting Targets Will Get You Fired from the Police Force

A police sergeant has found himself out of a job after showing up at a training day with a batch of paper shooting targets printed with the iconic image of Trayvon Martin's hoodie on the front. As if holding the targets weren't offensive enough, Sgt. Ron King then tried to give them to his fellow officers in the Port Canaveral Police Department for target practice. This did not go over well. The other officers refused the gift, superiors were notified and, after a review, King was dismissed from the force. Ben Crump, the Martin family's lawyer, told the press it was "absolutely reprehensible" that an officer like King "would use the image of a dead child as target practice." Crump added, "Such a deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable." King plans to apologize to the Martin family.

Of course, this is just the latest deplorable thing to come out of the Trayvon Martin saga. The allegations that George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin in his own neighborhood when the teenager was armed with nothing but a bag of Skittles is bad enough. Zimmerman then went on a questionable campaign to raise money for his legal defense, propping himself up as the poster boy for Florida's "stand your ground" law that he says justifies the slaying. He ended up raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then, Zimmerman started selling his autograph to fans who donated money to his fund which he says still isn't enough to cover his costs, because who doesn't want the autograph of a accused killer. With months left to go before a verdict is delivered in the controversial case, the awfulness surely won't stop there.

It remains unclear if Sgt. King made the Trayvon targets himself or got them somewhere else. A quick Google search shows that there's plenty of inspiration Trayvon Martin shooting targets. They're all over the Internet.

       

George W. Bush, Amateur Pet Painter, Is Now a Grandfather

Jenna Bush Hager gave birth to a healthy baby girl on Saturday night. When the young Margaret Laura "Mila" Hager goes home from the hospital she'll sleep under a portrait of a cat painted by her (in)famous grandfather. Grandpa George W. Bush recently contributed the painting of the family pet — it's just one of many amazing artworks the former president's done during his idle days of retirement.

But the real star of the story here is little Mila. George and Laura Bush announced the birth on Sunday afternoon. "She was born last night, April 13, at 8:43pm in New York City," the first-time grandparents said in a statement. "We met our beautiful granddaughter today. Jenna and Mila are healthy. And our family is elated."

They should be. Welcoming a new member of the family is a joyous occasion, and in particular, Jenna becoming a mother is a big milestone for the Bush family. Remember, this is the girl who couldn't stop getting in trouble for underage drinking when her father was in the White House. Now she's all grown up with a real job and everything. On Friday, The New York Times published a very timely profile of Jenna in her new role at the Today Show, where she's a contributor. She's even surprised to have ended up where she is. "If you had asked me in college, was I going to do the job I'm doing now, I would say, 'Absolutely not,'" Bush Hager told the paper. The piece describes her father, W., as "an impatiently expectant grandfather and a baby nursery decorator." The cat painting counts as decoration.

So, over a decade after he first took office, George W. Bush has a new job: helping to raise his grandchild. In the past, he's said that he takes "great delight in busting stereotypes" which is part of the reason he took up painting to begin with. "People are surprised," he told The Dallas Morning News in an interview published Sunday about his hobby. "Of course, some people are surprised I can even read."

       

Dennis Rodman Will Return to North Korea on August 1

Dennis Rodman, the pierced and pugnacious former Chicago Bulls star, says he's excited to hang out with his new best friend Kim Jong-Un when he heads back to Pyongyang this summer. Wearing a white fedora on his head and a drag queen on his arm, the athlete told the press about his plans during a charity gala at the Fontainebleu Hotel in Miami Beach. "I'm going back August 1," he told a reporter from The Miami Herald. "We have no plans really, as far as what we're going to do over there, but we'll just hang and have some fun!"

This trip, it seems, will have more of a vacation vibe. Rodman's first trip to North Korea introduced the world to the phrase "basketball diplomacy," after the former rebounder accompanied a few Harlem Globetrotters players and some reporters from VICE back in February. The trip didn't win Rodman many fans in the United States government, and Rodman told the Herald that after returning he'd been questioned by the FBI who wanted to know what Kim asked him about. Having fielded criticism on all sides for the very principle of taking the unsanctioned trip to North Korea with whom the United States has no diplomatic relations, Rodman spoke candidly about the political underpinnings of going on vacation in a country that's trying to start a war.

"I'm not a total idiot," said Rodman. "I know what Kim Jong-un is threatening to do regarding his military muscle. I hope it doesn't happen because America will take whatever actions to protect America and our allies. I do think, umm, you know, that we have to talk to people who want to cause us harm so hopefully they won't." That doesn't exactly make him sound like Roosevelt, but at least he's thinking about these things.

Details of the trip remain unclear — he might not even make it out of the country given the heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. It's also clear who might be joining him. Based on the reactions from his first trip, we think Donald Trump would make a decent choice. You know, just to make this whole thing even more absurd. 

       

'Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead' Just Missed Becoming the Meanest Number One Song Ever

The results are in, and "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" has failed to climb to the number one slot on British charts. It was just 5,700 copies behind Duke Dumont's "Need Me (100 Percent)" when the official tally was taken. Obviously, the 1939 classic did not just jump back into pop culture by coincidence. The song skyrocketed in popularity following the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. (The Iron Lady is a controversial figure in modern British history.) It was a coordinated effort led mainly by a Facebook campaign and ample amounts of rancor that picked up steam only a couple of days after Thatcher's death last week. 

The situation put the BBC in quite a bind as well, since every Sunday the network broadcasts the Official Chart Show featuring the week's top songs. Bitter Brits listening to the Wizard of Oz soundtrack alone at home is one thing, but for a state-sponsored news organization to provide them with validation in the form of a worldwide broadcast would practically amount to treason in some people's eyes. Rather than play the 51-second track, however, the BBC ran a news segment on the song with a pithy lede: "Tributes poured in across the world for Margaret Thatcher when she died on Monday, but there were also people throwing street parties around the UK," read the BBC's Sinead Garvan. The network then played a seven-second clip of "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" and moved on to the number one song.

The song might've made it to number one if not for the backlash to the backlash. A separate pro-Thatcher camp campaigned for the 1979 punk ballad "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher" to make a similar comeback but saw less success. With "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" selling 52,605 copies, the punk song garnered just 8,768, just enough to pull it up to the number 35 slot. The BBC did play "I'm in Love with Margaret Thatcher" in full, however.