Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1121

Is Francis the Most Humble Pope Ever?

Catholics are learning all kinds of fun new tidbits about the new Holy Father, and we're also starting to notice a pattern developing. We know that all religious leaders are supposed to be humble, but Pope Francis is like... really, really humble.

Almost as soon as he emerged on the St. Peter's balcony last night, people began talking about his "monk-like" existence, his distate for flash and luxury, and his love for the poor. Those who knew him from Argentina immediately remarked about he turned down things like a fancy Archbishops pad and private car. (He rides the bus to work!)

Then he smiled. He asked the people to pray for him. He named himself after one of the all-time great champions of the poor.  (No

Chris Hayes Defeats Ezra Klein in Battle to Face Bill O'Reilly

If you're on Team Ezra, well, see how O'Reilly does against MSNBC's newest winning tribute, 34-year-old Chris Hayes, because talk-radio borg Ed Schultz's 8 p.m. showdown time slot was only made for one liberal, wonky heartthrob. The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza broke the news this morning: 

MSNBC source on new 8 pm show: "it looks like it will be Chris Hayes."

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) March 14, 2013

And The New York Times's Brian Stelter has confirmed it, with MSNBC scheduled to formally announce the move on Thursday.

After revealing the man who may have been responsible for single-handedly destroyed Mitt Romney's campaign, Schultz announced last night that he was stepping away from his weekday show and heading to the weekend. Now it appears he'll swap out starting in April with Hayes, the longtime writer for The Nation who often filled in for Rachel Maddow before getting his own show, Up, on Saturdays and Sunday at 8 a.m.

But you know who else fills in for Rachel Maddow a lot? Another smart, likable liberal creature of the Internet, The Washington Post's Klein, who was a big favorite with the insiders to become Maddow's lead-in and O'Reilly's competition/alternate programing. But Klein and Hayes did not eat the berries, we guess, and this round is over:

Huge congrats to the great @chrislhayes, who'll be the new 8pm host on MSNBC! mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/chr…

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 14, 2013

Schultz had done fine by MSNBC standards — a solid No. 2 ranking for the network's aging primetime lineup in February, and just as The O'Reilly Factor had a big drop that month. But Fox still had 1.045 million viewers in the key primetime hour, compared to Shultz's 879,000. If MSNBC wants to counterprogram against an old angry man — and the dashing Anderson Cooper, whether he even survives Jeff Zucker's shuffling at CNN — well, they've got their (young) man. And he's hungry.

How the GOP Wants Obama to Cut a Deal with the GOP

Pundits are skeptical about whether President Obama will be able to charm Republicans into agreeing to a "grand bargain," but Republicans have plenty of tips for the president for getting a deal done. One tip, for example, goes something like, "Agree with all the things we want to do, and stop trying to get us agree to the things you want to do."

Obama met with House Republicans Wednesday in a "closed-door" meeting, which many of them live-tweeted. Though Republican leaders told them to not act like fanboys behind closed doors — no asking for autographs — the lawmakers presented a unified unimpressed face. Many told reporters how Obama was getting his charm offensive wrong, and explained what the president should do to get Republicans. As the president heads back to Capitol Hill on Thursday to talk both the Senate Republican Conference and the House Democratic Caucus, here's some of the GOP's very sincere advice on making a deal with the GOP: 

Offer concessions to Republicans

Republicans were annoyed that Obama scheduled a fundraiser for the post-campaign group Organizing for Action on the same day as his meeting with them. What Obama said to OFA would indicated whether he really wanted to make a deal, Maryland Rep. Andy Harris told Roll Call. Obama should tell OFA "that you have to actually concede issues to the other side."

He did not.

Do not ask for concessions from Republicans!

"If the president wants to let our unwillingness to raise taxes get in the way, then we are not gonna be able to set differences aside and focus on what we agree on," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told Roll Call.

"The president seemed to say, 'If we're going to do the areas we agree on, you have to also do some of mine,'" Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma told The New York Times. "If we can find the areas we agree on, why can't we just do those?"

"Well, he doesn’t want to balance the budget in 10 years, and he wants tax increases, and he wants new spending," California Rep. Darrell Issa told reporters. "But other than that, we're close."

They are not.

Don't try to win the war of public opinion against Republicans.

"I think the skepticism on our side is, this guy really likes taxes," Louisiana Rep. Bill Cassidy told The Daily Beast. "Having seen him pillory the Romney-Ryan plan and get re-elected on that kind of demagoguing of the issues, there's some skepticism that he's not setting us up to demagogue it again."

Been there.

Don't watch TV to see if you're winning that public opinion war.

"I find him to be quite interested in politics. You don't usually expect the president to use such specific, partisan political imagery," North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer told The Daily Beast. "I was like, 'Wow, really?' I don't even have time to watch Fox News…I actually found him to be more of a political junkie than someone would expect someone at his level to be.

He is.

It's hard not to agree with Republicans here, actually: If Obama agreed to all these terms and conditions, he could quickly reach an agreement with the House. But that wouldn't be much of a bargain.

Attention, World: China Elected a New Leader, Too

As you are aware, the 1.2 billion members of the Catholic Church on Wednesday identified a new leader. You may not have heard, however, that the 1.3 billion citizens of China did as well, and just a few hours later.

The ascension of Pope Francis, with its centuries of tradition, dramatic special effects, and multiple, secret ballots, understandably captured the public imagination. As of this writing, Google News returns some 4.8 million results for the name Bergoglio. The election of Xi Jinping as president of China early this morning happened with much less fanfare, in a public vote at the National People's Congress. While it took Francis five contested votes to cobble together the 77 vote margin needed for victory, Xi got the job done in one ballot, gaining approval with the respectable tally of 2,955-1. He lost the Google News margin, however, having garnered only about 61,500 mentions to this point.

Granted, Xi's election came as no surprise. As The New York Times notes, the 59-year-old Xi was picked as the general secretary of the Communist Party four months ago, making his election as president largely a formality. The Congress also selected Xi's ally Li Yuanchao as vice president.

It's a tricky moment for a transition of power. Xi inherits a number of significant challenges from his predecessor. The

Aaron Swartz's Prosecutor Just Got More Evil

The notoriously harsh prosecutor who insisted on jail time for Aaron Swartz may have withheld evidence, according to a letter filed by Swartz's legal team, making the villain of an emotional trial and even more emotional suicide sound perhaps more villainous than before. In the letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, the defense alleges that Stephen Haymann—who when told about Swartz's suicide case replied, "Fine, we'll lock him up"—"failed timely to disclose exculpatory evidence relevant to Mr. Swartz's pending motion to suppress." Since Swartz's suicide in January, his defenders have said the prosecution, and Haymann in particular, pushed for sentences that were too harsh in the JSTOR hacking case against him at MIT, all while dismissing Swartz's mental state. Now it appears the man at the center of that push... may have pushed even harder.

In the letter, the defense alleges that Haymann "misrepresented to the Court the extent of the federal government's involvement in the investigation into Mr. Swartz's conduct prior to the application for certain search warrants." The defense has claimed many times that the prosecution wanted to make out Swartz to be a big-time wanted hacker, despite Swartz having shifted his career primarily from coding to political activism. "He was being made into a highly visible lesson," said one attorney. Another called his case just the "juicy looking computer crime case" this group of prosecutors was looking for to lift their profiles and careers. This suggests Haymann suppressed evidence in order to make his point, according to the defense.

The letter, filed a few weeks after Swartz's death, also brings up another much talked about problem with the case, according to the late hacker's supporters. The defense alleges Haymann "abused his discretion when he attempted to coerce Mr. Swartz into foregoing his right to a trial by pleading guilty." Following his death, supporters of the beloved hacker have argued that the prosecution used plea bargains in an attempt to force Swartz to go to jail for a crime—downloading a bunch of old academic files off open MIT servers—that didn't fit such a harsh punishment. While the other side of the emotional and ongoing battle have maintained that it's all part of the legal process, the defense argues that Haymann went beyond his obligations.

Although the case has been dropped, the letter urges the Office of Professional Responsibility to "look into Haymann's conduct." 

Farewell, Pope Watch

So, just like the show Lost, we've now seen the white and black smoke, met the new leader, and yet we still have no idea how we got here, really. Which is to say: the Pope watch is officially over, and thank God for that. Things got kind of embarrassing near the end.

The constant cable news coverage over the last few days was bit much considering no one knew anything about what was happening in the conclave, probably the last place on Earth without an embedded source, or hackable wi-fi. It led to some pretty embarrassing moments on TV: 

In the age of the 24 news cycle, an absolutely-closed door meeting of cardinals is the last possible thing that should be dominating the coverage. It seemed like every major network had their own dedicated papal chimney live stream going so you, too, could follow along every few hours from home. It led to some pretty ridiculous memes, like today's infatuation with a seagull that was perched on top of the chimney for an hour or so. Eventually, another seagull friend came and shooed him away. Away from our hearts, and Twitter accounts, forever. 

In the mean time, papal officials had to satisfy reporters' hunger for stories by revealing the inner most Da Vinci Code worthy secrets of the church -- like, for example, how exactly the black and white smoke gets made. (Hint: stop it with the bong jokes. Weed isn't involved.) They had a sense of humor about it, thankfully, and laughed the silly questions off. But they also had to answer stupid questions like whether or not the smoke would harm the cardinals or the artwork in the Sistine Chapel. They've been doing this literally for centuries, and yet some reporter thought that was pertinent question, as if that never would have come up before. As if this was the first conclave, ever. The reporter must've been a Protestant.

And CNN -- poor, lowly CNN -- turned the conclave into their new poop cruise. In terms of all the cable news embarrassments, they were at the heap. In case you didn't tune in, CNN kept a live camera shot of the papal chimney inset in their picture -- even while the commercials were on. 

Can you imagine if this went longer than two days? If anything they probably spend the process up because of the insufferable media coverage. Like these people, we're more than happy to see Pope watch end: 

Tired. I'm pope'd.

— Matthew Keys (@TheMatthewKeys) March 13, 2013

The writer compiles the 40 best Pope tweets into a list. "I went to college." she says. Sigh. She opens up her flask. It's 5:00 somewhere.

— christopher busch (@chrisbusch82) March 13, 2013

So sick of this new pope already. Any other bizarre ancient rituals coming up?

— Ken Layne (@KenLayne) March 13, 2013

I think I need to get off Twitter till this whole pope thing is over.

— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) March 13, 2013

ESPN Denies Killing Dangerous X Games Competition Just Because It Killed a Man

Following the gruesome and very public death of 25-year-old snowmobiler Caleb Moore at the Winter X-Games this January in Aspen, Colorado, ESPN has decided to forego his controversial competition — not that they're acknowledging it.

Bloomberg's Erik Matuszewski reports the sports network has cut snowmobile and motocross "best trick" competitions from any further iterations of the X-Games, its 18-year-old extreme sports challenge. Previously, riders on snowmobiles or specialized dirtbikes would throw themselves off a huge jump to attempt the gnarliest spin or flip moderation they possibly could. It often produced some of the Games' biggest highlights—and, of course, its biggest injuries, leading up this year's fatal one. 

An ESPN spokesman told ESPN's very own newswire that the decision to cut the events was not tied to Moore's death at all. "Moto X Best Trick and Snowmobile Best Trick were not dropped in response to what happened in Aspen," the ESPN spokesman told ESPN. "This decision was under consideration before Aspen, and, in fact, our review of Snowmobile Freestyle continues."

This is ESPN's official statement on their reasoning for eliminating the best trick events: 

"This change reflects our decision to focus on motor sports disciplines which feature athletes who also compete in multiple, world-class competitions [e.g., professional events and tours] reflecting the highest degree of athlete participation, competitive development and the global nature of our X Games franchise. Over the past 18 years we have made more than 60 changes to our competition lineups at X Games events to capture the evolution of the sport and these continue that growth."

When you wade through the P.R. jargon, this translates roughly to: We want to focus on competitions that aren't only featured at the X-Games. So, while there are other freestyle snowmobile competitions, there aren't very many "best trick" competitions. It just so happens that the decision came two months after an athlete died in a freestyle snowmobile competition attempting a variation of a trick — the backflip — that's very common in "best trick" competitions. Total coincidence, guys. Nothing to see here. 

So, while there was no prior indication that either "best trick" competition was up for elimination, this was the statement ESPN released on the day of Moore's death: 

As a result of this accident we will conduct a thorough review of this discipline and adopt any appropriate changes to future X Games.

For 18 years we have worked closely on safety issues with athletes, course designers and other experts. Still, when the world's best compete at the highest level in any sport, risks remain. Caleb was a four-time X Games medalist attempting a move he has landed several times previously.

But the two decisions aren't related. Nope, not at all related. Millions would believe you, ESPN, but somehow we don't.

The dangers of X-Games events have climbed steadily over the past few years, culminating this winter. Moore attempted a backflip during the snowmobile "best trick" competition, but his machine under-rotated. The snowmobile's skis dug into the ground and slammed the machine down on top of a helpless Moore. He was able to walk away from the incident, but was later admitted to the hospital for a concussion and bleeding around his heart. Following complications after surgery, Moore became the first X-Games athlete to die from injuries suffered in competition. 

ESPN is still deliberating whether or not to cut the snowmobile freestyle competition. But the decision to preemptively cut motocross "best trick" is interesting. It, too, has led to major injuries for some of the biggest X-Games stars, though nothing approaching the same level as snowmobiling. Notably, in 2011, Travis Pastrana — one of the most decorated athletes in X-Games history — broke his foot and ankle during a motocross best trick competition on the first day of a planned three-day blitz of events. The Pastranathon, as it was called, was ruined. And it turns out, Pastrana is pretty bummed with the decision to cut one of his favorite competition — arguably the one that brought him the most fame. "Best trick was my favorite event both as a competitor and a spectator," Pastrana told ESPN. "Usually these athletes were capable of landing their trick in a foam pit or on special set up but under pressure, they rarely did which added to the dangerousness of it. Either way I was a fan of this event and will be sad to see it go."

Whether this decision indicates freestyle motocross, one of the biggest draws at the Summer X-Games, is in danger of surviving with ESPN remains to be seen. But you can be it will be dangerous.

The Guy Running Groupon Now May Be Its Biggest Enemy

With Groupon CEO Andrew Mason gone, one of the two dudes left running the ship is Eric Lefkofsky, a man notorious for massive dot com failure, who, it turns out, also pushed the daily deals site in all the wrong directions. Details of the company's massive failings have trickled out since Mason sent his charming goodbye email a few weeks ago in which the notoriously childish leader took the blame for the company's misfortunes. But it doesn't sound like it was all his fault. "The truth is, Eric is a brilliant guy. But his greed overwhelms his intelligence," a former executive told The Verge's Ben Popper, who has a big piece on what went wrong. "It drives him to make short term decisions, always in the pursuit of bigger, more, now." That about sums up what happened to Groupon, which expanded too quickly without focus or leadership and got the company into a messy, IPO. 

Specifically, Lefkofksy was one of a few people who pushed the company to (arguably prematurely) go public. Marc Andresseen, kind of the venture capital investors advised against it, by the way. Another person called him a "shark." He also advocated for buying up competitor companies overseas. Lefkofsky even admits he doesn't have the best reputation. "That’s so true,” Lefkofsky replied. "I’m not warm and fuzzy." So, yeah, that's the guy who is running the company now and it doesn't sound like he has changed much, per his first interview since taking the job, which is in Fast Company today. 

First of all, Lefkofsky hasn't taken responsibility for what Popper paints as a company befallen mostly by his decisions, rather blaming Mason for the pitfalls of the company. "You could say, ‘Well everyone was here and everyone’s to blame including the senior manager, the board, whatever.’ But at the end of the day, the CEO is the CEO. And he makes those tough calls. If they go well, you’re a hero, and if they don’t go well, you’re accountable," he told Elisabeth Spiers. Even though, earlier he says "we did not do a very good job of controlling the process," suggesting that as a board member he had at least a little bit to do with its downfall since before going public. "He didn’t want any responsibility or accountability, at least not technically. But every single little decision had to be run by him," yet another source told Popper. 

As for his business ideas, he has moved Groupon from the doomed consumer goods ponzi scheme to the more profitable sounding "technology company." "I think we are a tech company today," he told Spiers. "If you look at the investments we’re making in technology, the sheer headcount, the investments we’re making in technology both domestically and abroad, I think technology’s at the heart of what we do." Meanwhile, he was the one who got into an "arms race" for more sales people and the biggest daily deals salesforce on the planet. At least count, the daily deals site had around 5,000 sales people. That sounds more like a talking point than anything genuine. 

But maybe Lefkofksy has changed. "I’m really 100% focused here," he tells Spiers. Then again, in his current interim CEO position, he likely wont get much of the blame for any continued downward spiral that happens. 

Here's the Guy Who Gave 'Veronica Mars' $10,000

Today in show business news: Meet the man (not pictured) who paid $10,000 to see a Veronica Mars movie, a Sex and the City alum gets a new gig, and Colton Haynes is here to stay.

As we all should know by now, a very successful (if problematic) Kickstarter campaign was launched this morning in the hopes of getting a Veronica Mars movie made. The top donation tier was $10,000, for which one lucky donor would receive a speaking role in the film. (One line, as a waiter.) Someone actually paid that today, and wouldn't you know it? The guy's not even a fan of the show really. Entertainment Weekly spoke with the donor, a tech startup guy named Steven Dengler, and it turns out he paid the kingly sum instead because he's a fan of "crowdfunding." Let's not dwell on what an awful, awful "word" "crowdfunding" is, and just focus on the fact that a guy who doesn't even particularly like Veronica Mars is the movie campaign's biggest donor. Simply because he likes the idea of people giving money to things that they'll later have to buy. (Well, some of them will anyway.) That's pretty funny. Maybe he'll donate the walk-on role to someone who's a superfan. Although, the crew is probably relieved it's not a superfan, because that could get weird fast. But yeah. Someone pledged $10,000 today to the Veronica Mars movie just because. What a country. [Entertainment Weekly]

Remember Sex and the City? Sure you do, it's a show from the 1930s about a bunch of dizzy dames sippin' hooch and gabbin' about fellas. Anyway, one of the show's ancient stars, Kristin Davis, has just signed on to the cast of a television pilot. The show is an adaptation of the movie Bad Teacher, about a bad teacher. Ari Graynor is playing the bad teacher, and Davis will play Ginny, "a history teacher, choir director, Faculty President and Meredith’s nemesis." So that could be a good role for her, right? She can do prim and upset pretty well. This show could be interesting! I mean, it's on CBS, so that's not a good sign, but you never know. Once in a while they get it right. OK, they got The Good Wife right. Which isn't even a comedy. So... Oh well. [Deadline]

If you're worried about missing Colton Haynes's Johnny Gymbod character on Teen Wolf next season, don't worry, he's playing a Johnny Gymbod elsewhere. He's been on Arrow, the CW superhero show, a bit this season and has just been signed as a regular for the show's next season. So fear not. You shall peek those pecs again. You will gawp at those glutes, stand agog at those abs. Johnny Gymbod is not gone, he's just moved to Vancouver and become a superhero. Like many a Johnny Gymbod before him. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Meanwhile John Stamos has been cast in a season-long arc on the USA network's Necessary Roughness. That's the one about people standing around in bad lighting talking about football. (As opposed to other USA shows, which are about people standing around in bad lighting talking about lawyer things or psych detectiving.) He'll play a superagent looking to sign the lead character, Dr. Calista Necessary (haha, that is not her name), to his superagency. My guess is that he'll also be something of a love interest too. I mean, you don't cast the 'Mos and have him just stand around like a jerk. [Deadline]

Warner Bros., the people who will eventually make money off that whole Veronica Mars thing, is currently in fierce litigation with the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, claiming that the estate blocked them from cashing in on licensing rights. See, they wanted to put images from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit on "online slot machines" and other computer gaming things, but were blocked by the estate's lawsuit alleging that WB and other producers overstepped their contract rights. Warner Bros. is now coming swinging back, saying the estate's nonsense cost them millions. So, that's great. They haven't wrung enough coin out of this beloved property, so they're fighting the guy's estate in court because they're mad they couldn't slap Gandalf's face on an online gambling game. Hollywood is a magical town, I tell yeah. Simply magical. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Here is a red band trailer (meaning don't watch it at work unless you work as a sailor) for Kick-Ass 2, the sequel to The Iron Lady Kick-Ass. It features lots of Chloe Grace Moretz saying ribald things, as the first one did, and some clips of Jim Carrey doing a strange voice. So... who knows. The first one was oddly entertaining, but a lot of that was owed to the element of surprise. Now we know that Moretz is going to say bad things and that the movie will be super dark and violent. What else is there to shock us? Throwing Jim Carrey in there to do a weird voice doesn't really seem like the right fix. I mean, has it ever been?

 

After Catholicism Reached South America, It Took 520 Years for a South Reach the Papacy

Today's election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy is notable for two big reasons: he's the first non-European, and the first ordained member of the Society of Jesus, to occupy the highest seat of the Roman Catholic Church, both of which upend millennia of precedent. While the fact that Bergoglio is a Jesuit is, in itself, a pretty huge deal — the order has long stood at the periphery of the Catholic Church's hierarchy — his being born in Argentina is a far greater one. While Catholicism has claimed South America to be under its domain officially since 1493, no South American has ascended to the papacy before today.

1493 was the year that Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus reached the continent on a Church-endorsed exploration of the New World. As the Catholic World noted in 1893, "Where American civilization was first planted by Columbus, in 1493, the Catholic Church reared its first altar on this soil four hundred years ago. ... Christianity and civilization were born in the same cradle and at the same moment, in the western hemisphere." A papal bull inssued in May of that year by Pope Alexander VI commanded: "Among other works well pleasing to the Divine Majesty and cherished of our heart, this assuredly ranks highest, that in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread, that the health of souls be cared for and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself."

An eventual member of the sprawling Spanish Empire, Pope Francis' native Argentina gained independence from Spain in 1810, but remained largely Catholic. As pointed out by many today, the majority of Argentinians continue to identify as Catholic, however only 20 percent identify as practicing.