Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 936

Russia Doesn't Want You to Know How Bad Gay Teachers Have It in Russia

If you look at the Russian propaganda, like a recent insert bundled with your New York Times, you might be led to believe that things just might not be that bad for gay people in Russia. Talk to a couple of teachers about the witch hunt to out and fire the country's gay teachers, and you'd find out otherwise.

"I received a message on 'VKontakte' [Russia's verison of Facebook] from a user named Valkiria Repina (according to the 'Alliance of Heterosexuals,' that is the pseudonym of a man involved in attacks on LGBT demonstrations in St. Petersburg. Ed.). Repina told me to resign at once, otherwise they would 'ruin my life'." Russian teacher Olga Bakhaeva told the Russian publication Colta.ru, explaining that she was eventually blackmailed, that stories about her sexuality were leaked to the media, and that her posts on her personal VKontakte page were deemed propaganda. Bakhaeva was eventually forced to resign. 

Stories like Bakhaeva aren't unique, as Colta found out, shedding light on one of the after-effects of Russia's gay propaganda law. That law makes it a crime to tell minors that gay people are equal to heterosexuals. The legislation relatively new — the law was signed by Vladimir Putin in July — yet it is already having its intended repressive effect.

Earlier this month, we learned that the law affected Russian kids with gay parents, who are now afraid to tell their peers about their families. Bakhaeva's tale is a bookend to those fears. Thanks to the anti-gay environment created by Russia's new laws, it's become open season on LGBT teachers. Homophobes can now apparently pressure school districts and officials to fire LGBT educators under the premise that they are breaking those gay propaganda laws. 

[image error]And Russia doesn't really want you to know about it, either. The country simply hasn't owned up to its anti-gay stance. On September 18, an advertorial called Russia Beyond the Headlines was bundled along with The New York Times. The paper is connected Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a state-run publication.

That New York Times inset featured a "story" on LGBT life in Russia called "You Have to Be Willing to Make Compromises" and features quotes from LGBT people who say unbelievable things like how their lives are no different than those of gay men living in France or Britain. "Even over there you sometimes need to be careful and avoid certain neighborhoods. Homophobia exists everywhere!" one gay man told the paper, seemingly ignoring the fact that there have been reports that Russia has turned into one anti-gay neighborhood to avoid.  

The paper also speaks to a 35-year-old named Yana Mandrykina. "My homosexuality has never prevented me from doing what I wanted to do — not me, nor my friends," she told the state-sponsored advertisement. Well, some others seem to disagree.

       

Thomas Pynchon, Jhumpa Lahiri on National Book Award Fiction Longlist

Capping off a week of longlist announcements—children's literature followed by poetry followed by nonfiction—the National Book Award has pulled the curtain on the nominees for fiction, its most anticipated award.

In staunch contrast to the poetry lineup, which was full of first-time nominees, fiction is stacked: as the organization notes, there are "four National Book Award winners and finalists, a Pulitzer Prize winner and finalist, recipients of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship, and a debut novelist." (Don't be intimidated, Anthony Marra. You're in good company.)

[image error]Leading the charge is the reclusive Thomas Pynchon, whose conspiracy-based literary return to New York City, Bleeding Edge, has been hailed as "the Thomas Pynchon novel for the Edward Snowden era." Pynchon took home the award for Gravity's Rainbow in 1974, but he's lain low on the award circuit since then.

He is notably joined by the Washington, D.C. novelist Alice McDermott, who has been nominated for the award twice and won once—for 1998's Charming Billy—and the acclaimed Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri (pictured above), whose 1999 collection of stories, Interpreter of Maladies, garnered the author a Pulitzer Prize. Also included is George Saunders, the strange, wonderful fiction writer and essayist whose story collection, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, first brought him acclaim.

As the Washington Post's Ron Charles notes, Anthony Marra appears to be the Rookie of the Year:

Washington-born Anthony Marra is living the beginning writer’s dream. “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena,” his debut novel about a brutally repressed village in Chechnya, received spectacular reviews earlier this year and is now a contender for the National Book Award.

It'd be a tremendous steal for Marra to snatch the award from names like Pynchon and Lahiri. Then again, it's tremendous enough for Marra to be on the list at all (and it's hard to imagine Pynchon paying enough attention to such earthly matters as awards to care).

The list is rounded out by Tom Drury, Elizabeth Graver, Rachel Kushner, James McBride, and Joan Silber. Here's the full thing.

       

Five Best Thursday Columns

David Ignatius at The Washington Post argues that Obama is getting criticized for the "right result" on Syria. Ignatius doesn't understand the recent Obama criticisms: "What’s puzzling about this latest bout of Obama-phobia is that recent developments in Syria have generally been positive from the standpoint of U.S. interests." Polls show the majority of Americans support Obama's course in Syria, but media coverage doesn't reflect that — "the opinion of elites is sharply negative." Ignatius thinks the "John McCain factor" could be at work: "The Arizona senator is in danger of becoming a kind of Republican version of Jesse Jackson, who shows up at every international crisis with his own plan for a solution." Andrew Exum, a former Army officer in Afghanistan and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, tweets: "This is actually a somewhat persuasive case by Ignatius on Obama and Syria. (The McCain line is brutal, though.)" 

Jonathan Chait at New York thinks that conservative news sites are deluding themselves over Obamacare. Chait notes these sites, like National Review, "churn out new Obamacare collapse stories every single day, creating the impression of the law’s continued and unmistakable destruction." But they're misusing quotes — one NRO story uses a "scrap the bill" remark from billionaire investor Warren Buffett, even though Buffett is actually a staunch supporter of the President's health care law. Buffett corrected the record in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald, but conservative reporters "are probably never going to read untrustworthy lame-stream media organs like the Omaha World-Herald," jokes Chait. Michael Grunwald, a senior national correspondent at Time, sums up thusly: "Warren Buffett said he likes Obamacare, but obviously meant to say he hates it with a passion." Blake Hounshell, the deputy editor at Politico, calls Chait's piece the "anatomy of a Warren Buffett quote misused."

Molly Ball at The Atlantic writes that a government shutdown would be bad for Republicans. Ball claims some conservatives in Congress think "Americans . . . would cheer the Republicans for sticking to their principles and opposing" Obamacare by shutting down the government. According to Ball, the polls say otherwise. She also recounts how bad the 1995 shutdown was politically for Republicans: "It was a little like the dog catching the car," says Steve LaTourette, who was a GOP congressman at the time. Ball predicts "sleepless nights" ahead for conservatives should they pursue a shutdown. Robert Costa, the Washington editor at the conservative National Review, recommends the piece. 

Simon Johnson at The New York Times wants Janet Yellen to head the Fed. Johnson, who was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, goes all in for Yellen: "She might be the best qualified potential Fed chief ever." He thinks she's the only candidate that would be easily confirmed by Congress, and that if she were a man, she wouldn't have so many detractors. Johnson also endorses Thomas Hoenig to take Yellen's current job, Fed vice chair. Hoenig is more hawkish than Yellen, and "packaging his nomination with Ms. Yellen’s would build bipartisan support." Former FDIC chair Sheila Blair seems to agree with Johnson: "A supremely-qualifed woman as Fed Chair, and interest rate hawk as Vice-Chair. Be still my heart!"

Molly Redden at The New Republic worries that the GOP can't avoid its next Todd Akin. Redden thinks the race to replace Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Georgia could end in disaster for Republicans, since the two GOP candidates are prone to gaffes, especially about women. One of them, Rep. Paul Broun, introduced a personhood bill as his first act in Congress. The other, Rep. Phil Gingrey, once said Todd Akin was "partially right" for his comments about rape and pregnancy. Ultimately, Redden blames the sharp right turn the GOP's taken with the Tea Party for Georgia's failure to come up with better candidates. Former Reagan official Bruce Bartlett recommended the piece. 

       

This Creepy Pap Smear Ad Is the Latest Effort to Stop Obamacare

[image error]The #StopObamacare ad war continues with some horrifyingly creepy spots featuring Uncle Sam giving his victims the pap smear (and, for the guys, prostate exams) from hell. The ads are the demented brain children of Generation Opportunity, a right-wing group with financial ties to the Koch brothers. Thanks to those deep pockets, they'll be launching a six-figure ad campaign, along with a tour of 20 college campuses later this month. 

The first ad features a young women getting a run of the mill pap smear. Everything's going well, until a creepy Uncle Sam caricature — who looks more like a killer clown in a bad horror movie — pops out of nowhere wielding a speculum (as in, the thing the gynecologist uses to get you to open up).

And, not to leave the fellas out, there another ad featuring a nice young man also having his privacy invaded by the government. 

As The Atlantic Wire has noted, there's an advertising war going on ahead of Obamacare's health insurance exchanges opening for enrollment on October 1. The Heritage Foundation has purchased billboards in Times Square, while FreedomWorks has urged young adults to burn their Obamacare draft cards. And now these ads are trying once again to get young adults to opt out — if only the sick and the old sign up for Obamacare, the program will not be able to offer affordable health insurance, and that's the next best thing to killing it early. 

Unfortunately, either way, our friend the speculum's not going anywhere.

       

Librarian Fired for Actually Getting Kid to Read

A library aide has been fired for successfully doing her most basic job — getting a kid to read more. And so, too, has the library's director, who started the reading controversy in the first place.

Lita Casey was dismissed on Monday after working for 28 years at the Hudson Falls Free Library in upstate New York. Her offense? Defending a nine-year-old child whose voracious reading appetite and abundant (and free!) library books makes him read too much. So much, in fact, that Weaver dominates the library's annual reading competition, having won his 5th straight reading title by absorbing 63 books in the 40 day competition.

That should be good news, right?

Not in the eyes of library director Marie Gandron, who said the soon-to-be fifth grader Tyler Weaver "hogs" the contest with his no-good-dirty-rotten-book-stealing reading habits. Gandron had hoped to change the structure of prizes awarded in the contest to encourage other kids to get involved in the reading contest, as “Other kids quit because they can’t keep up,” Gandron said. Instead, Gandron wanted to award prizes for the reading "contest" by picking names out of a hat. Why that would actually encourage reading, we can't say. It's not as if those prizes were the main reason Weaver — the self-described "the king of the reading club" — was picking up those books in the first place. All little Weaver has won in his five year reign is an atlas, a T-shirt, a water bottle and certificates of achievement. That's nothing special.

Casey stood up for this injustice back in late August, calling the idea of changing the prizes "ridiculous." Well, she has since paid the price for standing up for her beliefs. "I could not believe it, and I still cannot believe it," she said after she heard she had been let go in a phone conversation. Gandron, too, has paid the same price herself, as she was also fired from her job last week after 41 years at the library.

With two of the library's six employees gone over a dumb controversy, it's hard to find much of a winner in this story. That is, except for our friend Weaver. If only these librarians had put down the books and watched some of The Wire, they would have known a good life lesson: You come at the (reading) king, you best not miss.

       

'The Daily Show' Dives Into the River War of the South

While Jon Stewart covered the ongoing battle between gun rights activists and people in favor of reasonable gun control laws, Al Madrigal headed down south to cover a different kind of turf war. Georgia and Tennessee are fighting over access to the Tennessee river and its water — Tennessee owns it, Georgia wants in.

"The south is known for its hospitality, so you can imagine that when Georgia asked Tennessee for a little drinking water, that the volunteer state would be more than happy to help," Madrigal said in a voice over, only to be proven wrong instantly. The exact response, from Tennessee State Rep. Jason Powell, was more like "Georgia can keep its greedy hands off of our land, and its thirsty mouths away from our water." Way harsh, Tennessee.

Georgia representatives, meanwhile, are concerned about the state's dire water region. "Is that why Honey Boo Boo has to drink so many red bulls?" Madrigal asked. But it's not a laughing matter, as Madrigals interviews with various Georgians and Tennesseans revealed.

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"Georgia don't need to be tryin' to come over here and take something that's not theirs," said one Tennessee woman. Madrigal prompted that they — Georgians — are people, too. "Well, I don't give a s***."

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Madrigal asked this pair if they thought this turf war was similar to the Palestine-Israel conflict, with Tennessee being the Israelis. "Israelis? We ain't Jewish. This is Tennessee."

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And as one man explained, people in Tennessee don't even know how to drink their beer properly. "You know what they do down there?" said one Georgian. "Butt chug." 

Watch the full clip here:

 

       

National Treasure Jeff Bridges Knows His Movie 'R.I.P.D.' Sucked

Oscar winner Jeff Bridges is much like one of his onscreen persona "The Dude": he's willing to admit a failure, like his movie R.I.P.D., but doesn't much care about it.

Yes, Hollywood is a place where actors have to stand by their work forever and are coached by their publicist, agent, manager, makeup artist, best boy, key grip, and the skinny guy always lurking around craft services who might be on parole to never speak badly of a project, even if it was a colossal bomb. Jeff Bridges, he doesn't play by those rules. 

"I had such a great time working on that movie," Bridges says in a new profile in GQ. "I remember what we were doing. I thought: This could be fun to see. And when I saw it, I was a little underwhelmed. For my mind, the studio made some, uh, choices that I wouldn't have made."

But when you've had a career as long and storied as Bridges, you don't let a flop get you down. "It's kind of fun when the movie's coming out. It's like having a horse in the race. And they're lining up, and they're off! And you're rooting for your horse. And in this case, the jockey fell off the horse and you came in last. Ha ha ha. You know. That happens sometimes," he says. Let's hope he let bombmeister extraordinare Ryan Reynolds in on this little pearl of wisdom.

       

Here's Where You're Most Likely to Die from Air Pollution

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Where on earth are you most likely to die early from air pollution? NASA provides the answer with this mortally serious view of the planet, and it is: lots of places.

Like tar stains on a healthy lung, the sickly yellow and brown areas in this visualization represent regions with significant numbers of pollutant-influenced deaths. Heavily urbanized places in eastern China, India, Indonesia, and Europe are stippled by the darkest colors of snuff, meaning they experience rates of ruination as high as 1,000 deaths per square kilometer each year.

In good news, areas painted in blue show where humanity has managed to lower its output of choking smog since the 1850s. These safer havens include spots in the middle of South America and the southeastern United States, where the amount of agricultural burning has decreased since the mid-19th century.

This representation of our befouled atmosphere is based on the work of Jason West, an earth scientist at the University of North Carolina who's investigating the health effects of bad air. According to computer models that West and his team constructed, an incredible 2.1 million deaths a year can be attributed to one type of pollution alone – fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which are teensy specks that fly out of car-exhaust pipes, industrial smokestacks and other things. (They're also what the NASA map is referencing.)

The medical community has linked breathing PM2.5 with afflictions from asthma to lung disease to heart attacks. It's obviously bad to be in the middle of a toxic particle cloud caused by some intense human activity, as Singaporeans were this summer thanks to land-clearing fires set by their neighbors in Sumatra. But that's not the only way that PM2.5 can getcha, says NASA:

In most cases, the most toxic pollution lingers for a few days or even weeks, bringing increases in respiratory and cardiac health problems at hospitals. Eventually the weather breaks, the air clears, and memories of foul air begin to fade. But that’s not to say that the health risks disappear as well. Even slightly elevated levels of air pollution can have a significant effect on human health. Over long periods and on a global scale, such impacts can add up.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in China and northern India, where dense bands of premature deaths pop out. You can practically hear the wheezing from space:

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Map made by NASA's Robert Simmon based on data from Jason West

       

George R.R. Martin Thinks 'Breaking Bad' is Better Than 'Game of Thrones'

Sunday's episode of Breaking Bad even had George R.R. Martin cooing, and he says Game of Thrones will never beat it at the Emmys. The author of the books behind HBO's Game of Thrones took to his blog to explain that while he thinks his show may have a shot at winning an Emmy this year at the ceremony Sunday, the prize is Breaking Bad's next year when the final episodes will be up for consideration. 

He wrote: "I think GAME OF THRONES may have a shot at upsetting BB for this year's Emmy (only a shot, though, I think they are the clear favorite), which pits us against their previous season...  but there's no way in hell that anyone is going to defeat BREAKING BAD next year, when their last season is the one in contention." Actually technically GOT is up against the first half of the final season of Breaking Bad this year, but we get your point, George. 

Meanwhile the man who gave us Joffrey Baratheon, thinks there's just no one in his universe as bad as Walter White. "Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros," he wrote. 

       

Attention Terrorists Using LinkedIn: The Government May Be Watching

Bad news for terrorists looking to get ahead in the industry: LinkedIn has apparently been infiltrated by the NSA. Or so a filing from the company submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, might suggest.

Obtained by the controversial document repository Cryptome.org, the document asks that the court allow LinkedIn to share data about surveillance orders issued by the government. The FISC is the secret court to which the NSA and FBI apply for authorization to surveil terror suspects under the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is the body that approved the PRISM program, which apparently partners the government with prominent tech companies to facilitate data collection on targets.

Several of those companies that have historically released summaries of government requests for user data have submitted applications to the FISC asking that they be allowed to share data about those requests. On Tuesday, according to the filing which appears in full below, LinkedIn joined them. Even in legal documents submitted to the government's secret surveillance court, LinkedIn — the preferred social network for business types to network and do business-type things — can't help being LinkedIn-y.

Linkedln's mission is to connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. As it represents to its members, one of LinkedIn's core values is "Members First." Critical to this mission and core value is Linkedln's commitment to earning and retaining its members' trust. It earns this trust by being open and transparent with its members, and by providing members with the Three C's, as it relates to members' data: Clarity, Consistency and Control.

The company explains that it tried to reach an agreement with representatives of the FBI allowing it to include information about national security requests in its transparency reports, but that the FBI continually stymied its efforts to do so. The filing continues on, making its case for why it should be allowed to segment out such requests in its reports.

The main question we're left with, however, is the extent to which terrorists or terror suspects use LinkedIn in the course of their terrorizing. While the Three C's might resonate with hierarchical militarist organizations, it's interesting to consider that a social network that is predicated and intermeshed with America's purest capitalist enthusiasms might also have people participating who are wondering if it's OK to fudge the amount of time they spent in the 1980s battling the USSR in Tora Bora.

To date, the FISC has not granted any of the requesting companies, which include Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, the right to segment out national security requests. If that right is granted, we can expect LinkedIn to similarly be given that power. And we'll get a sense for just how many terrorists are about to get in big, big trouble with their bosses.

Photo: The president hunts terrorists. (AP)