Newsweek articles from February 2007

Newsweek archives from February 2007

Mail Call; A Young Generation Seared by War and Terror.(Letter to the editor)
February 5, 2007... Readers were distressed by our Jan. 22 cover story on what the future holds for Iraq's youth, whose lives are being shaped by war and death. "Rearing children in chaos, mayhem, murder and hatred is a likely recipe for terrorists," said a U.S....

Certain About The Unknown; As winter turns to summer, Iowa to New Hampshire, candidates to nominees, myths could be dispelled, or turn into conventional wisdom.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Anna Quindlen Presidential campaigns are like the surface of the earth. Layers accumulate slowly over time. Soon the assumptions of today will be buried under strata of primary contests, opposition slime and debate fallout. Voters...

Pop Art's Poppa; Long before Warhol's soup cans, Jasper Johns revolutionized painting with works that were right on target.(Andy Warhol)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Peter Plagens In 1953, an intense, taciturn 23-year-old Southerner named Jasper Johns arrived in New York from a draftee's tour of duty in the Army. Johns was an aspiring artist, and at the time all the art hipsters were emulating...

The Man With Two Brains; Whose words these are we thought we knew. But his notebooks show Robert Frost discovering himself.
February 5, 2007... Byline: David Gates From the 1890s until he died in 1963, Robert Frost wrote down ideas, homemade aphorisms and fragments of poems. As one of his jottings says (God knows in what context), "I reel them off with one brain tied behind me."...

Don't Forget to Fix Social Security.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Allan Sloan Sometimes what people don't say about a topic is more interesting than what they do say. Consider, if you will, President Bush's State of the Union message. Social Security--the focus of his speech two years ago--got...

The Banker & The Anchor; Maria Bartiromo's relationship to a top Citigroup executive has kicked up a controversy. But CNBC stands by its 'Money Honey.'.(Todd Thomson)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts The audience for business television skews heavily toward testosterone: traders, CEOs and other "Masters of the Universe," as author Tom Wolfe dubbed Wall Street's upper crust in "The Bonfire of the Vanities."...

Surge Protector Edition.
February 5, 2007... Senate is poised to pass a bipartisan no-confidence vote on Bush surge plan. All eyes on John Warner Bush (equal) Uninspired State of U. does nothing to make his case. But gracious nod to Madame Speaker Cheney (down) Libby trial points...

The Editor's Desk.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Jon Meacham John Duncan was not convinced. As the Republican congressman from Tennessee sat listening to President Bush's State of the Union address, Duncan, who opposed the Iraq war from its outset, could not bring himself to...

The True Cost of War.(Cover story)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Weston Kosova (Written by Weston Kosova. With reporting by Arian Campo-Flores in Decatur, Gretel c. Kovach in Pflugerville, Babak Dehghanpisheh in Baghdad, Stefan Theil in Heidelberg, Dan Ephron, Eve Conant, Richard Wolffe, Daren...

Preview of a Post-U.S. World; The ball is in everybody's court, which means it's in nobody's court. This free ride can't last. The global system is not self-managing.(World Economic Forum )(Conference news)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Fareed Zakaria Two things were missing from this year's world Economic Forum at Davos: snow (which arrived eventually) and America-bashing (which did not). There were, of course, lots of American businessmen, activists and...

'Of Course We Worry'; Two Mideast leaders, Sunni and Shiite, agree America cannot abandon Iraq now.(Adel Abdul Mahdi, Ahmed Nazif)(Interview)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Lally Weymouth In any discussion of who might replace Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki if he fails to bring peace to Baghdad, the name of Adel Abdul Mahdi comes up. But the Shiite vice president may be a slim reed to lean on. In...

Geeksta Rap Rising; Isn't it time somebody represented for the Clark Kents of the world? Nerdcore hip-hop says 'Darn straight!' And don't think this stuff is parody.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Brian Braiker Bryce Case Jr. sounds like your stereotypical street-tough rapper. In 1999 he was convicted of vandalism, put on probation and slapped with a hefty restitution (between $50,000 and $60,000). He dropped out of high...

Will Oscar Finally Toast Peter O'Toole? The legend on awards, aging--and good Scotch.(Interview)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Nicki Gostin It's a bit of a shock when Peter O'Toole enters a room. He's unsteady on his feet--he's 74--and his piercing blue eyes are rheumy with age. You get the feeling that a strong wind might knock him down. But his shirt...

One Son's Choice: Love or Country? Our reluctance to accept gay marriage forces people to move away from their homes and their families.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Nadine Chaffee (Chaffee lives in Boise, Idaho.) My son cameron is a model American citizen. He is a hardworking, tax-paying, law-abiding young man. An honor student, a National Merit Scholar, a dean's list mainstay. He is liked by...

A Reluctant Rebel's Yell; From Vietnam to Capitol Hill, Chuck Hagel has never been afraid to fight. Now he talks about what could be his biggest battle yet: a run for the White House.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Darman (With Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey) Chuck Hagel wears pain on his face. The senior senator from Nebraska earned two Purple Hearts in Vietnam, where a mine blew out his eardrums and delivered a sharp burn up the...

The Baggage They Carry; Will pro-war stances hurt the GOP hopefuls for '08?(Grand Old Party)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Richard Wolffe (With Holly Bailey) Matt Dowd knows more about the politics of war than almost anyone who has worked inside Bush's inner circle. The president's long-time pollster was the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney campaign...

Many a Hurdle For Hillary.(Hillary Clinton)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Howard Fineman So far, so good for Hillary Clinton. She launched her presidential campaign with a smooth professionalism that reminded me of George W. Bush's debut eight years ago. The technology has changed (Web chats vs. a...

The Man Without Doubt; In a rare print interview, Dick Cheney talks about Iraq, Iran, Chuck Hagel, his image as 'Darth Vader' and Bob Woodward.(Interview)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Richard Wolffe A man with a reputation for secrecy and seclusion, Vice President Dick Cheney has spent the past few months out in public. He campaigned in the midterm elections, traveled to Saudi Arabia to talk security and...

New Hampshire Before New Year's? The front-loading of primaries--meant to help pick a nominee quickly--may backfire.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Alter I saw Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago last week, and he used a political term from the past: "Favorite son." Until the '60s, local party leaders would often keep their powder dry before a nominating convention by...

Newsmakers.(Drew Barrymore)(Interview)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Nicki Gostin Q&A: DREW BARRYMORE Barrymore plays a neurotic lyricist in the upcoming romantic comedy "Music and Lyrics." She spoke to Nicki Gostin. Do you do your own singing in this movie? Yeah. I've always been the...

Perspectives.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Quotation sources: The Washington Post, NPR, Boston Globe, New York Times (3), AP, New York Times, AP, Reuters "Let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory." President George W. Bush, asking Congress to give his Iraq...

New Fears: The Return of a Superterrorist.(Imad Mughniyeh)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Mark Hosenball, Maziar Bahari and Joanna Chen Before Osama bin Laden, there was Imad Mughniyeh. The Lebanese terrorist from Hizbullah was considered the most dangerous in the world. Now the White House worries that he's back, after...

Comics: An Obama Problem.(Barack Obama)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Nick Summers Pundits, donors, opponents red and blue--everyone's getting ready for a Barack Obama presidential bid. But one group is still unprepared: the nation's comedians, who say the pol appears almost invulnerable to...

The Leak Case: A Subpoena for Rove.(Karl Rove)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Michael Isikoff Anxiety in the White House over the Scooter Libby perjury trial is mounting because current and former senior officials--including deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and counselor Dan Bartlett--may be forced to provide...

Scandal: The Case of the Coach.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Catharine Skipp and Arian Campo-Flores The scandal has a titillating mix: cheerleaders, soldiers, booze, sex. Police say Jill Moore, a high-school cheerleading coach in Ware Shoals, S.C., bought alcohol and cigarettes for two...

Fast Chat: Immigrant Injustice?(Peter Miller)(Interview)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Joshua Alston Documentarian Peter Miller illuminates history's lost stories. In his latest film, "Sacco and Vanzetti," he revisits the tragic fate of two Italian immigrants executed in 1927 for a murder they probably didn't commit....

Collecting: A Mix-Up On Medals.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Peter Suciu In December, the Stolen Valor Act made it a crime to buy, sell, mail, import or export any military decoration approved by Congress. But the bill--intended to stop people from impersonating decorated vets--has such...

A Life In Books.(James Billington)(Interview)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... His No. 1 book is the Bible, which, among other virtues, stands up to rereading--unlike "Les Miserables," which James Billington went back to and found "long and tedious." The librarian of Congress shares his Recommended list: MY FIVE MOST...

BeliefWatch: Slaughter.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Lisa Miller The ancient Jews did it. So did the Romans and the Aztecs. Sacrificing an animal to please or placate God or the gods has been commonplace for many thousands of years. Still, it's a little bit shocking when we see the...

Taboo: Spanking Smackdown.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Julie Scelfo The uproar over a California assemblywoman's announcement that she wants to make it illegal for parents to spank their own toddlers raises an interesting question: how many parents actually spank their kids? We may...

Let's Not Hide Health Costs.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Robert J. Samuelson We are awash in health-care proposals. President Bush has one. So does California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has a plan, as does a coalition led by Families USA (a liberal advocacy...

He Calls Himself God; A Puerto Rican minister says Christ 'integrated' with him. Others call him a cult leader and a charlatan.(Jose Luis de Jesus, Growing in Grace )
February 5, 2007... Byline: Arian Campo-Flores At first glance, the congregation gathered in a warehouse in Doral, Fla., seems like a typical Hispanic evangelical group. There's the 10-piece band, the singing and swaying, the whooping and hollering. But look...

America's Most Wanted; In a new book, a right-wing critic blames the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on left-wing politicians, movie stars and activists.(The Enemy at Home by Dinesh D'Souza)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Jerry Adler In 2004, when Sen. Ted Kennedy was temporarily grounded by the appearance of a certain "T. Kennedy" on the No-Fly List, it was treated as an amusing bureaucratic snafu. But is it possible the government was on to...

Project Green: This Ecofriendly House.
February 5, 2007... Byline: Anne Underwood Michele Gries-Haber, 41, a marketing executive in Austin, Texas, composts, recycles and drives a hybrid car. So when she got mar-ried last year and decided to enlarge her house--a 1926 Craftsman-style bungalow--it...

The Checklist; Our top picks for the week ahead.(Top Chef, television program )(African Spirit, gospel choir)(Can I Freeze It?, cookbook by Susie Theodorou )(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... SEE 'Top Chef' finale (Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET; Bravo). Find out who'll manage to slice and dice their way to victory in this foodie version of "Project Runway." HEAR 'African Spirit,' by the Soweto Gospel Choir ($18.98). Oprah and Desmond...

Road Test: Mitsubishi Galant; One hot papa.(Product/service evaluation)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Anna Kuchment The Galant Ralliart is for that family guy who hasn't quite given up the dream of race-car driving. At first glance, it's all flash: aluminum pedals; gleaming, 18-inch alloy wheels; a faux-leather-wrapped steering...

A Pocket of Tunes.(online music offered by wireless carriers)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Byline: Cathy Lu Nearly every major wireless carrier now offers a mobile music service for your phone. How do the plans compare? TIP SHEET put them to the earbud test. SPRINT MUSIC STORE Demand instant gratification? For $2.50 (plus a...

Money: Get Set for April.(tax planning)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Tax time is here. But have no fear, we've gathered tips from the Ernst & Young Tax Guide 2007. Take a look at its list of commonly overlooked deductions. If you believe some of them might work for you, consult your personal tax adviser or...

Where Memory Endures; After 25 years, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial casts a long shadow.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Cathleen Mcguigan The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is so iconic, you tend to forget the political tempest that surrounded it more than 25 years ago. After the design--by a then-unknown Yale undergrad named Maya Lin--beat out 1,420...

Changing Climate Edition.
February 12, 2007... The CW tips its hat to former New York governor George Pataki for not running for president. Here's hoping he starts a trend. Bush (equal) Visits his base of bonus-stuffed satraps on Wall Street. Gets cheered until he zaps exec pay....

Mail Call: Home at Long Last.(Letter to the editor)
February 12, 2007... Mystery of a Strange Captivity and Rescue Readers of our cover story about the abductions of Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby were grateful for the boys' safe return, but many were concerned that excess publicity might inhibit their recovery....

The Editor's Desk.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Jon Meacham Kathy Deveny is big enough to admit it: "I have been a closet Paris addict for years, and I can't read enough about these chicks--Paris, Britney, Lindsay Lohan," she says. "They're young, beautiful and do whatever the...

Inconvenient Kyoto Truths; Was life better when a sheet of ice a mile thick covered Chicago? Was it worse when Greenland was so warm that Vikings farmed there?(Column)
February 12, 2007... Byline: George F. Will Enough already. It is time to call some bluffs. John Kerry says that one reason America has become an "international pariah" is President Bush's decision to "walk away from global warming." Kerry's accusation is...

Apocalypse Now; Iraqi forces struggle in the battle against a shadowy Shiite death cult. And that's only a small part of the problems they're facing in Iraq's south.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Babak Dehghanpisheh (With reports from Iraqi staff in Najaf and Maziar Bahari in Tehran, Christopher Dickey in Paris and Karen Fragala Smith in New York) Dhia Abdul Zahra claimed he was the messiah. And on the eve of the holiest...

The Road to Reformation; Al Qaeda had hoped to rally the entire Muslim world against the West, but now it is in the middle of a dirty sectarian war within Islam.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Fareed Zakaria For those in the West asking when Islam will have its Reformation, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the process appears to have begun. The bad news is it's been marked by calumny, hatred and...

To Reach for the Moon; China's lunar program is about more than national pride. Try this: a limitless supply of clean, safe energy.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Melinda Liu and Mary Carmichael Western analysts still can't say what Beijing was thinking when it shot down one of its aging weather satellites. True, the recent test was a fine show of marksmanship, destroying a refrigerator-size...

Colorblind at Last? This year, a record five black actors received Oscar nominations. That's amazing progress--maybe.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Sean Smith And Allison Samuels Black Hollywood has been keeping a secret. For decades, African-Americans had been so consistently overlooked by the Academy Awards that a private group began sponsoring the "Black Oscars." Every...

A Waking Nightmare; Sex, spies und audiotape in corrupt East Germany.(The Lives of Others)(Movie review)
February 12, 2007... Byline: David Ansen The Stasi--East Germany's omnipotent and greatly feared secret police--employed some 100,000 people, in addition to the 200,000 informers who could be counted on to spy on their neighbors, their friends and their own...

Why I Broke One of My 'Cardinal' Rules; I thought guns were evil. Then a tiny red bird came to call, and I had to rethink everything.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Walda Cameron (Cameron lives in Goshen, N.Y.) Guns are evil. This inviolate "death and taxes" truth sustained me--a peace-loving granny, a tree-hugging liberal--through 64 years of protected, upper-middle-class subsistence. It was...

Bush's Truman Show.(George W. Bush, Harry Truman)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Holly Bailey, Richard Wolffe and Evan Thomas (With John Barry) President Bush was reaching out--sort of. It was Dec. 7, the day after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group had delivered its recommendation that the administration begin to...

He's Ready to Rumble.(John Edwards )
February 12, 2007... Byline: Howard Fineman John Edwards played defensive back in high school, and waiting offstage to speak, he looked eager to get onto the field and hit someone. That is what he did (rhetorically) in the first scrimmage of the 2008...

Stop Pandering on Education; It's time to move from identifying failing schools to identifying failing teachers. Sounds obvious, but it hasn't happened in American education.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Alter The crazy thing about the education debate in the United States is that anyone with an ounce of brains knows what must be done. Each political party is about half right. Republicans are right about the need for...

Justice: Bench Player; Sandra Day O'Connor left the high court a year ago. Now she's really busy. In a NEWSWEEK exclusive, she talks about stepping down, Iraq and caring for her ill husband.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Debra Rosenberg (With Eve Conant) Walk down the hallway on the second floor of the Supreme Court, through the part of the massive marble building the public never gets to see, just past the chambers of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,...

Seventh Grade Surprise; He seemed like a normal 12-year-old boy to most. But 'Casey Price' was anything but a typical classmate.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Andrew Murr Twelve-year-old Casey Price did his best to fit in as his grandfather and uncle spent the past 18 months bouncing around Arizona. In tiny Payson, Casey invited boys at the local skate park to join a skateboard team he...

Happy Birthday, Abe; The Lincoln Bedroom is restored to its 19th-century glory.(Abraham Lincoln)(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Michael Beschloss (Beschloss's next book, "Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989," will be published in May.) A hundred and ninety-eight years after Abraham Lincoln's birth, the White House's...

Hillary's Religious Roots; At 13, she met a Methodist minister who became a lifelong friend.(Hillary Clinton, Rev. Don Jones)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Susannah Meadows If Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush have anything in common, it is a deeply rooted wariness of outsiders. Both the president and the woman who hopes to succeed him have always relied on a small, closed circle of...

The Mayor's Mistress; San Francisco's Gavin Newsom was on the move, but an affair with a friend's wife may slow him down.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Karen Breslau Gavin Newsom, the popular, handsome--and very available--mayor of San Francisco, was one of those men who could seemingly get any women they wanted. Since his 2005 divorce from Fox News commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle,...

Newsmakers.(Belinda Carlisle)(Interview)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Jac Chebatoris (Ramin Setoodeh) Q&A: Belinda Carlisle Belinda Carlisle will always be a Go-Go, but her new solo album is called "Voila--and it's all in French. La chanteuse spoke with Jac Chebatoris. You've recorded an...

Perspectives.
February 12, 2007... "The struggle in Iraq is winnable." Gen. George W. Casey Jr., addressing the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing for the post of Army chief of staff "The most dangerous tornado scenario is a threat for killer...

The War: 'Ambiguous' Intel on Iran's Meddling in Iraq.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Mark Hosenball How solid is evidence that Iran is stoking the conflict in Iraq? The White House has ratcheted up rhetorical attacks, suggesting that Iranian government elements were supplying Iraqi Shia insurgents with deadly...

The CIA Leak: Boring In on the Veep.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Michael Isikoff The Scooter Libby trial has put a new focus on Vice President Dick Cheney's own role in the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. When the CIA on July 11, 2003, sent over a draft statement taking...

Transition.(Molly Ivins recovering from breast cancer)(racehorse Barbaro may not recover completely from multiple leg fractures)(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Eleanor Clift (Nick Summers) Molly Ivins, 62 The Austin-based reporter described her battle against breast cancer with her signature caustic wit: "First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on...

Terror: A Viral TV Blunder.(Boston highways were shutdown after discovery of bomblike devices intalled near bridges for promoting a Cartoon Network show)(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Mark Starr And Nick Summers The stakes could not be higher, nor the comedy more surreal. Parts of Boston were shut down last week when bomblike devices were found near bridges, train stations and other locations. A terrorist strike...

Science: The Time Is All in Your Mind.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Jerry Adler Scuse me while I kiss this guy," Jimi Hendrix did not sing in "Purple Haze," but a lot of people heard it that way anyway: somehow in his listeners' ears the break between "the" and "sky" got moved one phoneme to the...

Beliefwatch: Heavenly.(90 Minutes in Heaven, a book by Don Piper )
February 12, 2007... Byline: Lisa Miller It isn't every day that a Christian book--that is, a book written by a Christian author for a Christian audience and marketed by a Christian publisher--crosses over into the secular market and makes any kind of...

The Games Gap Grows.(Winter Olympics)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Nick Summers If you can feel the excitement as the International Olympic Committee nears a July vote on the site of the 2014 Winter Games--well, you have a delicate enough touch to win gold in curling. After frenzied bidding for...

A Life In Books.(literary influences on Michael Eric Dyson)(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... His new book is called "Debating Race," and after hearing Michael Eric Dyson effortlessly rattle off his list of favorite books by African-American authors, we're ready to call the debate in his favor. The professor's list of required reading:...

On the Origin of Parties.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: MARY CARMICHAEL Charles Darwin's birthday is coming up, and Bob Stephens, a retired scientist who's organizing more than 850 celebrations worldwide, is expecting the gamut: parties with bearded impersonators, serious debates and a...

Girls Gone Bad; Paris, Britney, Lindsay & Nicole: They seem to be everywhere and they may not be wearing underwear. Tweens adore them and teens envy them. But are we raising a generation of 'prosti-tots'?(Cover story)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Kathleen Deveny with Raina Kelley (With Jamie Reno in San Diego, Karen Springen in Chicago and Susannah Meadows, Anne Underwood and Julie Scelfo in New York) My 6-year-old daughter loves Lindsay Lohan. Loves, loves, loves her. She...

Poor Among Plenty; For the first time, poverty shifts to the U.S. suburbs.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Peg Tyre and Matthew Philips Six years ago, Brian Lavelle moved out of the city of Cleveland to the nearby suburb of Lakewood for what he thought would be a better life. Back then, Lavelle, 38, was a forklift operator in a steel...

Brutal Case Studies; A new book documents a true ethics horror story.(Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present)(Book review)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Allison Samuels When Harriet Washington, a med-school graduate and former fellow in ethics at Harvard Medical School, decided to research medical crimes against African-Americans, she feared she'd turn up much more than the...

Vista's Super Sweet 16 Rollout.(Microsoft Windows Vista)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Steven Levy Is Vista, Microsoft's latest version of Windows--released last week with press events, parties, rock bands, a circuslike "human billboard" in downtown New York City and a multimillion-dollar ad campaign--the last...

Blog Watch.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Super Bowl XLI may be over, but the snark takes longer to fade away. And few do sports snark better than the folks at deadspin.com. A Chicago Tribune editorial excoriates Fox News and the Web site Insight for their false smearing of Sen....

The Digit.(Google web traffic)(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... 24: The percentage of year-over-year growth in Web traffic to the search giant Google for the quarter ending Dec. 31.

Financial Planning: Wills and Other Ways.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn (Reporter Associate: Temma Ehrenfeld) When you think about leaving money to heirs, the process seems simple. You put your decisions in your will (you have one, right?). When the will is read, your family and...

Shopping: More Bling For Your Buck.
February 12, 2007... Byline: Linda Stern If it sings to you, buy it. That's the simplified advice that diamond merchants like to give to Valentine's Day shoppers. But it's so much more complicated than that. Especially now, with online discounters, synthetic...

Ask the Pro.(401(k) plans)(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Linda Stern Andrew KeelerPartner, Everhart Financial Group The pension law that went into effect Jan. 1 encourages employers to offer retirement- investing advice to their workers. Should you take it? TIP SHEET's Linda Stern...

Insurance: Covered For Less.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Linda Stern You can refinance your house and your car--why not your life insurance? Rates on term policies have dropped significantly in recent years, thanks to longer life expectancies and better investment returns for insurers....

Net Interest; Here are the latest online tools for saving money every day.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Creditcardclients.com/savings-agent Plug in your credit-card name and balance, and it will find a card with a cheaper rate. Michaelbluejay.com/electricity Get tough on your appliances! This Web site will show you where every kilowatt goes....

Stocks: Looking Abroad.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... Byline: Linda Stern Want a piece of all that China-India-Brazil stock-market action you keep hearing about? Most financial advisers tell their clients to keep some of their money invested abroad. The strategy pays off in years like 2006,...

Tomorrow, Tomorrow; There is no better way to support those fighting in Iraq than to guarantee that no more of them die in the service of political miscalculation.
February 19, 2007... Byline: Anna Quindlen Tomorrow. That's when the United States should begin to bring combat forces home from Iraq. Today would be a better option, but already it's tomorrow in Baghdad, in the Green Zone fortress Americans have built in the...

Intimate Strangers; America's long dance with the Mideast dates all the way back to the Founding Fathers. Who knew?
February 19, 2007... Byline: Christopher Dickey The statue of liberty, in her curious way, helps tell the tale of America's long, complicated experiences and profoundly contradictory ambitions in the Middle East. The French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi wanted...

This Finn Is A Real Shark; In a new novel, Huck's Pap is scarier than you remember.(Huckleberry Finn)
February 19, 2007... Byline: David Gates Finn," by first-time novelist Jon Clinch, seems like your usual standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants contraption. Its main character is Huckleberry Finn's alcoholic father, who cuts such a scary figure in Mark Twain's...

Death Is Inevitable. Taxes? Maybe Not.
February 19, 2007... Byline: Allan Sloan It's hard to turn on a TV this time of year without seeing an ad showing smiling people who've supposedly just learned they'll be getting income-tax refunds thanks to a tax service or software program. Of course, your...