Why you should be reading Rolling Stone magazine

Why? Because it rocks national affairs, international affairs, arts, and general interesting fricking stories. Take the current issue, for example (the first in a shift to regular magazine size, to accomodate more articles):

• Obama's Moment The candidate discusses how George W. Bush messed up, why John McCain turned ugly and what he learned from Bill Clinton. By Eric Bates
  
• Can the Republicans Steal the Election? The GOP is at it again, deterring new voters and discarding Democratic ballots. By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Greg Palast
  
• Death of a Red State One rural Colorado voting district is poised to turn left. Is America outgrowing the politics of bigotry? By Matt Taibbi
  
• The Nomad Warriors of Ethiopia A trip among remote African tribes reveals an ancient way of life. Photo porfolio by Sebastião Salgado
  
• The Last Days of David Foster Wallace The literary superstar's family and friends reveal the struggles that led to his tragic suicide. By David Lipsky
  
• Inside the Taliban Scenes from behind the lines of America's latest failed war. By Nir Rosen

Um. Sebastiao Salgado? RFK Jr and Greg Palast? Matt Taibbi, who is the best, funniest, most insightful, and even deliciously crude, opinionated journalist I have ever read? (And yes, there is a place for opinion in journalism, as long as it is clear it is opinion, unlike Faux News.) And then there's the entertainment stuff: "Bruce Rocks the Vote," a story on teen idol Nick Jonas getting a master class from his own idol, Elvis Costello; Tina Turner; Blitzen Trapper. Movies. More. All in one issue. The Ethiopia article is stunning. I mean, did I mention. . . Sebastiao Salgado? The Taliban story? Holy freaking shite. The election-stealing story? Horrifying. Any one who's reading this and wants to dismiss Rolling Stone out of hand as a music magazine or left-wing screed. . .

"It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take some of the rigidity out of it." ~Mark Twain

and

"The mind is like a trunk: if well-packed, it holds almost every thing; if ill-packed, next to nothing." ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare

and

"Some minds are made of blotting-paper: you can write nothing on them distinctly. They swallow the ink, and you find a large spot." ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare

and, for fun:

"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it." ~Terry Pratchett

ha ha ha!

So, anyway. Whew. It was hard to turn off comments yesterday. I still wanted to check, even though I knew there would be none. It's a kind of madness, I tell you. I also, out of anxiety, kept revising little bits of the post throughout the day. Why anxiety? It's the issue. It's a divider. Each side is entrenched, and thinks the other uses it to stoke support from their followers. Coming from the left, it had never occurred to me that the right thinks the left manipulates this issue to make their voters fall in line. That's what I think of them. I mean, they're the ones who politicized it. Funny, isn't it? But not "ha ha" funny. Anyway, it's an issue that many people think doesn't bear discussion, being an "agree to disagree" area, but I thought that Frank Schaeffer's opinion was very well articulated, and does merit further thought.

Lastly, if a pro-life former evangelical can vote for Obama, and a 106-year-old Vatican nun can vote for Obama, there might be something to the idea that "pro-life" means a whole lot more than just "anti-choice." Check out the oldest living American voter: