Natural Born Killers
Women get flustered under fire. They’re too fragile, too emotional. They lack the ferocity required to take a life. They can’t handle pain. They’re a distraction, a threat to cohesion, a provocative tease to close-quartered men. These are the sort of myths you hear from people who oppose the U.S. military’s evolving new rules about women in combat, who have earned medals fighting alongside men, the war stories they tell don’t sound a thing like myths.
Michael Bloomberg’s Best Pickup Lines
Perhaps the biggest reveal in this week’s New York magazine cover story on mayoral prospect Christine Quinn is that current mayor Michael Bloomberg is something of an old-timey misogynist cad. While at an event, the reporter’s friend happened to thank Bloomberg for his position on gun control and, rather than acknowledge the comment, pointed out a nearby woman and said, “Look at the ass on her.” One imagines that his conversations are often peppered with words like “broad” and “dame.” We here at GQ, always looking for ways instruct the male animal, hit up our underground sources to compile a list of the top ten best pickup lines by mayor Michael Bloomberg. Careful though gents, wielding such potent lines requires a certain level of responsibility.
Four Problems with the Trillion Dollar Coin
The last few days have seen a rumbling around the Internet about the U.S. Treasury minting a $1 trillion dollar coin in order to alleviating the debt ceiling/fiscal cliff/that thing you’re sick of having explained to you. It turns out that there’s a technicality in U.S. law that allows the Treasury to mint a platinum coin worth any denomination they decide. With Timothy Geithner on his way out, his last act could theoretically be to create one of these coins, put it in the country’s bank account, and then voila, we’re $1 trillion richer. The big fear is that it would cause hyperinflation and destroy the dollar. Well turns out that this is probably not be the case. Of course, that’s not to say that there couldn’t be other problems with creating this über coin:
- Biden will inevitably use it to buy a Charleston Chew in a vending machine. “That son of a bitch Boehner wouldn’t break me off a piece, so I had to, y’know?”
- Within hours, the Franklin Mint will release replicas commemorating the striking of the coin. Just four easy payments of 24.95!!
- One trillion $1 coins is a way better idea; you could swim in it Scrooge McDuck-style. Meanwhile, Monty Burns prefers bills.
- Your creepy uncle could easily steal it by “vanishing” it behind some kid’s ear.
GQ Exclusive: Ben Affleck on Politics: “Ugly.” “Toxic.” “Horrendous.” “Complete Bullsh-t.” “I Don’t Want To Run For Office.”
All this feverish speculation that Ben Affleck is ready to put himself forward as a candidate if John Kerry vacates his senate seat, does it really come from somewhere? Other than, that is, from some endlessly re-quoted statements of heady youthful political ambition in an interview Affleck gave to GQ over a decade ago, married with his Boston heritage and the fact that in the last few months he is considered to have completed the nonsensical transformation from derided shallow actor idiot to America’s favorite hyper-talented, smart Hollywood liberal. Maybe the senate stories will turn out to be real; anyone can change their mind. But when Affleck talked with GQ most recently, on September 15 in Los Angeles, he was fairly clear on the subject.
The Doctor, the CIA, and the Blood of Bin Laden
The doctor who helped track down Bin Laden is now in prison. Matthieu Aikins travels to Pakistan to investigate:
The Big House no longer looms above the neighborhood outside Abbottabad; the military razed the compound last spring, and in its place lies an empty field. But its presence lingers indelibly on the quiet streets, where residents stop and eye strange cars warily. In the center of the plot, where the living room might have been, a busted water line burbles freely out into the grass, and women from the poorer houses come in their colorful robes to collect clean water from what was once Bin Laden’s personal supply.
As Nader and I neared the site, we saw a black late-model Toyota Hilux with an extended cab idling by the road. I noticed Nader tense as we cruised past it. We drove around the corner, parked on a side street, and then walked down the same path Afridi had used to approach Bakhto and Amna as they waited, over a year before, at the door of Bin Laden’s house.
Live on TV: The Fall of Greece
We already knew about the economic crisis, the mass unemployment, the riots. But this summer we saw the tensions and turmoil of a nation erupt in a single act of startling violence on a morning television program. Within days, it was beamed around the world. Chris Heath uncovers the truth of what happened in that TV studio, a cautionary tale not just for the future of Greece but for the rest of us, too.
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Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby [1974]
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Longreads Member Pick: After Visiting Friends (Chapter 1), by Michael Hainey
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Be still, our little shipper hearts!
