Mother Jones Magazine Cover : January + February 2013

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  • Cover Story
  • Criminal Element

    The hidden villain behind rampant crime, lower IQs, even the ADHD epidemic? Pb(CH2CH3)4.

  • FEATURES
  • Hearts and Minds

    PTSD is out of control among returning vets. Now, it’s spreading to their families.

  • Too Fast to Fail

    Are high-speed traders hurtling us all toward the next financial meltdown?

  • Keeping Choice Alive

    Mississippi is down to one abortion clinic. Meet the people fighting to keep it open.

  • Elephants Never Regret

    The GOP spent 2012 in a bubble. No sign they are coming out anytime soon.

  • Barackalypse Now

    Obama’s second term is very bad news for survivalists. It’s also very good news for the industry catering to their worst fears.

  • Our First Gay Muslim Kenyan Communist Lizard President

    Every Obama conspiracy in one handy chart


Contributors

James Ridgeway (“Three Strikes, You’re Old“) reported on aging prisoners with support from the Gerontological Society of America.

1 Mac McClelland (“Hearts and Minds“) is writing a book on PTSD; 2 Brady Fontenot has shot for Esquire and Monocle.

Kevin Drum became interested in lead science (“Criminal Element“) while reading how an eccentric geochemist measured Earth’s age using meteoric isotopes; illustrator 3 Gérard DuBois grew up surrounded by lead—his stepfather was a typesetter.

4 Nick Baumann (“Too Fast to Fail“) has $82 million riding on the emphatically low-stakes Hollywood Stock Exchange trading game; digital illustrator Giacomo Marchesi grew up in Los Alamos and fancies himself the “sixth- or seventh-best illustrator of whimsical robots in the northeastern US.”

5 Kate Sheppard (“Keeping Choice Alive“) interviewed two ob-gyns about Mississippi’s last abortion clinic while eating catfish and guzzling sweet tea at Cracker Barrel; 6 Matt Eich took photos of protesters while listening to the Kanye West-blasting boom box the clinic had set up to drown out their hymns.

Andrew Marantz encountered artificial life on his way to meet music legend and computer-aided artist Brian Eno (“Finding Eno“)—a cabby’s sultry-voiced navigation system.

Mac McClelland
Brady Fontenot Gérard DuBois
Nick Baumann
Kate Sheppard Matt Eich