The American Enterprise articles from April 2005

The American Enterprise archives from April 2005

In the Middle East, a new world.(Bird's Eye)
April 1, 2005... * "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The...

Democrats may be in the minority in Congress.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Democrats may be in the minority in Congress, but we speak for the majority of Americans."--Senator Ted Kennedy.

A Washington Post/ ABC News poll finds that 55 percent of Americans expect George W. Bush to do a better job as President in his second term than his first.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A Washington Post/ ABC News poll finds that 55 percent of Americans expect George W. Bush to do a better job as President in his second term than his first. About 70 percent believe there will be significant progress against terrorism.... The...

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh told an interviewer on the radio show "Democracy Now!" that the United States has "been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh told an interviewer on the radio show "Democracy Now!" that the United States has "been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government.... It does say...

The leftist Web site foxblocker.com offers for sale an $8.95 device that will block FOX News from televisions.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The leftist Web site foxblocker.com offers for sale an $8.95 device that will block FOX News from televisions. The product description states: "Simply screw the filter into the back of your TV and never be exposed to right-wing propaganda again...

Canada's immigration minister, Judy Sgro.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Canada's immigration minister, Judy Sgro, resigned following allegations that she had helped an illegal immigrant restaurant owner avoid deportation in exchange for free pizza and garlic bread.

Shibley Horaney of California is suing two Las Vegas casinos.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Shibley Horaney of California is suing two Las Vegas casinos, claiming that they made it too easy for him to lose $5.5 million gambling since 1995 by offering perks such as free hotel rooms and bottomless credit lines.

A judge in Santiago granted the first legal divorce.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A judge in Santiago granted the first legal divorce in Chile's history.

The London Times reports that the fifth most popular name for newborn boys in England.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The London Times reports that the fifth most popular name for newborn boys in England last year was Mohammad.

19 Russian lawmakers, all members of the State Duma, called for an official investigation of "Jewish extremism.".(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... 19 Russian lawmakers, all members of the State Duma, called for an official investigation of "Jewish extremism." They argued that Jewish groups are purposely "provoking anti-Semitism in Russia."

At age 66, Adriana Iliescu of Romania became the oldest known woman ever.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... At age 66, Adriana Iliescu of Romania became the oldest known woman ever to give birth.

The North Korean government began a campaign to encourage men to get frequent haircuts.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The North Korean government began a campaign to encourage men to get frequent haircuts. The campaign, entitled "Let Us Trim Our Hair in Accordance with Socialist Lifestyle," features five approved haircuts. All five are variations on the crew...

A survey by the Rand Corporation and Oregon State University found that nearly half of American blacks believe that the AIDS virus is man-made.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A survey by the Rand Corporation and Oregon State University found that nearly half of American blacks believe that the AIDS virus is man-made. 15 percent believe AIDS is a form of genocide against blacks, and 12 percent think it is spread by...

Indiana's Republican governor, Mitch Daniels, has proposed a one-year, 1 percent tax.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Indiana's Republican governor, Mitch Daniels, has proposed a one-year, 1 percent tax on residents with incomes exceeding $100,000 in an effort to cut the state deficit. Indiana has had a 3.4 percent fiat tax since 1987.

Oklahoma state senator Frank Shurden, a Democrat, wants to re-legalize cockfighting, which was banned in the state in 2002.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Oklahoma state senator Frank Shurden, a Democrat, wants to re-legalize cock-fighting, which was banned in the state in 2002. He proposed requiring roosters to wear boxing gloves and small vests configured with electronic sensors to record hits....

The word "blog" is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... The word "blog" is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary.... According to BusinessWeek, more than 60 percent of Americans don't know what a blog (a kind of Internet diary) is.

Speaking at an awards dinner, actor-director Clint Eastwood told audiences, "Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common.(Sidelights)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Speaking at an awards dinner, actor-director Clint Eastwood told audiences, "Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common--we both appreciate living in a country where there's flee expression.... But, Michael, if you ever show up at my...

Hating America as usual.(Scan)
April 1, 2005... I don't normally attend presentations by radical anti-American leftists for the same reason I don't go in for unnecessary dental work: I'm not a masochist. Yet when pseudo-Indian quasi-professor Ward Churchill spoke at the University of...

Sex fiction.(Scan)(critique of Kinsey's methods)
April 1, 2005... Both the February PBS documentary about "sex researcher" Alfred Kinsey and the November theatrical movie about the same man (a bomb, with a bit more than $10 million in revenue) presented fawning portraits. Neither set of filmmakers bothered to...

We stand on guard for thee?(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Canadian prime minister Paul Martin has announced that his country will not contribute resources to the nascent U.S. missile defense system. Critics wonder if Canada's decision will hinder Washington's efforts to deploy a viable missile shield....

They wear suits, but don't chase skirts.(male penguins)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A German zoo has scrapped plans to break up male penguin couples following protests from homosexuals. The Bremerhaven Zoo had flown in four female Humboldt penguins in an attempt to encourage three male couples to start reproducing. Gay groups...

Iraqis shoo the vultures.
April 1, 2005... My partner called me Saturday and said, "Let's get in to the station early Sunday and watch the returns." I was a little surprised, as he's just a typical police officer, not a political nut like me. Then I thought about it and realized that...

The same people.(communism)
April 1, 2005... It is "the same people who wanted the United States to let communism triumph... who object to U.S. efforts right now in the Middle East. You hear the schadenfreude in their voices--you read it in their words--at our troubles in Iraq. For...

Read it and weep for contemporary children.(young-adult books)(excerpt from The New York Times, February 23, 2005)(Excerpt)
April 1, 2005... The infiltration (with encouragement from librarians) of harsh libertine themes into books marketed to teenagers was the subject of a February 23 New York Times profile, excerpted here: Weetzie Bat... has a boyfriend she calls "My Secret...

Derailed.(Amtrak)
April 1, 2005... Amtrak, as usual, is in crisis. As it does every year, America's passenger rail monopoly requests more money from Congress than Congress is willing to give. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation's Inspector General Kenneth Mead has...

Illegals vs. legals.(immigration)
April 1, 2005... Just before his inauguration, President Bush announced he would renew his push for a program that would turn millions of illegal immigrants into "temporary workers." While pro-immigration politicians and pundits have hailed the proposal, it...

Bad politics = poor economics.(economic aspects of Middle East)
April 1, 2005... There is no region more in need of fundamental economic reform than the Middle East. According to the U.N., one out of five residents lives on less than $2 a day. Yet the past 30 years have brought only a stagnation of living standards for the...

Al-Absurda.(death of Rafiq Hariri)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... After the February assassination of Rafiq Hariri (the Lebanese politician pressing Syria to stop manipulating his country's politics), good old al-Jazeera-Osama bin Laden's pet television network--conducted a poll asking Middle Easterners who...

Plutocrats? Or enterprises?(personal income tax)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Many of the "rich people" captured in U.S. income statistics are actually small businesses. That's because 90 percent of small businesses now pay their taxes through the personal income tax system rather than America's corporate tax system. ...

TV is down on religion.(religious programs)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Every year, the Parents Television Council analyzes an entire season of programming and reports on TV's treatment of religion in prime-time broadcasts. The 2004 results show notable hostility. Pime-time treatment of religion ...

Sky-high taxes.(air travel)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Like cell phone bills and gasoline purchases, air travel is now a favorite target for government "fees." President Bush recently proposed doubling aviation security taxes--which would add $1.5 billion to the cost of U.S. airline tickets. ...

John O'Neil.(Live with TAE)(Interview)
April 1, 2005... He inherited John Kerry's Swift Boat in Vietnam, earned two Bronze Stars, and debated Kerry's charge that American soldiers were war criminals. Then he entered into a quiet and non-political private life--until Election 2004, when he became a...

Does modern science undermine atheism? Prominent atheist Antony Flew has announced that the latest science convinces him some sort of God exists after all. Religious scientist Roy Varghese and non-believer Christopher Hitchens debate his rethinking.(Two Views)
April 1, 2005... YES IT DOES: Roy Varghese The most famous atheist in the academic world over the last half century, Professor Antony Flew of England's University of Reading, now accepts the likelihood that some sort of Deity brought the universe into...

Where are the moderate Muslims?
April 1, 2005... "We realize we are in competition with extremists for the soul of Islam." So says AEI scholar Hedieh Mirahmadi, an American Muslim woman of Iranian descent, who organized a recent conference in Jakarta described as "a chance for moderate...

Bolshevism in a headdress: Islamic fundamentalism has more to do with hatred of the West than with religion.
April 1, 2005... In October of 2002 I spoke to a crowded Muslim audience in the British city of Birmingham on the topic, "The Evidence for God." My lecture focused on the modern scientific discoveries that support the idea of a designed, "fine-tuned" universe....

And the walls came tumbling down: the world's last holdout against democracy--the Middle East--is experiencing a wave of nascent freedom.
April 1, 2005... That creaking sound in January may have been the hinge of fate in the Middle East. Gates that have long barred democracy from the region began to swing ajar. Dramatic elections held in Iraq and the embryonic state of Palestine (following a...

It's time to bolster peaceable Palestinians.
April 1, 2005... Yasser Arafat was the personification of a faction of the Palestinian leadership which has long fomented terrorism, imposed dictatorial rule, and stolen its own people's money. Arafat's death and replacement by Mahmoud Abbas has created an...

The power of freedom.
April 1, 2005... As a dissident in the Soviet Union 30 years ago, I was often asked skeptical questions about the value of democracy. I still get these questions today. They fall into three groups: First: Who says democracy is good for everybody? The free...

Don't fear the Shiites: the traditional Muslims who will run Iraq have developed an appreciation for democracy.
April 1, 2005... In the fall of 2003, when American diplomats in Baghdad first realized that Shiite clerics would be the most important political players in American-occupied Iraq, it was not a happy discovery. Most Western diplomats (and journalists) in the...

Lawsuit lollapalooza: meet the mad lawyers, mad doctors, and mad money of Madison County.
April 1, 2005... EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS -- The Madison County Courthouse is an imposing structure: a full block long, four stories high, a marble edifice built in 1921 as a symbol of the era when Madison was the most industrialized county in Illinois. ...

Can business groups beat lawyers? They did in 2004. They could in 2005.
April 1, 2005... The 2004 elections marked a victory not only for values voters but also for business groups. Business interests helped elect officials broadly sympathetic to economic competition and efficiency. Their involvement was especially decisive in...

Is investing really a gamble? The numbers.
April 1, 2005... Writing about the rise of the Ownership Society in the last issue of TAE, I argued briefly with critics of Social Security reform like James Surowiecki of The New Yorker, who wrote that the "Bush plan is asking you to swap an insurance policy...

A soldier comes home.(In real life: first-person America)
April 1, 2005... SARANAC LAKE, NEW YORK--There are no longer generators running, or armored vehicles rumbling, or mortars exploding, and the roar of the silence is deafening to me. What I hear at night now is the gentle breaths released from the perfect lips of...

Democracy is now the realistic policy.(Geopolitics)
April 1, 2005... "The policy of the United States is to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.... All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can...

Chicken little gets the flu.(flue vaccines)
April 1, 2005... The story hit late in January, and it barely made a ripple. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were releasing 4.4 million surplus, leftover doses of flu vaccine, while removing almost all restrictions on their distribution. The...

Toledo's Golden Rule.(Samuel Jones)(Biography)
April 1, 2005... Toledo, Ohio has been home to baseball-playing Mudhens, cross-dressing MASH corporals, and-stranger yet--the most colorful Tolstoyan anarchist ever to bear the honorific "Mayor." Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones was a Welsh immigrant who made...

When freedom requires force.
April 1, 2005... What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building By Noah Feldman Princeton University, Press, 200 pages, $19. 95 Recently I received an e-mail from an Iraqi friend describing his continuing struggles with electricity, heat, running...

Sex & drink a dull girl.
April 1, 2005... I Am Charlotte Simmons By Tom Wolfe Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 676 pages, $28.95 When Tom Wolfe pens a novel (something that happens every decade or so), there are a couple of things you can count on. One: good, bad, or so-so, the book will...

Socialist dream.
April 1, 2005... The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream By Jeremy, Rifkin Penguin, 434 pages, $25.95 Jeremy Rifkin has rendered us a service in highlighting the fact that the European Union, far from...

Incapacitate yes, rehabilitate no.(Culture And Society)
April 1, 2005... David Farabee, Rethinking Rehabilitation: Why Can't We Reform Our Criminals? AEI Press, 2005 (aei.org) Ever since flamboyant sociologist Robert Martinson proposed that "nothing works" in rehabilitating criminals, a vast army of prison...

Ill literarcy.(Culture And Society)
April 1, 2005... Ill Literacy National Endowment for the Arts, "Reading At Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America," Research Division Report #46, June 2004 (arts.gov) Conservatives looking for further evidence of cultural decline will find more...

Kids will rebel.(Politics)
April 1, 2005... Kids Will Rebel Brian Anderson, "On Campus, Conservatives Talk Back," City Journal, Winter 2005 (city-journal.org) Conservative ranks appear to have swelled at American universities. The number of College Republicans has tripled over...

Better ways to slake thirsty cities.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Better Ways to Slake Thirsty Cities Gary Libecap, "Rescuing Water Markets: Lessons from Owens Valley," PEP, C, January 2005 (perc.org) In the early 1900s, the potential of Los Angeles to be a major city was obvious, except for one...

Secure ID at last.(National Security)
April 1, 2005... Secure ID At Last Paul Rosenzweig and James Carafano, "Federal Standards for State-Issued Identity Cards," Heritage Backgrounder, February 2005 (heritage.org) The fact that so many of the 9/11 hijackers traveled with identity...

How not to clean up.(Science And Environment)
April 1, 2005... How Not to Clean Up Dana Joel Gattuso, "Mandated Recycling of Electronics: A Lose-Lose-Lose Proposition," Competitive Enterprise Institute Issue Analysis, February 2, 2005 (cei.org) Americans trash 2 million tons of old computers and...

Hate crime hooey.(Other Countries)
April 1, 2005... Hate Crime Hooey Kenan Malik, "The Islamophobia Myth," Prospect, February 2005 (prospectmagazine.co.uk) Commentators and journalists frequently claim that Britain and other Western nations are amidst a huge backlash against Muslims,...

Seeding democracy.(Opinion Pulse)
April 1, 2005... A majority of Americans has embraced the idea that spreading democracy is essential for our security. Before the Iraqi people voted in January, Americans were divided about whether the elections there would advance democracy in other countries...

Tax reform.(Opinion Pulse)
April 1, 2005... President Bush wants to reform the federal tax system. Most Americans think it is overly complex, but they don't appear to be clamoring for a fundamental overhaul. Half think the system works pretty well and requires only minor changes. People...

Upbeat Americans.(Opinion Pulse)
April 1, 2005... Nearly eight in ten Americans consider themselves optimists, and 80 percent say they wake up happy in the morning. Nearly two in ten say they are always happy, and another 61 percent say that they feel that way most of the time. Nearly nine in...

The mail.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2005... In "Reform-Related Deficits Are Not to Be Feared" (March), John Makin suggests that we issue large amounts of federal debt in order to finance a transition from a "pay as you go" Social Security system to a "we-funded system." If the new...

Last grasp.(Illustration)
April 1, 2005... "We found someone overseas who can drink coffee and talk about sports all day for a fraction of what we're paying you." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I loved him, but I had to break up with him because he could eat whatever he wanted without...