The American Enterprise articles from April 2006

The American Enterprise archives from April 2006

A very public private affair.(Bird's Eye)(sexual orientaion)
April 1, 2006... Sex is an instinct that produces an institution. That institution is the family; a small state or commonwealth which has hundreds of aspects.... Sex is the gateway of that house; and romantic and imaginative people naturally like looking...

Watch what they do, not what they say.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(charitable donations of Americans)
April 1, 2006... The American people are truly generous. A few weeks ago the 400 largest charities in the U.S. reported that their total donations rose 12 percent in the latest year. Total charitable giving in this country now exceeds $260 billion annually....

Germany fades.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(migrant workers )
April 1, 2006... Reuters reported recently that 150,667 Germans left their country for good last year. Over the last decade and a half, around 2 million Germans have emigrated. Experts say that if undocumented migrants are added to these official figures, the...

The dialogue.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(Cartoon)
April 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] UNDER DEMOCRACY, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO FREELY CRITICIZE OUR LEADERS, OUR PRESS AND EVEN OUR RELIGION! AND SO IT IS UNDER ISLAM! WE TOO HAVE THE RIGHT TO FREELY CRITICIZE YOUR LEADERS, YOUR PRESS AND YOUR RELIGION!...

Silicon valley discovers compromise.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(Google in China)
April 1, 2006... As the front door to the Internet, seeking "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google has acknowledged a sense of grave responsibility with the pithy motto: "Don't be evil." Yet, days after...

Answer bossy judges.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(federal judicial power)
April 1, 2006... Judicial overreach now extends to all areas of American society, from the right to own property to the definition of marriage, from the freedom to practice religion in public to the ability to run a competitive business. Federal judges...

Google.(Scan: Short news and commentary)
April 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE GOVERNMENT DEMANDS.... GOVERNMENT DEMANDS? I REFUSE TO COMPLY WITH GOVERNMENT DEMANDS.... IT'S DOWNRIGHT UN-AMERICAN! IT'S CONTRARY TO THE VERY PRINCIPLES OUR COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON. WE MUST...

Welcome to Iran.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(A Few Simple Shots)(Movie review)
April 1, 2006... The world is "a little bit late" in coming to understand the true nature of Iran's Islamic regime, says expatriate Joseph Akrami. As a youth in Iran, says the soft-spoken filmmaker, "I wanted just one thing: to get out of that hellish country."...

Sidelights: If you do not have mirth you will certainly have madness--G.K. Chesterton.
April 1, 2006... There are at least 50 American colleges and universities that offer courses in "video game study."... Over three fourths of U.S. college students are registered to vote, though only half consider themselves interested in politics, according to...

Bad numbers on engineers.(Indicators: Numbers, etc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... News stories these days warn darkly that India and China are overtaking the U.S. in a crucial area of technological expertise: the production of trained engineers. Statistics are bandied about purporting to show that universities in those...

The higher tech society.(Indicators: Numbers, etc.)(engineering graduates in United States)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Duke researchers note that Chinese and Indian engineering schools can be of very uneven quality compared to accredited U.S. counterparts. More fundamentally, China has about four times the population of the U.S., and India is around...

Crying wolf on science?(Indicators: numbers, etc.)(number of science and engineering doctorates)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Since the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, the American scientific establishment has warned that the Soviets, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Indians (depending on the decade), are on the verge of overtaking the U.S. in science. Corporate and...

He's an independent black intellectual who emphasizes freedom, responsibility, individual accomplishment, and self-sufficiency as the keys to black success in America.("Live" with TAE)(Shelby Steele)(Interview)
April 1, 2006... Sixty years ago, Shelby Steele was born to a black truck driver and a white social worker in Chicago. His parents were active in the struggle for civil rights, and encouraged him to make the most of his personal opportunities. After...

Good sex: why we need more of it and a lot less of the bad stuff.(Cover story)
April 1, 2006... Lots of Americans today--young and old--are coping with deep problems related directly or indirectly to sex. Many have been burned by current sexual practices--such as hook-ups that create emptiness, or cohabiting relationships that go...

Seduced: how radical ideas on welfare, work, and family sent poor black Americans to hell.
April 1, 2006... This is a story of how measures intended as instruments of social improvement can cut a people off at their knees. Until the 1960s, government welfare programs were small efforts designed for young widows and seniors without other means of...

Rot from within: a warning flare against "attack" liberalism and U.S. weakness abroad.(Come Nineveh, Come Tyre)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... On the eve of America's 1960 elections, a 600-page novel about Washington politics emerged from nowhere to catapult to the top of the best seller lists and remain there for an unprecedented 93 weeks. Everybody interested in U.S. governance...

The Agent Orange fiasco.(Vietnam War)
April 1, 2006... Everyone has heard of Agent Orange. How many know that it is basically identical to a commercial weed killer (2,4-D plus 2,4,5-T) that was used for decades in this country to dear brambles, poison ivy, and brush, improve visibility along roads,...

Nice Americans.(In Real Life: First-person America)(helping others)
April 1, 2006... QUEBEC, CANADA--In the summer of 2004, I made a solo kayak trip from New York City to Quebec. Not many realize it, but an inland water route connects these two cities. It includes the Hudson River, the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain, the...

Back to the '60s Barricades.(Geopolitics: Diplomacy is the police in grand costume--Napoleon)(Samuel Alito confirmation hearings)
April 1, 2006... On matters of national security, Democrats are back on their 1960s barricades. For them, the chief dangers to the United States lie not abroad but at home, within our own government--specifically unaccountable law enforcement, military, and...

NYT spies a story; overlooks the facts.(Beat the Press: The hand that rules the press ... rules the country--Judge Learned Hand)(New York Times)
April 1, 2006... In Journalism 101, students learn to write newspaper stories in what's referred to as the Inverted Pyramid--with all the important, newsworthy information at the top, and the less relevant details relegated to the bottom. The technique is...

He died of the presidency.(Flashback: To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain ever a child--Cicero)(William Henry Harrison)
April 1, 2006... Lacking an Arthur Schlesinger to paint his mayfly-brief administration in purple hues of glory, poor William Henry Harrison died and became an asterisk. Aside from a few libertarian wise guys who praise his month-long Presidency for its...

Memo to poor countries: trade barriers hurt you most.(Forward Observer: Politics meets economics)
April 1, 2006... Back in 2001, delegates from 148 countries met in Doha, Qatar to start a round of world trade negotiations with the "needs and interests" of developing countries "at the heart of" the effort. The talks, to put it kindly, have gone nowhere. I...

From socialism to capitalism, with brio.(the Israeli Economist)(Israel)
April 1, 2006... TEL AVIV, ISRAEL--Grabbing his coat to leave a fashionable Jerusalem restaurant, Benjamin Netanyahu pauses to give a young supporter a piece of advice. "If you want to understand the way an economy works, there's one book you need to read: The...

The Panther's in the Pink.(Now Playing: Film reviews, diamonds to dross)(Pink Panther)(Movie review)
April 1, 2006... The Pink Panther movies were never known for their sophistication. In fact, sophistication--particularly of the snobby, artifical European variety--was always one of their main satirical targets. That tradition thankfully continues in Steve...

The show that made us street savvy.(the Tube: Television ... that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night--Ray Bradbury)(Cops)(Television program review)
April 1, 2006... It is conceivable that sometime next year, the television show "COPS" could show the arrest of an adult whose mother was arrested while pregnant with him in the series' first season 18 years ago. That's "COPS." And that's a remarkably long TV...

Manly good or manly evil.(BookTalk: Words may be deeds--Aesop)("Manliness")(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Manliness By Harvey Mansfield Yale University Press, 304 pages, $27.50 There are fashions in virtue, as there are in clothes. Frankness and compassion are in this year, discretion and fortitude are out. Indeed, fortitude is now regarded...

Literant.(Book Talk)("A History of the World in 6 Glasses")(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Is there an equivalent of the word "foodie" to describe those of us who are passionate about beverages, who love everything from gourmet sodas (Sioux City Sarsaparilla, anyone?) to exquisite high-end bourbon (Van Winkle, aged 20 years) and all...

Less marriage, more poverty.(the Digest: Summaries of important new research)("Marriage and Caste: America's Chief Source of Inequality?")(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Kay Hymowitz, "Marriage and Caste: America's Chief Source of Inequality?" City Journal, Winter 2006 (city-journal.org) After analyzing data on family structure, Kay Hymowitz of City Journal concludes that different attitudes toward marriage...

Captain, my captain.(the Digest: Summaries of important new research)(Army's role )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Nigel Aylwin-Foster, "Changing the Army for Counterinsurgency Operations," Military Review, November-December 2005 (leavenworth.army.rail) Although the U.S. Army is an acknowledged master of conventional war, it isn't as adept at tying up...

Indian summer.(the Digest: Summaries of important new research)(market liberalization)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Arvind Panagariya, "The Triumph of India's Market Reforms: The Record of the 1980s and 1990s," Cato Institute Policy Analysis # 554, 2005 (cato.org) Will China or India be the dominant Asian economy in the years ahead? India's annual...

Dollar billed.(the Digest: Summaries of important new research)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... John Makin, "Why the Dollar Is Rising... Again;' AEI Economic Outlook, December 2005 (aei.org) According to AEI visiting scholar A John Makin, the dollar, like a Republican President... faces incessant predictions of imminent collapse,...

Private funding best for science.(the Digest: Summaries of important new research)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Arthur Diamond, "Relative Success of Private Funders and Government Funders in Funding Important Science" European Journal of Law and Economics, forthcoming (cba.unomaha.edu) Since Truman, much of America's basic scientific research has...

The state of our unions.(Opinion Pulse)(American's opinion of intercourse)(Table)
April 1, 2006... The vast majority of Americans think their unions are strong. About three quarters say they are satisfied with their sex lives. Marriage still appears to be the ideal, with three quarters calling it the most enjoyable arrangement. While a...

Attitudes about extramarital sexual activity.(Opinion Pulse)(Table)
April 1, 2006... The vast majority of Americans say that extramarital sexual relations are always wrong. In 2004, 80 percent gave that response. Another 12 percent said they were almost always wrong. A near majority of men, and a solid majority of women, called...

The mail.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Robert Zubrin's article (March) was wonderful. I especially appreciated that he pointed out the fallacy of the hydrogen fuel economy. In my daily work as a science journalist, that's been a hard one to get through people's heads. Larry...