The American Enterprise articles from January 2004

The American Enterprise archives from January 2004

The power of one person.(Bird's Eye)(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... If this issue of The American Enterprise has a unifying thread, it is the claim that individual people still have the ability to reshape history, to change the momentum of society, to make a difference in their own sphere and the larger world...

Sidelights.
January 1, 2004... The left-wing London newspaper The Guardian hosted an online discussion on the topic "Is it time to assassinate George Dubya Bush?" A Baghdad couple named their newborn son George Bush as a sign of thanks for deposing Saddam Hussein. If they...

The Khomeini of freedom.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... One cannot imagine an irony much thicker than Ayatollah Khomeini welcomed to Washington, yet that is precisely what happened. Hossein Khomeini, the 45-year-old grandson of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, recently addressed a packed audience at the...

Time for new allies.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... This fall, U.S. leaders acted as model internationalists. First, a U.N. Security Council resolution was passed in which all parties unanimously agreed that more international aid was needed to rectify the damage done to Iraq during the...

Where is the religion of peace?(Scan)
January 1, 2004... Reverend Ian Sherwood, the chaplain who conducted a memorial on November 23 for the 30 people killed in the bombing of the British Consulate and a bank in Istanbul, stated after the service: "I'm appalled that I've not received any statements...

Fine friends.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... The E.U. recently asked Europeans which countries they regard as posing a threat to world peace. In first place, selected by 59 percent of Europeans, was Israel. Second place was a three-way tie: North Korea, Iran, and... the U.S. (each picked...

Killing with kindness.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... Indigenous people in most developed nations get good press, more often than not portrayed as victims of colonizing cultures. Until recently, New Zealand's Maoris were no exception. This changed when two prominent Maoris made headlines...

Kinda makes you wistful for Planet of the Apes, IV.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... To commemorate its 55th anniversary, the North Korean government recently hosted an eight-day film festival dedicated to the "immortal feats" of maximum leaders Kim II Sung and Kim Jong II. Among the cinematic gems: The Leader Is the Great...

Right students, wrong professors.(Scan)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... A recent nationwide poll of college students conducted by the Harvard Institute of Politics found that many college students have rebelled against their baby boomer parents by shifting right. Fully 88 percent of college undergraduates...

Is patriotism now a Republican thing?(Scan)
January 1, 2004... Valerie Swiger, whose 21-year-old son Jason is serving in Iraq with the U.S. Army, tied yellow ribbons all around her town. Then she was told to take them down. Why? Some residents of South Portland, Maine complained to City Hall that the...

Oops.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... From a letter sent to the editor of the New York Times by AEI scholar John Lott: "How are things really going in Iraq?" (November 14) claimed that the annualized murder rate in Baghdad from April to October this year ranged from an...

Language warriors.(Scan)
January 1, 2004... You might almost think you were on the campus of some community college. But no ordinary college has mandatory urinalysis for drug use--one strike and you're out--or has a signpost reading "BAGHDAD 11,158 MILES," or all students in uniform. But...

Oink!(Scan)
January 1, 2004... Boston's not-yet-completed Central Artery project, popularly known as the "Big Dig," is the most expensive public works project in America's history, and also one of the vastest boon-doggles ever. A legacy to his home state from late Speaker of...

God in government!(Scan)
January 1, 2004... Photojournalist Carrie Devorah, an intern at Human Events (humaneventsonline.com), visited some of Washington, D.C.'s major federal buildings and documented the fact that our nation's seats of governance are rife with religious imagery. If...

Deficits and democrats.(Indicators)
January 1, 2004... In his new book The Bush Boom, Jerry Bowyer describes the historical relationship between federal deficits and politics: "The present-day Democratic Party has focused rhetorical attention on the dangers of deficits, and they are blaming the...

Entitlement binge.(Indicators)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Two economists report that the growth of federal spending on "entitlements" like Social Security and Medicare is creating huge, hidden debt overhangs. Using a technique called generational accounting, AEI fellow Jagadeesh Gokhale and University...

Teen pregnancy surprise.(Indicators)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The 1990s saw teen pregnancy rates fall to their lowest levels in a generation. Conventional wisdom has credited increased contraception. A new study in the journal Adolescent and Family Health, however, shows that relatively little of the...

Victor Davis Hanson: Equally at home with ancient history and contemporary politics, a reader of Greek and Latin who exhibits a strong popular touch, a man with unsually deep roots and phenomenally broad interest, he's hardly your everyday academic.("Live" with TAE)(Interview)
January 1, 2004... Victor Davis Hanson has written on topics as diverse as the ancient Greeks, military history, farming, immigration, and the world post 9/11. In addition to being a prolific author, he is a professor and co-founder of the Classics Department at...

Giving thanks for America's warrior class.
January 1, 2004... Thanksgiving has just passed, and the first American troops to deploy for the Iraq War are nearing their one-year anniversary overseas. That makes it a good time to remember some families in this country to whom the rest of us owe a great deal....

Governors (and generals) rule.
January 1, 2004... With early and sustained leads in the polls, in contributions, in the enthusiasm of crowds, and in the proficiency of his media appearances and campaign organization, former Vermont governor Howard Dean is the man to beat in the 2004 race for...

Crucifying Mel Gibson.
January 1, 2004... A serious filmmaker would normally feel gratified if his cinematic work inspired impassioned debate, intense emotional response, detailed analysis, even raging controversy. Well in advance of his picture's release, Mel Gibson has already...

Arnold Schwarzenegger girds for Indian War.
January 1, 2004... Today's California Indians procured power the old-fashioned way: They bought the best government that money could buy. In just a few years, revenues from their newly built casinos soared to $5 billion per year (2002), pushing them close to Las...

The problem behind Chinese adoptions.
January 1, 2004... The People's Republic of China's trade surplus with the United States approached $100 billion in fiscal year 2002. But the most significant and permanent Chinese export to the United States is not counted in dollars: Over the last decade, more...

Gun control victims: women receive little encouragement for self-defense from mainstream feminists.
January 1, 2004... In the middle of a long drive through rural Texas in the early 1960s, Evelyn Logan pulled over at a rest stop at 5:30 a.m. to take a break. As she emerged from the public bathroom, a man ambushed her, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her...

The gift of life.(In real life: first-person America)
January 1, 2004... EAST LIVERPOOL, OHIO -- In the 1950s, my family lived amidst a mix of Irish, Italian, English, German, Jewish, Greek, and Ukranian families. It was a decidedly working class neighborhood that provided a labor pool for the local potteries, steel...

The Soros threat.(Forward Observer)
January 1, 2004... George Soros, the 38th richest person in the world according to Forbes, says that defeating President George W. Bush in 2004 is "the central focus of my life." In an eye--popping interview recently with the Washington Post, he argued that...

Loud Cat.(Now Playing)
January 1, 2004... Among its many annoying aspects, political correctness tends to put a damper on the joy that comes with revisiting old literary classics. A corrective impulse ruined the 2000 film version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which twisted the...

The people speak.(Beat the Press)
January 1, 2004... Katie Couric couldn't believe it. Bowing to public pressure, CBS had just pulled the plug on "The Reagans," its $9 million doomed foray into non-reality TV. The decision was such big news that even rival networks were dissecting it, and NBC's...

Use the Bush failures.(Politico)
January 1, 2004... If President George W. Bush is to win re-election with a mandate, he needs to focus more public attention on his failures. The temptation for all Presidents and governors running for re-election is to dwell on their accomplishments. A...

Money mystery at Medicare.(the Medical Economist)
January 1, 2004... Medicare, which pays health care expenses for elderly Americans, is nearing a breaking point, with spending levels threatening to overwhelm the system sometime in the next two decades. In response to the impending crisis, Congress recently...

The eight myths of recycling.(Enterprising: business as an act of creation)
January 1, 2004... Garbage is the unavoidable by-product of production and consumption. There are three ways to deal with it, all known and used since antiquity: dumping, burning, and recycling. For thousands of years it was commonplace to dump rubbish on...

History through red-tinted glasses.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage By John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr Encounter Books, 280 pages, $25.95 The Left suffered an agonizing defeat when the U.S. won the Cold War in 1991 and the Soviet regime crumbled onto the ash...

Catholic Delimmas.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America By Peter Steinfels Simon & Schuster, 416 pages, $26 It's difficult to generalize about a religious group with 65 million adherents, but an outsider might reasonably observe...

Survival literature.(Book Review)
January 1, 2004... Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books By Azar Nafisi Random House, 368 pages, $23.95 The first literary genius of the East, spinning her tales a millennium ago, was a clever woman named Sheherezade who defied her king-husband's vow...

Less money from Washington.(Politics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Benjamin Wallace-Wells, "Bush's War on Cops," Washington Monthly, September 2003 (washingtonmonthly.com) Under the Clinton administration, the federal government financially supported local law enforcement at an unprecedented level. More...

Hard left turn.(Politics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Zell Miller, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, Stroud & Hall, November 2003 (zellmillerbook.com) In his new book, A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat, Senator Zell Miller...

Decaying economic orbit?(Economics And Regulation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... John Makin, "A Sustainable U.S. Recovery?" AEI Economic Outlook, October 2003 (aei.org) AEI scholar John Makin offers qualified pessimism in his assessment of the prospects for a sustained economic recovery for the U.S. in 2004. "Now, as...

Stock Exchange fix.(Economics And Regulation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... James Glassman, "Reform Requires That Exchanges Completely Separate Regulation from Business, and Adopt Public-Ownership Model," Testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored...

Mortgage morass.(Economics And Regulation)
January 1, 2004... Michael Greve, "Subprime but not Half Bad," AEI Federalist Outlook, October 2003 (aei.org) For an American with a steady job and decent credit history, it's not that hard to obtain a low-rate mortgage and purchase a house. People with...

Keep WMD hunt in balance.(Defense And Foreign Affairs)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... John Parachini, "Putting WMD Terrorism into Perspective," Washington Quarterly, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Autumn 2003 (twq.com) Policy makers, scientists, and bureaucrats are now searching for ways to protect the...

Europe's weak constitution.(Other Countries)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Jack Rakove, "Europe's Foundering Fathers," in Foreign Policy, September/ October 2003 (foreignpolicy.com) Between February of 2002 and June of 2003, 105 delegates met in Brussels to write a constitution for the European Union. Jack Rakove,...

The real cyber threats.(Society)
January 1, 2004... William Webb and Eli Lehrer, "Securing Cyberspace," in American Outlook, December 2003 (americanoutlook.org) Americans depend on computers for everything from air traffic control to Christmas shopping. Nearly everyone who studies the matter...

Health.(Opinion Pulse)
January 1, 2004... Most Americans say they are healthy. The progress the nation has made can be seen by looking at the responses older people have given to that question over time. Still, 50 percent say that they or someone in their family is overweight. The...

Wealth.(Opinion Pulse)
January 1, 2004... Sixty percent of Americans say they are better off than their parents were at the same point in their lives, and about two thirds expect their children to be better off than they are. Seventy percent say it is still possible to start out poor,...

Security.(Opinion Pulse)
January 1, 2004... What worries Americans? Thirty-five percent cite rising health care costs. About 15 percent say they are worried about their own job security, although many more are worried about the job market in the nation. Thirty-six percent say they are...

The mail.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... Jean-Francois Revel's "Europe's Anti-American Obsession" (December) is the best explanation of anti-Americanism I have read. And while he details foreign criticism so well, the saddest observation he makes is that "anti-Americanism continues to...

Last gasp.
January 1, 2004... "And now, if you'll all turn to page 634, Section P, of your convention agenda..." I TOLD YOU HE WAS DRIVING TOO FAST... "I really took my divorce, bankruptcy, and federal indictment as a kind of wake-up call." "I swear it...