The American Enterprise articles from July 1999

The American Enterprise archives from July 1999

Sidelights.
July 1, 1999... When Hillary Clinton went to a day care center to film a documentary, most of the three- to five-year-olds were forced outside into cold weather for three hours so she wouldn't be disturbed. * The sexy "Baywatch," TV's most popular series...

GOOD TEACHERS THROUGH THE BACK DOOR.(alternatives to teacher training programs)
July 1, 1999... When Abigail Thernstrom lectured at Cornell's law school recently, she asked the students, "How many of you would be interested in teaching if the entry requirements changed, the level of professionalism improved, and you could choose a school...

BAAAA.(Charlton Heston on political correctness)
July 1, 1999... Charlton Heston, telling Harvard University students that political correctness on campus has turned them into sheep, February 16, 1999: You are the cream But I submit that you, and your counterparts across the land, are the most socially...

HOW UNIONS HURT SCHOOLS.
July 1, 1999... Quick: Who are the arch enemies of effective U.S. school reform? Try, sadly enough, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the two national teachers' unions. A recent conference sponsored by the...

BILINGUAL ED FOLLOW-UP.(promising results of English-only instruction)
July 1, 1999... When Proposition 227, the Republican-backed measure requiring a shift away from bilingual education to English-immersion teaching, was passed by California voters in 1998, opponents cried doom. In practice, however, the results have been very...

MORE STUPID INSTRUCTIONS.
July 1, 1999... * On Saintsbury's peanuts: Warning--contains nuts. * On a Husquavarna chain saw: Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands. * On a bottle of flavored milk drink: After opening, keep upright. * On a CycleAware helmet-mounted...

HE'S LYING AGAIN ... (and not just about sex).(President Clinton's pronouncements on Chinese spying)
July 1, 1999... The Media Research Center caught these comments by Tim Russert, NBC News Washington bureau chief, on the "Imus in the Morning" radio show. DON IMUS: Here's my question: Why, why is [Secretary of Energy] Bill Richardson reluctant to just...

TIME FOR AN UMBRELLA.(America's need for missile defense)
July 1, 1999... Now that it's been established, no thanks to our Commander in Chief and his security advisers, that China has stolen extremely dangerous nuclear information from us, perhaps America will awaken from a potentially catastrophic slumber and...

THE FAN-DOM MENACE.(cynical reaction to movie 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace')
July 1, 1999... Does The Phantom Menace, the fourth film in writer-director George Lucas's Star Wars series, deserve its staggering success? If you believe there's still room for the kind of heroic movies that used to define American cinema, the answer is an...

THE CUTTING EDGE.(film depicts real-life incestuous brother and sister)
July 1, 1999... What would you call a brother and sister who produced four children together? The law calls them criminal: Patty Muth is currently serving five years in a federal prison in Wisconsin; Allen Muth is serving eight. Hollywood, however, calls...

IS STAR WARS A MONEY LOSER?(new film cost the US $293 mil in lost job productivity)
July 1, 1999... Based on some calculations of the millions of adults missing work to attend the weekday opening of the new Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace, John Challenger of workplace consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas has estimated that the...

THE GERM-AUSTRO-OTTO-NIPPO-BRITISH EMPIRE.
July 1, 1999... Students at The Citadel, South Carolina's 157-year-old military academy, invited presidential aspirant Patrick J. Buchanan to speak at their May 8 Commencement. An abridged version of his address follows. Long ago, Teddy Roosevelt...

WEAK STRONGMAN.
July 1, 1999... "Being by this time a weak man, he had decided to be strong. And he would be strong at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons." --Characterization of British Prime Minister Lloyd George by a member of his cabinet after he launched a...

TIME TO RESHAPE OUR MILITARY.
July 1, 1999... In war, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest had it right: "Git thar fustest with the mostest." Just now, however, the United States lacks the ability to move men and materiel swiftly around the globe--even if our President did possess a...

HOPE THE "ISSUES" DIDN'T GIVE THEM A "COMPLEX".(pornography studied and produced at Wesleyan University)
July 1, 1999... The Hartford Courant reported in May that Wesleyan University, the tony Connecticut liberal arts college, now has a course taught by Professor Hope Weissman entitled "Pornography." And Professor Weissman doesn't believe in relying on secondary...

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK.
July 1, 1999... In January 1999, President Clinton stated that "women earn about 75 cents for every dollar a man earns." The National Committee on Pay Equity declared April 8, 1999, Equal Pay Day, to protest the claim that women earn only 74 percent of men's...

ANOTHER HEALTHY SIGN.(Americans are starting to save at younger age)
July 1, 1999... More evidence that Gen Xers are not the profligates of popular depiction: A recent survey by Roper Starch Worldwide found Americans over age 50 didn't start saving for retirement, on average, until they were in their late thirties. Today's...

THE JAPANESE MIRACLE.
July 1, 1999... Japan's annual budget deficit is well over ten percent of GDP, with its total debt obligations exceeding 100 percent of GDP. Into the indefinite future, the Japanese government must borrow an additional $36 billion per month. In the United...

WHY THE MALE PRESENCE?(few male attendees were tolerated at the National Organization for Women's Lesbian Rights Summit)
July 1, 1999... When the National Organization for Women recently held its third Lesbian Rights Summit in Washington, D.C., NOW president Patricia Ireland stated that "maybe half" of NOW's members are lesbians. But it's obvious NOW's leaders don't love...

THE CULTURE WAR TURNS DEADLY.(violence against Christian students)
July 1, 1999... One of the first of the recent string of high school shootings took place in 1997 in West Paducah, Kentucky. The shooter was a twisted freshman named Michael Carneal. His targets? Members of the student prayer group at Heath High School. ...

TELL US ABOUT IT.
July 1, 1999... "I hate it when people blame someone else and don't take responsibility." --President Clinton, speaking on the Colorado school shooting. "Part of growing up is learning how to control one's impulses." --Hillary Clinton, speaking...

UNLEASHING THE SAVAGE WITHIN.
July 1, 1999... Although suicide rates among older Americans have been relatively stable over the past 40 years, the incidence of suicide among 15- to 19-year-olds has quadrupled. Is this linked to the songs, movies, and television young people now consume?...

NICE THOUGHT. NICE LANGUAGE.
July 1, 1999... Describing the recently passed "emergency spending bill"--where Congress used various disasters plus Kosovo as an excuse for billions in pork, inflating the total cost from the $6 billion the President asked for to more than $15 billion--Senate...

ROLLING THE DICE.
July 1, 1999... Americans now legally gamble more than $600 billion a year, according to Eugene Christiansen in International Gaming and Wagering Business. This, notes National Gambling Impact Study Commission member James Dobson, is much more than the $450...

"Live" with TAE.
July 1, 1999... THE JOURNALIST AND FORMER DEMOCRATIC OPERATOR WHO NOW HOSTS THE POPULAR TV SHOW "HARDBALL" SERVES UP OPINIONS ON POLITICS, POLITICIANS, AND THE MEDIA. Christopher Matthews Every weeknight at 8:00, CNBC offers up one of the hottest...

THE West Point Story.
July 1, 1999... "This is a very sentimental place," says Colonel Charles F. Brower, IV (Class of 1969), professor and head of the Behavioral Sciences and Leadership Department at West Point. "It's hard to figure that out, but things have profound meaning when...

IS THE Naval Academy Off Course?
July 1, 1999... Last year, on the afternoon of a bright, pristine day in December, taps could be heard playing in the distance at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, an institution founded in 1845, one year before the U.S. declared war...

Dear Supe.
July 1, 1999... MEMORANDUM To: Rear Admiral C. S. Minter, USN (Ret'd) Former Superintendent, U.S. Naval Academy From: Captain James H. Webb, Jr., USMC (Ret'd) U.S. Naval Academy class of 1968 Subject: After-action report Sir: This is in...

The ROTC Edge.
July 1, 1999... John Smith (his real name) faced a choice. He could trace his military lineage back to the Mexican-American War, and had he gone to the Air Force Academy he would have been one of its earliest second-generation cadets. Instead, he went to a...

The British Approach.
July 1, 1999... As a Naval Academy graduate, I have a great fondness for the institution and my four-year academy experience. But during the 40-plus years since I attended, many changes have occurred at the academies, many new programs for obtaining officers...

"It Changed My Life".
July 1, 1999... The Education of Lt. Kopacz When Paul Kopacz was four years old a relative who was a Marine died, but his family couldn't afford to travel to the funeral. "When I grow-up," he said, "I'm going to become a pilot so you can all fly free." *...

Better Than Georgetown-Oxford-Yale.
July 1, 1999... Though The Citadel can be a difficult place for outsiders to understand, its place in South Carolina's history is sacrosanct and revered. It is a military college of the first rank in a time when our nation needs more military colleges, not...

THE RESURGENCE OF Military High Schools.
July 1, 1999... She came of age in the 1960s when the cultural elite considered the military oppressive and authoritarian--the jackboot of American imperialism worldwide. Today, Gall Paroda cherishes the nation's armed forces. The military, after all, rescued...

THE GRAND DISGUISE: WHY MEDICAL EXPENSES ARE OUT OF CONTROL.
July 1, 1999... Once upon a time, the Kingdom of Xanadu got into a terrible war, and to attract workers, industry decided to provide bread to employees. Companies bought "bread insurance" to provide 80 percent of whatever bread was consumed, and many times the...

ONE QUICK, PRACTICAL OPTION FOR IMPROVING MEDICARE COSTS AND QUALITY.
July 1, 1999... Medicare is rapidly going bankrupt. The proposal the President made in his State of the Union address to assign almost $700 billion of projected future budget surpluses to bail out one portion of Medicare demonstrates the extent of the problem,...

A LONGER-TERM ALTERNATIVE: SAVE MEDICARE WITH SAVINGS.
July 1, 1999... Memo to Washington policy wonks: Forget Social Security and across-the-board tax cuts for the moment. They are a distraction. It's Medicare (and its less-familiar cousin Medicaid) that the Congress and President ought to be worrying about right...

CLEANING UP THE PUBLIC SQUARE.(appropriate broadcasting in public places)
July 1, 1999... SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA--We hear a lot about the moral decline of American public life. Can one person do anything about it? Here's an example that opened my eyes. One March day in California, I took my two children to a coin-operated...

RURAL COUSINS.
July 1, 1999... THE WESTERN STATES--The stereotype of farmers and ranchers as self-reliant businessmen is, in my experience, only half right--ranchers are. I've negotiated mineral-rights leases with hundreds of ranchers and farmers. Ranchers rarely...

It's Not Your Money.(illusions about rights to social security funds)
July 1, 1999... THERE IS NO "RIGHT" TO SOCIAL SECURITY "The way you wear your hat. The way you sip your tea. The memory of all that. No, no, they can't take that away from me." Frank Sinatra was right. No one can steal your romantic memories. Too bad Ol'...

The Ultimate Unmade War Movie.
July 1, 1999... In the movie business there exists no "sure thing." But a picture called The Patriot that will begin filming in September--starring Mel Gibson--may be as good a bet as exists. Due in theaters in the summer of 2000, it has some of the same...

Of Poe and Lee and other West Points.(military education of author Edgar Allan Poe and General Robert E. Lee)
July 1, 1999... There is a rich literary tradition at West Point. As alumnus and novelist Lucian Truscott IV says, "You just spend four years doing nothing but writing and figuring electrical engineering problems. The education at West Point is excellent for a...

ALL TOO HUMAN.(Review)
July 1, 1999... All Too Human By George Stephanopoulos Little, Brown, 456 pages, $27.95 When I started All Too Human, a certain angst came over me. It was similar to the mild intestinal panic you get when you realize the person sitting next to you on a...

The Secret Lives of Citizens.(Review)
July 1, 1999... The Secret Lives of Citizens By Thomas Geoghegan Pantheon Books, 241 pages, $25 From the Christian Right to the marginalized Left, old activists are wondering how to make politics work again. In the aftermath of President Clinton's...

A Fatal Friendship.(Review)
July 1, 1999... A Fatal Friendship By Arnold Rogow Hill & Wang, 286 pages, $27.50 As Washington seethed over the Clinton scandals, it was said that Americans had never before witnessed such heated battles in the political arena. Quite the contrary....

Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 By Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace Oxford University Press, 1,383 pages, $49.95 Most New Yorkers have one thing in common--the old ethnic neighborhood. Poles, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, Irish,...

The Roosevelt Myth.(Review)
July 1, 1999... The Roosevelt Myth By John T. Flynn, 1948 As historian Ralph Raico points out in his introduction to this recently reissued book, conservative Republicans as well as liberal Democrats have bought into the Franklin Roosevelt myth. The...

Let 50 Flowers Bloom.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Let 50 Flowers Bloom Michael S. Greve, Real Federalism: Why It Matters, How It Could Happen, AEI Press, 1150 17th Street N. W., Washington, D.C. 20036. For most of our history, states had a good deal of authority, and the Supreme Court...

Plain Facts About Plane Travel.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Plain Facts About Plane Travel Robert W. Poole, Jr., and Viggo Butler, Airline Deregulation: The Unfinished Revolution, Reason Public Policy Institute/Competitive Enterprise Institute, 1001 Connecticut Avenue N. W. #1250, Washington, D.C....

Stop Drugging So Many Children.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Stop Drugging So Many Children Mary Eberstadt, "Why Ritalin Rules," in Policy Review (April-May 1999), Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002. Many schools today are devoted to four Rs: reading, writing,...

Putting Cities on a Diet.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Putting Cities on a Diet Witold Rybczynski and Peter D. Linneman, "How to Save Our Shrinking Cities," in The Public Interest (Spring 1999), 1112 16th Street N. W. #530, Washington, D.C. 20036. A number of America's big cities are steadily...

Be Nice to Policemen.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Be Nice to Policemen Dan M. Kahan and Tracey L. Meares, "The Coming Crisis of Criminal Procedure," Georgetown Law Journal (June 1998), Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Avenue N. W., Washington, D.C. 20009. Inner-city...

There's No Preschool Imperative.(Review)
July 1, 1999... There's No Preschool Imperative Darcy Ann Olsen, Universal Preschool Is No Golden Ticket: Why Government Should Not Enter the Preschool Business. Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue N. W., Washington, D.C. 20001. Most states now fund...

You Can Be Too Careful.(Review)
July 1, 1999... You Can Be Too Careful Ronald Bailey "Precautionary Tale," in Reason (April 1999), 3415 South Sepulveda Boulevard #400, Los Angeles, California 90034. Environmentalists are currently refining a new idea for their arsenal: "the...

Too Much Wilderness?(Review)
July 1, 1999... Too Much Wilderness? James H. Patric and Raymond L. Harbin, Whither Wilderness? How Much is Enough? Heartland Institute, 19 South LaSalle Street #903, Chicago, Illinois 60603. The United States still has lots of woodland--about 731 million...

Should Britain Join NAFTA?(Review)
July 1, 1999... Should Britain Join NAFTA? Conrad Black, "Britain's Atlantic Option: And America's Role," in The National Interest (Spring 1999), 1112 16th Street N.W. #540, Washington, D. C. 20036. Britain has been hotly debating the extent to which it...

Why Scandinavia Must Retreat From Welfare.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Why Scandinavia Must Retreat From Welfare Xan Smiley, "The Nordic Countries: Happy Family?" in The Economist (January 22, 1999), 25 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1HG, England. Scandinavians have long been known for their enthusiastic...

VIEWS ABOUT THE MILITARY.(Review)
July 1, 1999... The United States military is the most popular institution in American life. Today, 54 percent of those surveyed say they have a great deal of confidence in the people running the military, up substantially from the Vietnam War period and the...

Military Readiness.(Review)
July 1, 1999... The proportion of Americans who say defense spending should be expanded is higher than at any time since the late 1970s. A bare majority think the military is as strong as it needs to be to ensure our national defense and protect our interests,...

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE POLICE.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Policemen rank pretty high in terms of their honesty and ethical standards. Only small proportions of the public say they have hardly any respect for the police in their area. Three in ten say the police are doing an excellent job in dealing...

VIEWS ABOUT GUNS.(Review)
July 1, 1999... Around of third of Americans say they own a gun, and two-thirds have fired one. Three in ten say that someone close to them has been shot. Fewer than 5 percent favor no restrictions on owning guns, and, at the other end of the spectrum, 22...

the Mail.(Review)
July 1, 1999... A Reagan Republican, I was sympathetic to Social Security "privatization"--until I analyzed it. In his March/April SOCIAL SECURITY WATCH Deroy Murdock criticizes me for opposing privatization, but his argument contains several flaws. ...