The American Enterprise articles from July 2003

The American Enterprise archives from July 2003

Jayson Blair's world, and Iraq. (Bird's Eye).
July 1, 2003... This installment of The American Enterprise is all about poor reporting. Unfortunately, there is enough of it out there that the issue was depressingly easy to put together. I'm not talking about media lies like those generated by Jayson...

Sidelights.
July 1, 2003... "I was wrong about the war," MSNBC's Chris Matthews told crowds in a recent speech. "I thought there would be an Arab revolt, a tremendous uproar.... Nothing happened. I hate being wrong, but I'm glad." * New Zealand's Health Ministry is...

Repaying the debt. (Scan).
July 1, 2003... The war in Iraq brought countless stories of courage and compassion: Two young American soldiers, left behind in the desert due to the fog of war, are found days later thirsty and hungry because they gave much of their food and water to Iraqi...

Hot shot. (Scan).
July 1, 2003... I have never been what you would call a gun nut. Sure, I've always taken libertarian pleasure in defending an individual's Second Amendment rights in a theoretical argument. But when it comes to real-life encounters with guns themselves, I've...

Quote of the day. (Scan).
July 1, 2003... You know the world is going crazy when: the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest man in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss win the America's Cup in ocean sailing, the French are calling Americans arrogant, and...

Quack whack. (Scan).
July 1, 2003... I know an Atlanta hospital that has more than its share of quacks. This is not to suggest a lack of expertise or dedication among the staff physicians. You see, the hospital houses the AFLAC Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service for...

The limits of taxing "the rich". (Scan).
July 1, 2003... "Soak the rich" rhetoric has been part of American political discourse for as long as I can remember. Democrats and liberals usually insist that the rich should pay more taxes. But the tax dilemma of California Governor Gray Davis shows there...

Left clergy, right laity. (Scan).
July 1, 2003... The war in Iraq exposed many continuing fissures in U.S. society, but none more evident than the divide between clerics promoting a forgiving "God of Peace" and parishioners favoring a sterner "God of Justice." Most mainline Christian...

Atheists on the March. (Scan).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Godless March, the first of its kind, recently drew about 2,500 atheists to Washington in a concerted effort to form a political base. Marchers frequently compared themselves to the early women's and gay rights movement. Ellen Johnson,...

On political moments. (Scan).
July 1, 2003... Retired Naval commander Lewis McIntyre sent us a copy of a letter he recently dispatched to Democratic Senator Robert Byrd. Some extracts: Senator Byrd, As a retired Naval officer, with two Gulf carrier deployments under my belt, I...

Deep woods. (Indicators).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Many Americans believe that U.S. forests are declining, opinion polls show. This reflects gloomy rhetoric from the environmental movement. In truth, however, the U.S. has more acres of forest today than it did in 1920, or in 1990. Significantly...

Breath easy. (Indicators).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... America's air has become a great deal cleaner over the last generation. Since measurement began in 1970, U.S. emissions have fallen dramatically, even while GDP and travel have more than doubled. America, in other words, is producing much more...

False alarm. (Indicators).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... It is easy to misattribute problems to pollution that actually have other sources. For instance, environmental groups regularly claim that high and rising levels of asthma stem from air pollution. International comparisons cast severe doubt on...

Laura Ingraham: a rising talk radio phenomenon compares radio to TV, dissects culture and politics, contrasts elites vs. middle America, and explains why Hillary Clinton is a throwback. ("Live" with TAE).(Interview)
July 1, 2003... It was a little more than eight years ago that radio talk show host Laura Ingraham burst onto the national scene in a cover story for the New York Times Magazine. The article--"Look Who's the 'Opinion Elite' Now"--appeared in the wake of the...

Doubt and derision over Baghdad.
July 1, 2003... Our nation is still catching its breath after the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, commercial-free, embedded, reported, re-reported, questioned, analyzed, parroted media frenzy that was the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Never in the world's...

Half cocked: why most of what you see in the media about guns is wrong.
July 1, 2003... I often give talks to audiences explaining that research by me and others shows that guns are used much more often to fend off crimes than to commit them. People are very surprised to learn that survey data show that guns are used defensively...

Paths to prosperity: many journalists believe yuppies, bohemians, and rock bands are the key to local economic growth. They ought to be looking at families.
July 1, 2003... It has been a disappointing couple of years for many entrepreneurs across the nation, but for Ramon Alvarez things have never been better. Sitting in a cramped office at his bustling car dealership within a sprawling auto center here, the...

Mixed atmosphere: good and bad environmental reporting swirl together.
July 1, 2003... In his new book The Real Environmental Crisis, Berkeley professor of energy and resources Jack Hollander writes: Can you remember a day when opened your morning newspaper without finding a dramatic and disturbing story about some...

Big dumb lie: journalists who insist there is no media bias problem are just cutting themselves off from the American public.
July 1, 2003... If you listen to a growing chorus of liberals and leftists, you might think that one of America's biggest problems today is, hold onto your hats, "conservative media bias." When Al Gore announced he wouldn't run for President, he complained...

The most important university: you've never heard of.
July 1, 2003... Among academics and liberal professionals, technical schools have never gotten any respect. For-profit educational institutions also get a bad rap from that group. So you can just imagine what education elites think of for-profit technical...

Environmental reality: a tidbit from a Bradley Lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, in which Gregg Easterbrook previewed his forthcoming book The Progress Paradox. (Transcript: words worth repeating).
July 1, 2003... Despite the panic-stricken tone of environmental commentary and politics, all environmental trends in the U.S. except for greenhouse-gas accumulation are favorable. Puget Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie, the Hudson River and other...

Saintly no longer. (In real life: first-person America).
July 1, 2003... SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--"Parents, stay behind me and watch for panhandlers!" instructed the petite middle school teacher. She knew the steep, half-mile route from San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre to our dinner spot could get dicey. Darkness...

Meet Warren Buffett's daddy. (Flashback).
July 1, 2003... Warren Buffett, the legendary investor whose taste for hamburgers and life in Omaha, Nebraska gives him a reputation for Middle American eccentricity in the world of high finance, is just another colorless gray-pinstriper when compared with his...

Global self-interest. (Inside Expert).(interview with Allan Meltzer)(Interview)
July 1, 2003... Allan Meltzer, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a visiting scholar at AEI, is the Institute's leading scholar on monetary policy, economic history, and international financial institutions. In February he received AEI's highest...

The new Disney? (Now Playing).(Finding Nemo)(Movie Review)
July 1, 2003... In terms of size and output, the comparison is ridiculous. Walt Disney Pictures has its fingers everywhere--radio, television, theme parks--and releases more than a dozen movies a year via its various studio divisions. Pixar Animation Studios...

Dangerous hospitals and Medicare. (the medicare economist).
July 1, 2003... President Bush is looking for ways to save money on Medicare to pay for prescription drug coverage. Here's a lifesaving way to do it: He should tell Medicare to insist on quality, and draw the line on paying hospitals with high infection rates...

Why we need serious Postal reform. (Enterprising: business as an act of creation).
July 1, 2003... President Bush recently named a nine-member commission to study reform of our Postal Service--the first time a U.S. President has done so since the Johnson Administration. Businesses and consumers relying heavily on the mail--concerned about...

China vs. foggy bottom.(The New Chinese Empire: And What It Means for the United States )(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... The New Chinese Empire: And What It Means for the United States By Ross Terrill Basic Books, 432 pages, $30 Thirty years ago, the catch-phrase in political science circles was that people who studied the Soviet Union hated the object of...

Immigration muckraker.(Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores)(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores By Michelle Malkin Regnery Publishing, 256 pages, $27.95 In Invasion, Michelle Malkin contends that America's porous immigration system...

Hail Captain Kirk.(The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot )(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (1953) By Russell Kirk Russell Kirk's classic text The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot turns 50 this year. Kirk's civilized polemic has persuaded generations of conservatives that they are...

A boon awaiting. (Business and Economics).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Anne Swope, et al. Introducing the Homeland Investment Act, J. P. Morgan, April 2003 (morganmarkets.com) There is a tax reform that is relatively simple and low in cost, yet might have a positive effect on the United States economy as great...

Doing de luxe. (Business and Economics).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Michael Silverstein and Neil Fisk, "Luxury for the Masses," in Harvard Business Review, April 2003 (harvardbusinessonline.org) In recent years, many middle income Americans have begun buying luxury goods--ranging from Mercedes automobiles...

We don't need the U.N. (National Security).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Joshua Muravchik, "We Are Better Off Without that U.N. Resolution," AEI On The Issues, March 21, 2003 (aei.org) Writing two days after international coalition forces began their campaign to liberate Iraq, AEI scholar Joshua Muravchik...

Our admired military. (National Security).(The Generation of Trust: How the U.S. Military Has Regained the Public's Confidence Since Vietnam)(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... David King and Zachary Karabell, The Generation of Trust: How the U.S. Military Has Regained the Public's Confidence Since Vietnam, AEI Press, March 2003 (aei.org) While Baby Boomers, reared in the Vietnam era, remain skeptical of the...

After Bin Laden. (Other Countries).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Ruven Paz, "The Endless Global Jihad: Are They Looking for the Post-Bin Laden Era?" Project for the Research of Islamist Movements, March 2003 (gloria.idc.ac.il/Islam) Osama bin Laden has not appeared in public for several years and has...

Keep your eyes on the road. (Society).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Andrea Glaze and James Ellis, "Pilot Study of Distracted Drivers," Center for Public Policy, Virginia Commonwealth University, January 2003 (vcu.edu/cppweb) In a first-ever study of the causes of driver distraction, Andrea Glaze and James...

Brain sex. (Science and Medicine).(The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain)(Book Review)
July 1, 2003... Simon Baron-Cohen, The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain, Perseus Publishing, July 2003 (perseus.co.uk) Autism is a complex brain disorder that afflicts victims with moderate to severe problems in...

A not-so-great media report card. (Opinion Pulse).
July 1, 2003... The next three pages provide an overview of attitudes about the media. Around four in ten Americans say they trust journalists and TV newscasters to tell the truth. A solid majority believe that news organizations' stories are often inaccurate;...

Media practices: a bill of particulars. (Opinion Pulse).
July 1, 2003... Forty-eight percent of those surveyed by Gallup believe that the news media favor one political party over the other while 46 percent say they favor neither party. Majorities say news organizations protect democracy and stand up for America,...

Media habits. (Opinion Pulse).
July 1, 2003... Young people aren't developing the daily newspaper or network news habit, as the data below show. Driven in part by the young, computer ownership has soared. Four percent of the public had a computer at home in 1983, more than half of all homes...

The mail.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... I just finished reading Karl Zinsmeister's "Dust and Stars" (June). Rarely have I read anything as compelling and uplifting. Zinsmeister's description of our men in battle filled me with pride and gratitude. How I envy today's fighting men and...

Last gasp.
July 1, 2003... "Burnout! You just started this morning!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I know you think I'm too old to understand what you're going through, Josh, but deep down I'm really very immature." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "My parents are...