The American Enterprise articles from June 2006

The American Enterprise archives from June 2006

In praise of ordinary choices.(urban history)
June 1, 2006... The problem with most writing about cities is that people go out and say, "Here's what I like." And the corollary to that is usually, "This is what cities ought to be." Urban historians have tended to share certain tastes common to a...

Not your Auntie's Geo.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(National Geographic)(Periodical review)
June 1, 2006... The May 2006 issue of National Geographic was an especially tendentious installment of a magazine that has, alas, migrated from Middle American icon into increasingly politicized participant in the culture wars. The cover story was a badly...

Hysteric preservation.(historic landmark)
June 1, 2006... In the midst of an enormous real estate boom in Washington, D.C., one 25-acre parcel remains empty and wasted. Though well-located, it is nothing but a muddy flat pocked by crumbling silos and small abandoned shacks. The parcel could normally...

Secret weapons of the flesh.(Scan: Short news and commentary)(arab-Israeli conflicts)(Critical essay)
June 1, 2006... I recently turned 80 years of age. Descended from short-lived stock, I've sometimes wondered why I have not, like nay parents, gone to an early grave. Then I read the lengthy essay "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by professors...

Antoinette energy policy.(alternative fuels)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Bush administration would like to open up a 2-million-acre energy-rich area in deep waters 100 miles south of Florida. The proposed drilling zone is estimated to contain nearly half a billion barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of...

Public wants immigration pause.(Scan)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... As this issue was heading to press in early May, Washington, D.C.'s Center for Immigration Studies released the latest U.S. poll of attitudes toward immigrants. The results show substantial public desire (even among Hispanics) for a more...

Sidelights.(al-Qaeda recruitments)(Americans belives on United Nations)(profane language use by Americans)
June 1, 2006... If you do not have mirth you will certainly have madness--G. K. Chesterton Recently discovered documents reveal that al-Qaeda recruits sign a contract specifying salary, vacation, and home leave travel benefits. * Over 70 percent of...

Witold Rybczynski: one of America's most prominent observers of architecture and urbanism opines on suburbia, Wal-Mart, differences between designers and economists, celebrity buildings, do-it-yourself, and other aspects of how Americans live.("Live" with TAE)(Interview)
June 1, 2006... An architect by training, Witold Rybczynski is one of America's most accessible and thoughtful critics of the built world. He writes with grace and common sense on subjects ranging from city life to technology to house design. He even produced...

How sprawl got a bad name.
June 1, 2006... There is overwhelming evidence that urban sprawl has been beneficial for many people. Year after year, the vast majority of Americans respond to batteries of polls by saying that they are quite happy with where they live, whether it is a city,...

The sins of shady lane: if suburbia's gloomy critics would be less bossy, they could actually make a difference.(Andres Duany's reconstruction planning)
June 1, 2006... In recent decades, the Main Streets along Mississippi's Gulf Coast lost some of their vitality and historic character. Biloxi ran an elevated freeway through its downtown about 25 years ago, inaugurating a decline. New construction in the...

Real people prefer cars.(Beware the AUTOCRATS)
June 1, 2006... Defenders of the automobile argue that it is the most convenient and flexible transportation mode yet invented, giving people a degree of social and economic opportunity and autonomy unprecedented in human history. Critics, however, have a...

Transit for the Public, not the planners.(Beware the AUTOCRATS)
June 1, 2006... America is a society built on mobility. With bold sailing ships, intricate canals, ambitious railways, and brilliantly engineered highways and airports, we have created the wealthiest large society in human history, and done so while spending...

Making paradise affordable: life would be harder for many Americans without discount stores.
June 1, 2006... The first K-Mart opened in Hawaii, my home state, in 1992. That was the debut for Big Box retailing of the "no membership required" variety (Costco had already been here for a couple of years), and residents were amazingly excited. The day of...

Big boxes on the plains: two small towns react to Wal-Mart.(McCook, Nebraska and Concordia, Kansas)
June 1, 2006... Middle America doesn't get more middle than the long necklace of small towns strung along the Republican River, which rises in eastern Colorado and ends in Kansas. There are no sprawling metropolises here: Two of the largest towns--McCook,...

Just a simple mugging.(In Real Life: First-person America)
June 1, 2006... SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- In the past, when I would read a newspaper blurb about some little old lady being mugged, I'd simply think What a shame, and move on. I no longer do that. I've learned all too intimately how even a "minor" crime can...

Too few troops?(Geopolitics: Diplomacy is the police in grand costume--Napoleon)
June 1, 2006... When Saddam's statue fell in April 2003, 70 percent of the American people, along with both Houses of Congress that authorized the war, were quite happy with President Bush's decision to depose the Baathist regime. Three years and a messy...

If the economy is so good, why do we feel so bad?(Forward Observer: Politics meets economics)
June 1, 2006... The global economy is roaring. "For the first time since 1969," newspapers recently reported, "not a single country in the world has had negative year-over-year growth." Overall, the world economy is rising at a 4.4 percent rate, after...

Harriet Tubman, pre-mummification.(Flashback: To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain ever a child--Cicero)(Biography)
June 1, 2006... Araminta Ross, later known as Harriet Tubman, is perhaps the historical personage most familiar to the latest generation of American schoolchildren. An American Moses, this preternaturally wise conductor never lost a passenger on the...

Cheering the code after punching the passion.(Beat the Press: The hand that rules the press ... rules the country--Judge Learned Hand )
June 1, 2006... Imagine, if you can, a major studio releasing a thriller in which the stars investigate the origins of Islam. Pursued by a murderous Muslim cleric, they uncover a series of shocking discoveries: Mohammed was no prophet! The Koran is a hoax, the...

Character acting.(Now Playing: Film reviews, diamonds to dross)(Movie review)
June 1, 2006... Media spin doctors have done their best to turn patriotism into a dirty word, yet even movie critics--some of the most agile redefiners of culture around--have been humbled by the true patriotism on display in United 93. Praise has been...

Katie's too late.(CBS Inc. CBS News' Katie Couric)
June 1, 2006... Katie Couric has brought a sense of excitement to the world of TV evening news. And you could say the same thing about a new candy striper in the geriatric ward. Oh, it's possible we'll remember her as the salvation of CBS--but we barely...

Permanent adolescents.(The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy )(Book review)
June 1, 2006... The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy Leonard Steinhorn St. Martin's Press, 336 pages, $24.95 When I was a law clerk to a federal judge in 1970, I often engaged him in discussions about current affairs. I remember...

Literant.(Mozart by Julian Rushton)(Mozart: The Early Years 1756-1781 by Stanley Sadie)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... We are already halfway through 2006, the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The culture took brief heed, and then marched on unchanged. The operatic pimps-and-hos of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio" have hardly...

Flat is phat.(Flat Tax: Towards a British Model)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Allister Heath, "Flat Tax: Towards a British Model," The TaxPayers' Alliance, 2006 (taxpayersalliance.com) British journalist Allister Heath describes the growing realization of economists and finance ministers worldwide that the current...

Making aid honest.(Forgive the World Bank: But Don't Forget)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Adam Lerrick, "Forgive the World Bank, But Don't Forget," AEI Development Policy Outlook, 2006 (aei.org) A new study endorses debt relief for impoverished nations and root-and-branch reform of the World Bank. AEI scholar Adam Lerrick...

Who's repressed?(Modest Extremes: Why an Observant Jew Understands Sexuality Better than Hugh Hefner)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Wendy Shalit, "Modest Extremes: Why an Observant Jew Understands Sexuality Better than Hugh Hefner," In Character, Winter 2006 (incharacter.org) Wendy Shalit here presents an argument for less explicit presentations of human sexuality. She...

Could its army unify Iraq?(Army Building and Nation Building)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Vance Serchuk, "Army Building and Nation Building," AEI National Security Outlook, February 2006 (aei.org) Napoleon Bonaparte derided the Duke of Wellington as a "sepoy general," and indeed it was as a commander of native troops in India...

Honor among killers.(Gladiators Played by the Rules: Skulls Suggest)(Brief article)(Book review)
June 1, 2006... Kate Ravilious, "Gladiators Played by the Rules, Skulls Suggest," National Geographic News, March 2006 (nationalgeographic.org) A gladiatorial killing zone as an arena for honor and fair play? It may sound far-fetched, but new...

Mystery disease solved?(Prolonged Illness After Infectious Mononucleosis Is Associated with Altered Immunity)(Periodical review)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Barbara Cameron, et al., "Prolonged Illness After Infectious Mononucleosis Is Associated with Altered Immunity," Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2006 (journals.uchicago.edu/jid) Some people claim that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) affects...

Wal-Mart Matters.(Opinion Pulse)
June 1, 2006... Wal-Mart is more popular than business corporations in general these days. Nearly two thirds of the U.S. public give the megastore an overall favorable rating, compared to 57 percent who feel that way about business corporations in general. In...

The mail.(Letter to the editor)
June 1, 2006... It's too obvious to describe Americans alarmed at illegal immigration as "racists" or "xenophobes," so an end-run has been attempted by James Glassman (FORWARD OBSERVER, May), who calls such people "nativists." I sincerely wonder how Glassman...