The American Enterprise articles from March 1999

The American Enterprise archives from March 1999

Sidelights.
March 1, 1999... The National Security Agency has banned Furby toys in its offices for fear their microchips will record secret information. Dogs suffering "separation anxiety" may now use an FDA-approved, meat-flavored pill billed as an antidepressant. New...

CLOSE THE WHITE HOUSE DEPARTMENTS OF PROPAGANDA.
March 1, 1999... The Clinton impeachment proceeding has been described by its critics as an exercise in party or cultural warfare. Actually, it has been an attempt to correct institutional abuses of the White House office. Clinton's reckless behavior,...

CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI.
March 1, 1999... At first glance, you wouldn't take me for a Nazi. My mother was a Russian Jew. During the pogrom of 1905, she and her family had to hide in the home (at times under the table) of friendly Christians. They were unharmed, but persons they knew...

OSCAR COUP.
March 1, 1999... Don't look now, but a conservative coup is in the works for the Academy Awards. Best Picture front-runner Saving Private Ryan has stolen the thunder from The Thin Red Line, its lauded liberal counterpart. And on a lesser scale, The Truman Show...

CRACKING THE EDUCATION MONOPOLY.(Review)
March 1, 1999... In June 1998, financier Ted Forstmann and Wal-Mart heir John Walton pledged $100 million of their money to launch the Children's Scholarship Fund. In just three months, over 70 million more dollars rolled in. This May the fund will award 35,000...

FREE TRADE, PLEASE.
March 1, 1999... When a farm magazine asked farmers to rank their sources of stress, machinery breakdowns ranked higher than family discord. This did not surprise me. My wife works hard every day--so hard I can't keep up with her--yet after 20-plus years on the...

A GOOD DEEDS ALLIANCE.
March 1, 1999... Stephen Goldsmith, Republican mayor of Indianapolis, noted in a recent speech in Washington, D.C., that to solve difficult social problems like fatherlessness and people who are unwilling to work, government and churches must join forces. ...

RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION SLOWLY ENDING.
March 1, 1999... Faith-based groups are still trying to understand the new "charitable choice" provisions of the 1996 welfare reform bill. To help them, the American Enterprise Institute and the Center for Public Justice held a conference on January 14, on what...

MARRIAGE OF EQUALS.
March 1, 1999... Two consecutive letters to the editor in the January 26, 1999 edition of Michigan's Grand Rapids Press caught the eye of TAE contributor Ed Ericson. The first is a 285-word epistle arguing in great detail that "the incidents involving the...

THE ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT LIVES ON.
March 1, 1999... That giant sucking sound Americans heard when President Clinton delivered his most recent State of the Union address was their federal tax dollars, tens of billions of them, flowing right through Washington in a racing blur. If you've got a...

CHILDREN LOVE HIM.
March 1, 1999... The morning after President Clinton's recent State of the Union address, constitutional scholar Roger Pilon sent out this message: I'm distressed by the absence in the President's message last night of any concern about my pressing need for...

FOLLOW-UP: IS AMERICA TURNING A CORNER?
March 1, 1999... Following up on last issue's cover story about improving social indicators, we find more evidence of a retreat from 1960s foolishness in the latest installment of a massive annual survey of U.S. college freshmen. The just-released figures...

FOLLOW-UP II: IS AMERICA TURNING A CORNER?
March 1, 1999... One reform achieved by the post-'94 Republican Congress is a re-channeling of some of the federal money spent on sex education and contraceptives into abstinence-based teaching for school children. To say that the sex-ed establishment has...

HANGING NIXON.
March 1, 1999... In a room in the Capitol where House GOP leaders discussed how to proceed with impeachment charges against Bill Clinton is an artifact that arrived earlier this year wrapped in a plain brown wrapper so as to offend as few people as possible....

"Bud" Paxson & Jeff Sagansky.
March 1, 1999... TWO HIGH-FLYING PRODUCERS OF HIT TV PROGRAMMING HAVE LAUNCHED A NEW BROADCAST NETWORK THAT PROMISES SOMETHING NOVEL: FAMILY-FRIENDLY PROGRAMMING 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME. Is it possible to launch a media empire by broadcasting reruns of one...

HOW TODAY'S TRASH TELEVISION HARMS AMERICA.
March 1, 1999... "A vast wasteland." "The boob tube." "The one-eyed monster." "The idiot box." As these venerable descriptions suggest, low-quality television programming is a problem of long standing. But recently, this old problem has taken on some...

THREE U.S SENATORS SPEAK OUT: WHY CLEANING UP TELEVISION IS IMPORTANT TO THE NATION.
March 1, 1999... These remarks are from presentations to the conference on TV programming held in Washington, D. C. in Center for Media & Public Affairs and The American Enterprises. SENATOR PAUL SIMON (D-Illinois, retired) I got into the effort...

Organize Parents Over the Internet.
March 1, 1999... I'm a researcher who's tired of documenting the problems of TV violence and sleaze and wants to start doing something about it. The first congressional hearings on TV violence took place over 30 years ago. There's been a scholarly consensus on...

Have the TV Industry Police Itself.
March 1, 1999... I can recall a specific moment from a few years ago when I discovered how angry many citizens are about sleazy TV. I was addressing an audience of about 900 well-to-do club women in the upscale city of La Jolla, California. One woman asked,...

It Isn't Only Children Who Can Be Harmed.
March 1, 1999... Today's TV and film-rating system have been likened to the warning on cigarette packages, but the analogy is faulty. The latter tells us that cigarettes are bad for children and bad for adults. The former tells us that sex and violence are bad...

Advertisers Must Play a Stronger Role.(includes related article)
March 1, 1999... My task is to speak from the businessman's point of view. When I was the honcho of Quaker Oats from the late `60s through the `70s, we began to realize that television clearly was the best way to sell our products. Some of us also began to...

Boycott the Worst Shows.
March 1, 1999... In January 1998, Dr. King and I and a number of others in Chicago had a conversation about violence on TV. We'd been told,"Turn this stuff off if you don't like it." But we believed that until you unite the silent majority, they just sit back...

Use Economic Incentives to Clean Up TV.
March 1, 1999... Television executives often claim TV is violent because it's a mirror of society, or because violence is necessary to tell particular stories. But the real drive is a simi pie desire to gain a profitable audience. All of those disturbing images...

Questions & Answers.
March 1, 1999... Audience QUESTION: Of all the projects to control the bad effects of television, the most effective seem to have been those going straight for the throat with boycotts and other protests. MR. WALSH: Boycotts can be an effective tool, but...

Have Physicians Educate Parents.
March 1, 1999... As a psychologist, I learned decades ago that the best way to get someone's attention is to deliver an emotional jolt. TV programmers have learned this too, and in their drive for ratings they now often race to see how many Jolts Per Show (JPS)...

Swap Virtual Lives for Real Ones.(the impact of television viewing on children)
March 1, 1999... Robert Stuart commented earlier that he wasn't able to watch much television because he was too involved in real-life events. That's my ideal. I confess I find TV such a corrupting phenomenon that I believe the best solution to combat the...

IS THE PROBLEM TELEVISION OR VIEWERS?
March 1, 1999... A DEBATE BETWEEN MICHAEL MEDVED & DAVID HOROWITZ To interject some healthy dissent into the live conference on which this issue of TAE is based, we invited two distinguished conservatives and authorities on popular entertainment who have...

THE GOOD FACE OF THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.
March 1, 1999... Josh Rose works out of a former toilet bowl factory. Like many creative people in Hollywood, he is often asked to produce material appropriate to that setting. But he won't. Earlier this year, Rose, who runs Vision Art, the special-effects...

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE.
March 1, 1999... Pro Wrestling Demonstrates How TV Can Take Over Life IF proof were ever needed that television has transformed American politics, the recent election of a former professional wrestler, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, as Governor of Minnesota...

The Ethics of Human Cloning.
March 1, 1999... In a new book from AEI Press, two prominent social critics clash over a controversial technology that is likely to be tried with humans in the near future. Following is an edited excerpt from the debate between James Q. Wilson and Leon Kass....

Why Jews Should Pray for a Christian America.
March 1, 1999... I am an Orthodox rabbi, the son of a famous Orthodox rabbi, and the brother of two more. My teachers were the great scholars who headed the Gateshead Talmudic Academy in England, and I studied for many additional years at the theological...

THE VIEW'S GREAT FROM UP HERE.
March 1, 1999... LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA---Crossing a mid-winter stream, I start up the Mount Wilson Toll Road, one of Southern California's most demanding mountain bike routes. A nine-mile, 4,600-foot climb to the summit, I think, is the perfect way for an...

ONLY IN A SMALL TOWN.
March 1, 1999... HARLEM, MONTANA--It is tempting when someone in a larger community offers me or my wife a job. Our town of about 900 people does not offer dancing lessons or the symphony or intensive magnet schools or rhythm and blues or a Thai restaurant. And...

Private Retirement Accounts Would Be Good for Families.
March 1, 1999... While most conservatives support Social Security privatization, a few remain cool to the idea. They worry that individually owned accounts might be less beneficial to stay-at-home moms, orphaned children, and traditional families. "Any...

Fantasy Taxation.
March 1, 1999... IS THE BEST TAX NONE? If you have been watching the tax reform debate for many years, you might have the impression that economists generally agree that a fiat tax like that proposed by Steve Forbes is the optimal or most efficient tax...

Horrors in the Courts.
March 1, 1999... The latest news in the world of crazy lawsuits is that Pizza Hut has just been dragged through court as the perpetrator of a "hate crime." It all began on the Fourth of July weekend, 1995, in Godfrey, Missouri. Mary Ann Burton called in an...

Race Meets Politics on the American Frontier.
March 1, 1999... The genetic jury may still be out on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, but we don't need DNA detectives to determine whether a major figure of the Democratic Party of the 1830s--indeed, the Vice President of the United States--treated a black...

King of Common Sense.
March 1, 1999... Mike Judge created television's Beavis and Butt-Head, the two moronic MTV teens who strike fear in the hearts of orderly citizens everywhere. How can he also be the force behind "King of the Hill"--the animated comedy whose idea of poking fun...

The Emperors of Chocolate.(Review)
March 1, 1999... The Emperors of Chocolate By Joel Glenn Brenner Random House, 384 pages, $25.95 A tall, intense young man toured the legendary Hershey factory in August, 1939. As the other tourists headed off for the gift shop, he told the tour guide he...

Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence By Michael & Diane Medved HarperCollins, 292 pages, $24 It's a familiar refrain: When liberals lobby for social programs they usually implore Congress to cough...

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary By Juan Williams Times Books, 400 pages, $27.50 In this excellent and important book, Washington Post writer Juan Williams paints a surprising picture of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood...

To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles.(Review)
March 1, 1999... To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles By Marc Eliot Little Brown, 370 pages, $25 The Eagles were one of the most popular and important rock acts of the 1970s. They arose from the Southern California-based "Mellow Mafia" of per...

Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought By James W. Ceaser Yale University Press, 250 pages, $30 Read thoughtful magazines and serious newspapers, and you'll find that the most irritating articles usually feature a...

Progress and Religion.(Christopher Dawson)(Review)
March 1, 1999... Progress and Religion By Christopher Dawson, 1929 Perhaps the best indication that a book is a classic is that it is even more applicable to current events than to events at the time it was first published. That is surely the case with...

Third Way? No Way.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Third Way? No Way Michael Novak, Is There a Third Way? Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord North Street, London SW1P 3LB, England. In recent years, left-wing European political parties have been able to return to power by promising to...

Wanted: Another Crack at Trade Barriers.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Wanted: Another Crack at Trade Barriers Patrick Lane, "World Trade: Time for Another Round," in The Economist (October 3, 1998), 25 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1HG, England. In the 1930s, the world's industrial nations reacted to the...

Lessons From Economic History.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Lessons From Economic History Lawrence B. Lindsey. Economic Puppetmasters: Lessons from the Halls of Power. AEI Press, 1150 17th Street N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036. To understand why much of the world economy is in the doldrums, one...

Conservatives Are More Generous.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Conservatives Are More Generous Mark D. Regnerus, Christian Smith, and David Sikkink, "Who Gives to the Poor? The Influence of Religious Tradition and Political Location on the Personal Generosity of Americans Toward the Poor," in Journal for...

Who's Picking on Girls?(Review)
March 1, 1999... Who's Picking on Girls? Judith Kleinfeld, The Myth That Schools Shortchange Girls: Social Science in the Service of Deception. Women's Freedom Network, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue N. W.., Washington, D.C. 20036. Feminists argue that girls...

The Path is Open to School Choice.(Review)
March 1, 1999... The Path is Open to School Choice Richard E. Morgan, "Yes, Vouchers Are Constitutional," in City Journal (Autumn 1998), Manhattan Institute, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, New York 10017. The Supreme Court has never ruled whether...

The Mixing of State and Religion.(Review)
March 1, 1999... The Mixing of State and Religion Joe Loconte, "The Bully and the Pulpit," in Policy Review (November/December 1998), Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002. Traditionally, religious charities have taken...

Trade and Technology Are Green.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Trade and Technology Are Green Indur M. Goklany, "Saving Habitat and Conserving Biodiversity on a Crowded Planet," in BioScience (November 1998). American Institute of Biological Sciences, 1444 Eye Street N. W. #200, Washington, D. C. 20005....

Secondhand Bunk.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Secondhand Bunk Nicholas Varchaver, "Warning: Secondhand Smoke May Not Kill You," in Brill's Content (December 1998), 521 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10175. Last July, federal judge William Osteen threw out a 1993 report from the...

Will Brazil Someday Thrill?(Review)
March 1, 1999... Will Brazil Someday Thrill? Michael Reid, "Brazil's Unfinished Search for Stability," in Washington Quarterly (Autumn 1998), MIT Press, 5 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142. Brazil is the globe's fifth most populous country...

MEDIA CONSUMPTION HABITS.
March 1, 1999... The charts below show the proportion of the public who say they never watch, never listen to, or never read various media. Seventy-one percent never watch "Rivera Live," for example, and only 3 percent watch it regularly. Nearly six in ten say...

TELEVISION TRIVIA.
March 1, 1999... In the 1952-53 season "I Love Lucy" was the top-rated show, and 67 percent of households tuned in to it every week. Only 21 percent tuned in every week to "E.R.," the top-rated show in the most recent season. More households now have three TVs...

SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE ALTERNATIVES.
March 1, 1999... For the first time since 1974, more people feel fairly confident that they can count on their personal savings in retirement than feel they can count on Social Security for those years. Confidence in Social Security has fallen sharply in the...

the Mail.(Review)
March 1, 1999... Ying Ma's article, "Black Racism: The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name" (November/December), is a distortion of reality because the real problem is the Asian hatred of blacks. Go to any college campus or any major city: Actions speak louder...