The American Enterprise articles from March 2006

The American Enterprise archives from March 2006

Fighting cynicism in Iraq.(Bird's Eye)
March 1, 2006... The American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land. Yet... a man who has been shot at is a new realist, and what do you say to a realist when the war is a war of ideals? --Joshua Chamberlain, The Killer Angels ...

Militants against the military.(Scan: short news and commentary)
March 1, 2006... The 9/11 attacks gave many Americans a deeper seriousness about the outside world and the necessity of defending ourselves against dangerous extremists. But not everyone. Some Californians recently formed the Coalition Against Militarism...

The Ballad of a lying head case.(Jimmy Massey)
March 1, 2006... Jimmy Massey is the kind of soldier media folk often search out. The discharged Marine is a leader of "Iraq Veterans Against the War." He has been a star of Cindy Sheehan's anti-war tour and left-wing blogs and radio programs. His book Kill,...

TV Generation.(Thomas Friedman, New York Times Co. Broadcasting Group)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... The Rockies are probably the best place in the nation to explore for energy. There's the Overthrust Belt, with much of our remaining gas and oil, and the Powder River Basin, which now supplies one fourth of our coal, and there are vast...

Teching lessons.(graduates to teach in public schools)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... America's colleges of education convinced state legislators years ago that only their graduates should be allowed to teach in public schools. Rather than coming out of traditional academic specialties, therefore, future teachers are products of...

I, I, ME, ME.(anti-Bush peace rally)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... In January, Sean Penn and Cindy Sheehan led an anti-Bush peace rally in Sacramento and made it clear that, ultimately, the Iraq war (and everything else) is all about them. Sheehan offered to create a new U.S. Department of History, with...

Go knock yourself out.(Scan: short news and commentary)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The public high school in Berkeley, California recently informed students and parents of a new campus club. Falling right between "Chess..." and "Drama..." is the Condom Club, which recruits members as follows: "Having sex? Thinking of having...

The dog that hasn't barked.(Scan: short news and commentary)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... As I write, nearly 1,600 days have passed since the attacks of September 11, 2001, and still there has been no follow-up assault on American soil. The U.S. has landed 20 million flights over the last year without a terrorist incident. Many...

Nerd inequality.(Google Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... For the last three years, Google has sponsored a Code Jam in which computer geeks from around the world compete to solve thorny programming problems for a $10,000 grand prize. This year there were more than 14,500 contestants from 32 countries....

Harsh women.(Scan: short news and commentary)(Women Who Make the World Worse)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2006... Our friend Kate O'Beirne has written a new book called Women Who Make the World Worse, just out from Sentinel. Here is a taste: Having been raised with three sisters, and educated by women in a girls-only high school and all-female college,...

Sue the dirty bottlers.(Scan: short news and commentary)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The New York Times recently reported that trial lawyers hope to extract billions of dollars in financial damages from the soft-drink industry for selling its sugared beverages to the "captive audience" of students in schools. If that seems...

Sidelights.
March 1, 2006... If you do not mirth you will certainly have madness--G.K. Chesterton Over 70 percent of Americans believe Saddam Hussein should be sentenced to death if he is found guilty of the charges against him, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup...

"Live" with TAE: one of today's most readable historians discusses religion, regional identity, political correctness, America's founding, the nation's wars, and leadership.(Interview)
March 1, 2006... David Hackett Fischer, one of our country's foremost historians, has described his work as "a deep affirmation of American values." He combines social history with classic narrative, a synthesis that reaches its apex in Paul Revere's Ride...

An energy revolution: a breakthrough that could preclude future wars--by defunding our enemies.
March 1, 2006... The world economy is currently running on a resource that is controlled by our enemies. This threatens to leave us prostrate. It must change--and the good news is that it can change, quickly. Using portions of the hundreds of billions of...

Facts vs. fiction: a report from the front in Iraq.
March 1, 2006... Your editor has just returned from another month in Iraq--my fourth extended tour in the last two and a half years. During November and December I joined numerous American combat operations, including the largest air assault since the beginning...

What history says about the Iraq war.
March 1, 2006... Why did the successful war in Iraq to replace Saddam Hussein with a democracy lose the majority support of the American public? Despite steady U.S. military progress against jihadists, and the bold endorsement of peaceful self-rule by 11...

No more Vietnams: find the will to win in Iraq--as we should have in Indochina.
March 1, 2006... In the three decades since America abandoned its South Vietnamese allies, it has become common to compare subsequent U.S. wars to what supposedly befell us in Southeast Asia. Dire warnings of "another Vietnam" are a particular favorite tactic...

Information warfare.
March 1, 2006... Many in the political and media class now say that the liberation of Iraq is a hopeless cause, and was a mistake even to attempt. Representatives John Murtha (D-PA) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urge that we withdraw "as soon as practicable." They...

Will Israel BLAST the Iranian bomb.
March 1, 2006... The idea of nuclear weapons in the hands of a dangerous enemy like Iran is unacceptable to nearly all Israelis. There is no chance that Israel will reconcile itself to living with nuclear threats from the ayatollahs. If Iran continues on the...

Hoops Hoosiers Hollywood home.
March 1, 2006... Every February, bandbox gyms in thousands of high schools across the fruited plain resound with dribbled basketballs and clanking jumpshots and blackguard curses vociferated against referees who are, inevitably, both blind and biased. If it's...

The humidity factor.(Letter)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2006... NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- This morning I noticed that my vertical toothpaste tube was beginning to resemble a commuter standing on a rush hour subway platform. I scanned the items crowding it and realized that the product inventory on my bathroom...

Economic reporting through red-colored glasses.(Beat the Press)(econominc condition of United States)
March 1, 2006... The hand that rules the press... rules the country--Judge Learned Hand It was a typical early morning at CBS News, with plenty of light banter and toothy cheer. But there was a problem--the stupid economy. "The Early Show" was...

Is Japan back in the game?(Forward Observer: Politics meets economics)
March 1, 2006... When I was in Japan recently, everyone was talking about what was called the "fat finger" mistake. On the morning of December 8, a low-level employee of Mizuho Securities placed an order to sell 610,000 shares of J-Com at a penny a share....

There's nothing pure about poverty.(The Third World Economist)
March 1, 2006... KOLHAPUR, INDIA -- The dirt road came to an end, and my uncle stopped the car. We would have to walk the rest of the way to reach the farm. My uncle was excited to show me his friend Patti's sugar farm in a rural area on the west coast of...

Popcorn with a side of guilt.(Now Playing: film reviews, diamonds to dross)(The New World)(Movie Review)
March 1, 2006... Why is shame considered a necessary ingredient in appreciating Native-American culture? The destruction wrought upon Native Americans by European explorers is one of history's greatest cultural tragedies. Yet all too often, arbiters of our...

America's designated dresser-down. (the Tube).(analysis of Judge Judy television program)
March 1, 2006... Television... that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night--Ray Bradbury This is the tenth year on the air for a pillar of American jurisprudence: Judge Judy. Derided by some as the legal equivalent of a radio...

Jimmy's Jeremiad.(Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis)(Book Review)
March 1, 2006... Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis By Jimmy Carter Simon & Schuster, 224 pages, $25 According to Jimmy Carter, America is under siege. The primary aggressors are "fundamentalists"--which in his learned view includes not only...

Literant.(Book Talk)(Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Manners matter to me. My upbringing left me unable to take a sip of soda at such fine establishments as Taco Bell without first placing a napkin in my lap. I am bothered by the sight of a man ascending a staircase in advance of his female...

Small business romance.(research of small business )
March 1, 2006... Veronique de Rugy, "Are Small Businesses the Engine of Growth?" AEI Working Paper #123, 2005 (aei.org) Presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush have all pointed to small businesses as the powerhouse of the American economy, producing...

Wal-Mart Deja Vu.(analysis of retailers)
March 1, 2006... Zachary Courser, "Wal-Mart and the Politics of American Retail," CEI Issue Analysis, 2005 (cei.org) To listen to Wal-Mart's critics, you'd think its growth marked a unique (and terrible) chapter in American history. But Competitive...

Spend now, pay later.(treatment of aids)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... Richard Tren and Roger Bate, "Brazil's AIDS Program: A Costly Success," AEI Health Policy Outlook, 2006 (aei.org) AEI fellow Roger Bate and Richard Tren, Director of Africa Fighting Malaria, conclude that Brazil's success could prove...

Economic happiness.(policies of european happiness )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2006... Christian Bjornskov, "Life Satisfaction: Is there a Role for Policy?" Policy Paper, European Enterprise Institute, October 2005 (european-enterprise.org) Recent measures of what makes Europeans happy will come as no surprise to economic...

Good news about Iraq ...(Opinion Pulse)
March 1, 2006... In 2005, most pollsters focused their surveys on American attitudes toward the U.S. role there. Only a handful of them looked at how Americans feel ordinary Iraqis are faring. Some of those questions are shown below. The results make it clear...

... And in Afghanistan.(poll in afghanistan about United States )
March 1, 2006... Americans are used to hearing how much the United States is disliked abroad. But that doesn't apply to Afghanistan. In a major poll conducted there, Afghans were able to talk about their own futures and about the U.S. role in their country....

The mail.(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2006... Joel Kotkin's superb essay on Hurricane Katrina (January/February) brought into focus a far more devastating problem than simply the floodwaters. Thousands of people remained in harm's way during the storm because they were so utterly...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2006... CORRECTIONS (J/F 2006 issue): Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction occurred in 2004. The Prince was a production of DreamWorks.