The American Enterprise articles from October 2003

The American Enterprise archives from October 2003

Good faith.(Bird's Eye)(religion is not a behaviour modification device)
October 1, 2003... The whole idea of religion as a behavior modification device rubs me the wrong way. Faith is not a coat you throw on to make yourself look and act better. Promoting belief because it might lower the crime rate or have some similar utilitarian...

Sidelights.
October 1, 2003... One third of Germans under age 30 believe the U.S. government may have sponsored the 9/11 terror attacks, according to a study by the German weekly Die Zeit. Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi's son, Saif al-eslam Qaddafi, told CNN he "would like...

Can Cain conquer?(Scan)
October 1, 2003... At a New York fundraiser for then Presidential candidate Steve Forbes a few years ago, the speech that grabbed everyone by the lapels was a rousing, fiery sermon by a Georgia businessman named Herman Cain. "He clearly upstaged Forbes himself,"...

The "critical mass" mess.(Scan)
October 1, 2003... The Supreme Court's momentous split decision on the Michigan affirmative action case Cruller v. Bollinger read into our Constitution a new and potentially powerful justification for race-based quotas. Someday we may realize that Justice...

Government central.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The Washington Times recently reported that there are now 575 workers in District of Columbia local government agencies earning more than $100,000. In 1995, there was one. Today, one out of every 68 city workers in D.C. makes over $100,000.

Apparently it depends on whom you skewer.(Scan)(criticism of statements by Reverend Stephen Sidorak)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Preaching at the Episcopal church's Washington National Cathedral on Sunday, August 17, the Reverend Stephen Sidorak had this to say about the United States: "Our nation's policies cause us exceeding anxiety.... The policy of preemption is...

Polling tremors.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Survey research carried out by Mark Penn, Bill Clinton's pollster, brought gloomy news last month for the Democrats. Just 22 percent of white men now call themselves Democrats, Penn reported. Democrats trail Republicans among all Americans who...

Entitled to clear language.(Scan)
October 1, 2003... It seems surreal that controversy raged this summer over the fact that the Child Tax Credit rebate was limited to those who actually pay income taxes--just as it is limited to those who actually have children. One of the main casualties of...

Ashcroft defends Patriot Act.(Scan)(John Ashcroft)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Every day, terrorist cells around the world plot to come up with a successor to the September 11 murders. On the other side, American law enforcement is working to block them. One of their main tools is the USA Patriot Act, passed by Congress...

Female territory.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... No wonder the half of all U.S. students who are male are often having trouble in school these days. (See several articles in TAE's September 2003 issue about the problems facing boys today, and also TAE's cover story on this topic in June...

One more brick.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... A group of students and citizens in Ithaca, New York recently replicated TAE's influential studies tallying the political registration of faculty members at a variety of colleges (see The American Enterprise, September 2002). They completed a...

It's a big, rich country.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... IT'S A BIG, RICH COUNTRY Economy.com recently ran some data comparing the economic production of U.S. Metropolitan areas to that of foreign countries. A sample of the interesting results: GDP of U.S....

The last refuge of scoundrels.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Remember Cynthia McKinney? She's the Georgia Congresswoman who lost her bid for re-election in 2002 after suggesting that the Bush administration had ignored warnings of the 9/11 attacks because "persons close to this administration" were...

Episcopal debate.(Scan)
October 1, 2003... Q: How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb? A: The entire congregation--one to propose that the bulb be changed while the others debate until the room spins. An August poll by the Washington Post found that the...

The economic costs of sin.(Scan)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... We don't often think of religious and moral ideas as mattering to the profit and loss of businesses. But Marjorie Cooper, a professor of marketing at Baylor University, recently showed that morality has important cash value. Or perhaps I should...

Faith in high school.(Scan)
October 1, 2003... A group of Catholic high schools with high standards but low budgets have found a way to help poor kids gain access to quality education. The Cristo Rey schools, of which there are currently five in the country (and four more scheduled to open...

Everyday riches.(Scan)(most Americans do not believe wealth is evil)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Most Americans do not think it evil to be wealthy, or to want to be wealthy. Indeed, a Gallup Poll recently discovered that 31 percent of our citizens fully expect to be "rich" themselves at some time during their lives. Among Americans under...

Tax damage.(Indicators)(US reaps benefits of light taxation)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Taxing and regulation are lighter in the U.S. than in many other nations, from which we reap clear benefits. In countries where taxes and regulatory burdens are odious, economic activity slips underground and into the shadows. Sales are not...

Are teachers underpaid?(Indicators)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Every time a teacher's union contract comes up for negotiation, teachers complain that they are underpaid. Indeed, relative to other professionals with similar levels of education, teachers take home less money per year. But they also work...

"Live" with TAE: he's a Hollywood celebrity. And he's smart. He's one of the country's favorite comedians. And he's a conservative. Wipe that smirk off your face and meet a patriotic entertainer.(Interview)
October 1, 2003... Last winter, while many Hollywood divas were protesting the war with Iraq, there was one incisive voice of dissent: that of increasingly conservative, former liberal Dennis Miller. For almost 20 years, Miller has challenged audiences with...

For God's eye: the surprising role of Christianity in great human accomplishment.
October 1, 2003... At rare times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. They have discovered truths about the way the universe works, written words that illuminate the human condition, arranged sounds and colors in ways that touch our...

False conflict: Christianity is not only compatible with Science--it created it.
October 1, 2003... Popular lore, movies, and children's stories hold that in 1492 Christopher Columbus proved the world is round and in the process defeated years of dogged opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, which insisted that the earth is flat. These...

God and the City.
October 1, 2003... Los Angeles may be better known for its flash and agreed, but the greatest structure of its modern skyline--the new $200 million Lady of the Angels Cathedral--testifies to the power of a greater, and more enduring, urban ideal. Up close...

Case history: the de-moralization of Baltimore.
October 1, 2003... A casual observer might believe Baltimore a city in the midst of an urban renaissance: A waterfront mall full of restaurants and shops, two new sports stadiums, some lively ethnic neighborhoods, and a bevy of new hotels give the city a patina...

Guess who's to blame? State budgets are in crisis from California to New York.
October 1, 2003... A revolution is brewing in California, sparked by an annual state budget that is a stunning $38 billion out of balance. States like Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon face similar, though lesser, fiscal crises. What happened to state...

It's the spending, stupid.
October 1, 2003... From a special analysis by USA Today titled "Bad Moves, Not Economy, Behind Busted State Budgets," published June 23, 2003: The financial problems racking many state governments this year have less to do with the weak national economy than...

Magic bullet: here's a long-term way to fix state and local budget deficits.
October 1, 2003... With a significant number of states in serious budget trouble, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated state deficits for fiscal year 2004 at up to $85 billion. Town and city governments are also struggling with out-of whack...

New York's republican stumble: how Governor George Pataki Fed, rather than fought, government bloat.
October 1, 2003... When George Pataki was swept into office in 1994, conservatives throughout New York rejoiced. Not only had they helped knock off liberal icon Mario Cuomo, but after 32 years in the political wilderness the New York Conservative Party had...

What, me, a radical?(In real life: first-person America)
October 1, 2003... DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA -- One day last year when Catholic neo-conservative Father Richard John Neuhaus came to speak at Duke University, I overheard a divinity school professor in the hall talking to a colleague who planned to attend the...

O say can you sing?(Flashback: to know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain ever a child--Cicero)(appreciation of The Star-Spangled Banner)
October 1, 2003... When Francis Scott Key, a poetical lawyer, rendered in verse his account of American resistance to the September 1814 British assault on Fort McHenry, he saddled his stirring lines with the lumpish title "The Defence of Fort McHenry." He...

Farm subsidies are harm subsidies.(the Farm Subsidy Economist)
October 1, 2003... Agriculture is one of the most interfered-with industries on earth. Across the world, government subsidies wreak havoc with farm economies. Though we haven't made much progress in eliminating the payments, this concept is increasingly...

Making 'em like they used to.(Now Playing)
October 1, 2003... The old adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" has been especially apt at the movies these past few months. How else to respond to 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn as the legendary, honorable bandit? A...

No sense of right on the left.(Book Talk; The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values By Tammy Bruce Prima, 352 pages, $25.95 Political skirmishes among adversaries are rough, but the roughest battles are normally reserved for...

Economics laid bare.(Book Talk; Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science By Charles Wheelan W. W. Norton, 288 pages, $25.95 When I Tell people I work in the Federal Reserve System, they often joke, "Great. Can you print me some money?" And then comes the...

Russian soul food.(Book Talk; Pushkin's Children: Writing on Russia and Russians)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... Pushkin's Children: Writing on Russia and Russians By Tatyana Tolstaya. translated by Jamey Gambrell Mariner Books, 256 pages, $15 Shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution, Osip Mandelstam declared: "Russian history travels along the...

Bipartisanship = big government.(Politico)
October 1, 2003... Since George W. Bush came to Washington the bipartisan love-fests have included the "No Child Left Behind" expansion of the federal Department of Education that jumped the department's annual budget from $14 billion to $23 billion; the pending...

Spam war.(Business And Economics)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Evan Schwartz, "Spam Wars," in Technology Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, August 2003 (technologyreview.com) From advertisements for herbal "Viagra" to unsolicited letters asking recipients to claim large sums of money,...

State Department follies.(National Security)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Newt Gingrich, "Rogue State Department" in Foreign Policy, July/August 2003 (foreignpolicy.org) Does the State Department really have Americans best interests at heart? AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich doesn't think so. According to...

Hold the obituaries.(National Security)
October 1, 2003... Bruce Hoffman, "Al-Qaeda, Trends in Terrorism, and Future Potentialities: An Assessment;' RAND, June 2003 (rand.org) Hoffman, the director of RAND's Washington office, believes al-Qaeda is alive and well--and that it might escalate its...

Lessons from Iraq.(National Security)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Richard Perle, "Lessons of Operation Iraqi Freedom," AEI On The Issues, August 11, 2003 (aei.org) In remarks delivered at AEI, resident fellow Richard Perle, former chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, argues that America's...

A wasted talent.(Other Countries)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Mark Falcoff, "Troubles at Midpassage for Peru's Toledo," Latin American Outlook, July 2003 (aei.org) When President Alejandro Toledo took office in Peru two years ago, many had high hopes for the Stanford-trained economist who became the...

The boring twentieth century.(Science And Environment)
October 1, 2003... Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas, Lessons and Limits of Climate History: Was the 20th Century Climate Unusual?, The George C. Marshall Institute, April 2003 (marshall.org) Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas, two scientists affiliated with the...

Taken for a ride?(Science And Environment; Taken by Storm)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick, Taken by Storm, Key Porter Books, 2002 (keyporter.com) Most books skeptical of global warming aim to dispute certain findings of, say, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Christopher Essex,...

Pay less to die.(Society)
October 1, 2003... David Harrington, "Breathing Life into the Funeral Market," Regulation, The Cato Institute, Spring 2003 (cato.org/pubs/regulation) Do Americans spend too much money to bury loved ones? Kenyon College professor David Harrington thinks so:...

President Bush's faith.(Opinion Pulse)
October 1, 2003... Around six in ten Americans like the way President Bush talks about his strong religious beliefs in public. About the same number say that he relies on his religious beliefs about the right amount when making decisions. Only 10 percent say that...

Bible reading.(Opinion Pulse)
October 1, 2003... President Bush says that he reads the Bible daily. So, too, do about 15 percent of his fellow citizens. At the other end of the spectrum, about a quarter say they never read it. About 90 percent have a Bible at home, a figure unchanged from...

The ethic of individual responsibility.(Opinion Pulse)
October 1, 2003... In 2000, George W. Bush said that he wanted to "usher in a responsibility era." The American people appear ready to embrace it. Americans don't blame the fast food, tobacco, cigarette, or the entertainment industries for the choices individuals...

The mail.(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... I read your "Real Men" issue (September) from front to back. When I finished, I looked at the front cover and softly said aloud, "Thank God Almighty." I am a most fortunate woman: age 57, American, and married for 35 years to a bona fide...

Last gasp.
October 1, 2003... "The post office is considering delivering Saturday's mail on Tuesday instead of Monday." "Why do you always have to freak out when I freak out, Gary? Just once I'd like to freak out on my own. Adams came in over the weekend & Built a...