The American Enterprise articles from September 2000

The American Enterprise archives from September 2000

Training for Monsters.(modern heroism)
September 1, 2000... I am not a heroine. I did not grow up amid awful struggles, nor have I ever been a war correspondent. As a very occasional writer, I consider it a small form of heroism to face the yawning spaces of the empty page, but like those who grapple...

VIDEO VINDICATION.(New Jersey police videotape traffic stops)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Sometimes our perspective on law enforcement gets turned around, and everyone stopped by the police seems to be a victim. The New Jersey State Police found that out two years ago, when a much-ballyhooed shooting launched a national crusade...

SHANE IN THE CITY.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Alan Ladd was such a small man that he regularly stood on a box while filming the classic 1953 film Shane, but when he looks Jack Palance in the eye and doesn't twitch, Ladd is the perfect cross between James Dean and Harrison Ford. The...

NOT-SO-DANGEROUS DEBT.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... With massive budget surpluses in Washington, some pols insist that a hefty portion of that money--your money--must be used to pay down the national debt. Yet without any help from those surplus funds, the debt has actually been shrinking in...

THE BIBLE IS NO LAUGHING MATTER.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... "In Australia, we have a rather unkind joke," an acquaintance reported. "We say that in America, the kids are allowed to take their guns to school but not their Bibles." This grim quip on school violence usually gets laughs with...

AN HONORABLE PATRIOT.(film starring Mel Gibson)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Patriot, an honestly brutal film set during the American Revolution, has a virtue beyond its fervent love of country: Above all, this big summer movie honors military sacrifice without resorting to Hollywood's usual glorification of...

MISERY SELLS.(Marine Corps recruitment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... What's easier to sell: misery or money? The answer, for the military, turns out to be misery. Of the four services, only the Marines have no trouble making their recruiting goals, and they do so while spending far less on ads, according to...

SCAPEGOATS.(incorrectly blaming gun control lobby for violent crime)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A while back, TV screens filled with live coverage of a botched bank robbery that was unusually violent even for Los Angeles. Two masked men shot it out with police until, hours later, both criminals lay dead, with 11 officers and at least five...

THE BACKSTABBER.(Gov George E. Pataki)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... New York Governor George Pataki, you must remember, got his start in statewide politics by stabbing a former friend in the back. In 1992 he defeated State Senator Mary Goodhue, for whom he had once worked, in a bitter primary. Two years later,...

OPEN UP THE SCHOOLS.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Republican Party has a problem with education. Polls show education is the public's highest concern, yet Republicans believe schools are best kept under local control. So the Republicans' national education proposals strike voters as...

KID CAPITALISM.(young investment bank executives)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... How young are the new high-tech moguls? asks RJ. O'Rourke: "There's a sign on the door at most New York investment banks: No Shirt, No Shoes, No IPO."

GEORGE BURNS WAS RIGHT.(health benefits of cigar smoking)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, celebrated the thirty-fifth anniversary of Medicare at a gala featuring 102-year-old recipient Mark Powell--who told the Washington Post he smokes five or six cigars a day.

THE RACE OF HEROES.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The world is populated by heroes. Every man or woman who lives a full life has to be a hero at some time. If you're middle aged, you have to face the death of your parents. If you're a mother, you have to go through the pain of childbirth. If...

High-tech Politics.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... As the "inventor" of the Internet, Vice President A1 Gore would Seem to deserve the broad support of Silicon Valley. Actually, of course, Gore didn't invent the Internet and shouldn't have the support of Silicon Valley if he had. Yet he does. J...

Stephen Ambrose.(interview with historian)(Interview)
September 1, 2000... THE BEST-SELLING HISTORIAN TALKS ABOUT D-DAY, EISENHOWER, LEWIS AND CLARK, THE GREAT RAILROADS, AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH HISTORY TODAY. Stephen Ambrose is a throwback, in more ways than one. As a University of Wisconsin linebacker-offensive...

N.Y. PRESS TO NYPD: DROP DEAD.(New York, New York; New York Police Department)
September 1, 2000... On June 13, 2000, New Yorkers awakened to a surreal new world: The press had gone law-and-order! For the previous year and a half, the New York media had waged an unrelenting war on the New York Police Department, calling it racist, brutal,...

ordianry PEOPLE, Extraordinary RESCUES.(recipients of awards from Carnegie Hero Fund)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... "GENTLEMEN," DECLARED ANDREW CARNEGIE IN 1904, "WE LIVE IN A HEROIC AGE. NOT SELDOM ARE WE THRILLED BY DEEDS OF HEROISM WHEN MEN AND WOMEN ARE INJURED OR LOSE THEIR LIVES IN ATTEMPTING TO PRESERVE OR RESCUE THEIR FELLOWS; SUCH ARE THE HEROES Of...

HEROES of the VIETNAM Generation.
September 1, 2000... THE RAPIDLY DISAPPEARING COHORT OF AMERICANS THAT ENDURED THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THEN FOUGHT WORLD WAR II IS RECEIVING QUITE A SEND-OFF FROM THE LEADING LIGHTS OF The SO-CALLED '60S GENERATION. TOM BROKAW HAS PUBLISHED TWO ORAL HISTORIES Of...

BATS, Balls, and IDOLS.(athletes as heroes)
September 1, 2000... I GREW UP IN NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE, IF ONE WEREN'T A GOOD ATHLETE, ONE HAD BETTER BE WITTY OR EXTREMELY WILY OR AT LEAST FLEET OF FOOT. "VERY PROBLEMATIC," I CAN HEAR A CERTAIN KIND OF PSYCHOLOGIST MUTTERING AS HE READS THIS, BUT IT NEVER SEEMED...

HEROISM GOES to the Dogs.
September 1, 2000... HEROISM HAS GONE TO THE DOGS. IN THE OLD DAYS, EPIC HEROES HAD DOGS--GREAT-HEARTED AND VALIANT LIKE THEMSELVES, OF COURSE. ODYSSEUS HAD HIS ARGOS, THE DEERSLAYER HIS HECTOR. OVER THE LAST CENTURY, HOWEVER, THE DOGS HAVE DISPLACED THE HEROES....

STORIES THAT INSPIRE.(Biblical stories)
September 1, 2000... YOU START OUT WITH THE ESSENTIAL STORIES, THE ONES THAT REACH TO THE HEART OF THINGS. For my young children, this meant first of all Bible stories--especially those bold bright Old Testament stories like Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood,...

Not-so-SUPER HEROES.
September 1, 2000... THE MYTHIC SUPERMAN OF YESTERYEAR WAS INVULNERABLE AND HEROIC. TODAY, THE MAN OF STEEL IS ANGST-RIDDEN AND SELF-ABSORBED. IN THE AUGUST 2000 COMIC BOOK ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, OUR HERO MUSES OVER HIS FEELINGS AND BRUISED EGO. Think Woody...

Does RELIGION HINDER Heroism?
September 1, 2000... "WHAT IS MORE HARMFUL THAN ANY VICE? ACTIVE PITY FOR ALL THE FAILURES AND ALL THE WEAK: CHRISTIANITY." THUS SPAKE FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, THE WEST'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MODERN PHILOSOPHER, IN HIS 1888 BOOK THE ANTI-CHRIST. The refrain has echoed...

No REVERENCE, No HEROES.
September 1, 2000... THE HEROIC VISION OF LIFE AND THE RELIGIOUS VISION ARE RELATED IN WAYS NOT IMMEDIATELY APPARENT TO THE MODERN SECULAR IMAGINATION. The heroic Czech dissident and statesman Vaclav Havel argues that our ancestors, despite their inferior...

Be a MAN, take RISKS, win Money and HONOR.
September 1, 2000... OUR DEMOCRATIC Age IS LACKING IN HEROISM. A HERO IS SOMEONE TO LOOK UP TO, AND LOOKING UP TO OTHERS SMACKS OF ARISTOCRACY, a REGIME IN WHICH YOU ARE EXPECTED TO LOOK UP TO YOUR SUPERIORS. Or it smacks of fascism, a false democratic version...

the TEACHER as HERO.
September 1, 2000... IN MORE THAN 15 YEARS OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING, I'VE ASKED GRAD STUDENTS WHY THEY DECIDED TO PURSUE ADVANCED STUDY: BECAUSE OF A BRILLIANT ARTICLE IN A PROFESSIONAL JOURNAL? BECAUSE OF A GREAT BOOK? NO. EACH STUDENT INVARIABLY SPEAKS OF AT LEAST...

My HERO, My FATHER.
September 1, 2000... "I WANT TO DO SOMETHING WITH MY LIFE," I TOLD MY FATHER. "I WANT TO ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING. WHAT HAVE YOU EVER ACCOMPLISHED?" IT WAS AN AWFUL THING TO SAY, CRUEL AND SMUG AND SNOTTY. MY ONLY DEFENSE IS THAT I WAS 14, AND LIKE EVERY ADOLESCENT,...

We've ABANDONED HEROES, but we still NEED them.
September 1, 2000... I TRAVEL THE COUNTRY TALKING TO AMERICANS ABOUT THE LOSS OF HEROES. I POINT OUT THAT NEW YORK CITY'S HALL OF FAME FOR GREAT AMERICANS ATTRACTS ONLY A FEW THOUSAND VISITORS A YEAR, WHILE CLEVELAND'S ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME DRAWS OVER ONE...

SUE THE VICTIM.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... As a detective, I'm often asked to provide depositions, but recently I received a subpoena listing a plaintiff and defendant I didn't recognize. I called the attorney and discovered it was a lawsuit filed against the victim of a crime I had...

A Woman Who Didn't Withhold.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Rotary Club of Los Angeles seems an outrageously staid audience before which to declare a revolution, but the woman who did so, Vivien Kellems, was an outrageous individualist beside whom novelist Ayn Rand looks like an unchurched mouse....

The Return of American Heroes.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In 1989, when Ronald Reagan was sitting in the Oval Office giving his farewell address to the nation, he admonished those in his old profession to start celebrating democratic principles and the idea that America was special. The man who was...

Al Gore's Rough Summer.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Have you noticed that the media have been rather hard on Al Gore this summer? Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz notes that the press corps has "consistently portrayed" Bush as "relaxed and confident and Gore as someone who often fails...

ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Everyone Loses in the War over Microsoft George Bittlingmayer and Thomas Hazlett, "DOS Kapital: Has Antitrust Action Against Microsoft Created Value in the Computer Industry?" in Journal of Financial Economics (March 2000), Elsevier...

SOCIETY.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Doing Bad by Doing Good Heather Mac Donald, "What Good Is Pro Bono?" in City Journal (Spring 2000), Manhattan Institute, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, New York 10017. The provision of free legal aid that lawyers call pro bono publico...

OTHER COUNTRIES.
September 1, 2000... The Global Tobacco Wars Roger Scruton, WHO, What, and Why? Trans-national Government, Legitimacy, and the World Health Organization. Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord North Street, London SW1P 3LB, England. The World Health...

Ravelstein.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Ravelstein By Saul Bellow Viking, 224 pages, $24.95 This memoir of novelist Saul Bellow's friend, the brilliant philosopher and historian of ideas Allan Bloom (of Closing of the American Mind fame), is about many things, but mostly--and...

Shows About Nothing: Nihilism and Popular Culture from `The Exorcist' to `Seinfeld'.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Shows About Nothing: Nihilism and Popular Culture from `The Exorcist' to `Seinfeld' By Thomas S. Hibbs Spence, 192 pages, $22 Popular culture has become an equal opportunity target of criticism for the increasing number of academics who...

Memoirs of a Superfluous Man.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Memoirs of a Superfluous Man By Albert Jay Nock, 1943 Several years ago a Latin professor of mine pressed me to read an obscure book with a tantalizing title, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man. As he had never suggested I read anything that...

Vanishing Heroes?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Nearly two-thirds say there are fewer heroes than in the past, and a majority say most of their heroes are historical figures. When asked a few years ago what one person or group came to mind as deserving the accolade, the top response was no...

Social Security: Time for a Change.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Doubts about the Social Security system are now widespread. A solid majority believes that introducing individual investment accounts will strengthen the system. Americans are opposed to having government invest some of the Social Security...

How's Work?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... More than 80 percent of American workers are satisfied with their jobs, although the number who are extremely satisfied is down from a quarter-century ago. Surveys taken in 1977 and 1997 show that roughly two-thirds would decide without any...

The Mail.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Robert Sterling's article "What Are America's Best Business Schools?" (July/August) is wrong-headed. True, graduates of the service academies are often top leaders in business, and attending a service academy is not a bad thing. But it is wrong...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2000... CORRECTION: In "What Are America's Best Business Schools?" (July/August), General Alexander Haig's alma mater is misidentified. He is a graduate of West Point.